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208 Mignon R. Moore not offer condemnation, is something many looking for spiritual guidance thirsted for. The focus in New Thought religion on the strength and power within the individual, in tandem with a higher power, is important as well. Here there was a distinction between New Thought and more traditional black religions, where God is the ultimate Higher Power and operates at a higher status than the individual. There was more agency within the self in New Thought religion, and this was a significant attraction to many as well. Insiders and Outsiders Within The relationships the black LGBT informants in my study had with their religious and racial communities cannot be explained in a linear, uniform way. There were times when lesbians and gay men experienced support from the racial community, and times when they were disappointed with the lack of progress in their struggle for acceptance. Some in the community were becoming more supportive of gay sexuality as an identity status that could exist alongside a strong racial group affinity. Others were holding fast to religious and cultural ideologies that reduced gay sexuality to an immoral behavior and thus not a valid identity status. Some LGBT people responded to the inconsistencies and occasional rejection by physically distancing themselves from the racial community. Others exited a “gay” life and retreated to a primary heterosexual identity while continuing to have same-sex intimate relationships in secret. However, despite the disapproving attitudes and religious condemnation that appeared from time to time, the majority of black LGBT people I studied remained in predominantly black neighborhoods and social contexts, and negotiated daily with family and community. Those who remained , particularly those with the resources to leave if they chose, said the support of and membership in the larger black community was important to them. They remained because they trusted in racial solidarity and racial group membership. They also remained because they had less confidence that they would ever be fully accepted as members of other identity groups such as those based solely on sexuality. Nevertheless, by the end of the first decade of the 2000s, they were increasingly willing to test the support of the black community by making their gay identities more public and asserting their interest in being involved and taking on leadership roles in black social environments. Black and Gay in L.A 209 But the move from gay sexuality as a primarily private activity or behavior , to the open expression and insistence on acknowledgment of it from family, community residents, and even church parishioners, often comes at a price. Openly gay people might have to temporarily forego full acceptance from family and friends. This is a price many are willing to pay in order to nurture their racial group affiliation. To be a participating member of the black racial community involves periodic engagement over debate and the negotiation and reconciliation that follows.49 The black LGBT Angelenos in my study remained in their racial communities , despite the conflicts over acceptance of their sexuality, because those conflicts were part and parcel of the sense of community and belonging . The struggle over power and having one’s voice heard were all part of the social organization of black communities. Group membership was not about sameness or having one voice but about sharing a commonality , a perceived link that connected its members, regardless of other differences that also might have existed. This work offers an understanding of how black gay people in Los Angeles embarked on the maintenance of group affiliation and “insider” status around a racial identity, despite the cross-cutting issues around the public enactment of homosexuality that threatened to separate them from strong and positive affiliations with the racial group. N o t e s 1. Shelby Grad, “70% of African Americans Backed Prop. 8, Exit Poll Finds,” Los Angeles Times, November 5, 2008, http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/ 2008/11/70-of-african-a.html (accessed February 13, 2009). More careful estimates later found that the proportion of blacks voting yes was more moderate than first assumed, though still higher than the yes votes by whites. See Egan and Sherrill, “California Proposition 8.” 2. A black newspaper founded in 1934, the Los Angeles Sentinel is a key gateway for news in the black community. 3. The meeting, “In the Aftermath of Proposition 8,” was held on November 22, 2008. 4. The Magic Johnson–owned franchises were important social outlets in Black Los Angeles. This particular Starbucks was adjacent...

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