Editorial Note: 2017 shows promise . . .

As we prepare to enter into our third year, we are grateful for the contributions and support that you have made towards our evolving and growing community. In addition to the Journal of Black Sexuality and Relationships, the Association of Black Sexologists and Clinicians has had a number of initiatives that have allowed us to share our work and make a tremendous impact on the communities we serve. The Journal has been able to open doors for some of our scholars by giving them access to constituents around the globe and has been an exclusive space for all of us to address the confluence of intersectionality (e.g., race, sexuality, gender, etc.) as well as issues around the shifting phenomena of social justice.

Our 2016 Spring Roundtable Series in the US Virgin Islands was a success as we had over 20 presentations that enabled participants to take part in critical dialogue around sexuality, education, colorism, aesthetics, reproductive politics, consent, familial/partner constellations, courtship models, aging, etc. We were well received by the University of the Virgin Islands and were granted several public relations opportunities. We were invited to return in 2017.

Next year, we will host our Spring Roundtable Series during the last week of April, 2017. The Call for Proposal was posted on October 1, 2016 during our second Black Families, Black Relationships, Black Sexuality Conference in Ft. Lauderdale. The absc will also host its first International Lecture Series in Cape Town, South Africa. The lecture series invites scholars and practitioners around the world to share their work at Cape Peninsula University of Technology. The goal of the conference is to unite seasoned scholars and practitioners from the United States and Africa who have dedicated their work towards the sexual and mental health of persons of African descent. We have set up a number of partnerships with human service agencies who are ready to begin an international, interdisciplinary discussion with experts.

The formation and development of the Journal of Black Sexuality and Relationships; the national Black Families, Black Relationships, Black Sexuality Conference; the Spring Roundtable Series; and International Lecture Series are in alignment with the following projected organizational outcomes:

Build and sustain Black professional community involvement in the field of human sexuality and mental health

Engage in ongoing formal and informal dialogue about social and sexual health issues that affect persons of African descent and those who serve the unique population.

Develop and support prevention, educational, and clinical response systems that reduce the prevalence of health disparities.

Create regional, national, and international linkages for members

Serve as a resource for research, educational, and clinical mental health initiatives

We have been extremely fortunate over the past couple of years to have developed a number of partnerships that have enabled us to remain fiscally and structurally sound. The viability of the jbsr and the absc is a result of your efforts and we hope that you continue to choose to be a part of our professional family.

The first article of this issue, Introduction to Afrocentric Decolonizing Kweer Theory and Epistemology by H. Sharif “Herukhuti” Williams of the Center for Culture, Sexuality and Spirituality and Goddard College. Dr. Williams introduces the Afrocentric Decolonizing Kweer Theory which is a brilliant, new conceptualization for understanding same-sex sexual practices among persons of African descent. His theory is constructed from an African-centered cultural epistemological framework.

Next, Dr. Kamila Alexander of Johns Hopkins School of Nursing offers us several emergent themes and analysis of a study that involves sexual decision making from perspectives of Black young women. In her compelling article, Emotions and Sexual Safety Decision Making among Black Young Women, she suggests that sexologists should consider expanding the language of sexual safety and develop interventions that capture young women’s emotional well-being to optimize sexual health.

The following study, Young Black Men Who Have Sex with Men and Women: To Disclose or Not to Disclose, What’s the Risk in the South? is by Dr. Angelica Geter of the Satcher Health Leadership Institute of Morehouse School of Medicine and her colleagues. What’s fascinating about the study is that the...