A lot of us have already heard of On the Down Low: A Journey Into the Lives of “Straight” Black Men Who Sleep with Men, but I never heard of Beyond the Down Low: Sex, Lies, and Denial in Black America until I read the interview with Keith Boykin below at seattlepi.com. And so I thought I’d share.

It seems down low behavior isn’t so cut and dried. Is it purely self-defined?

K.B.: No, I don’t think it’s purely self-defined … It’s actually a little bit more complicated than people realize.

When it comes to sexual orientation, is self-definition important? For example, if a man enjoys sex with both genders, does it matter that he rejects the bisexual label, given that he is one?

I don’t know that it matters that much as long as the man is honest with himself. … But there are three things to consider here — orientation, identity and behavior. For example, my orientation may be homosexual, my identity may be heterosexual and my behavior might be bisexual, and those things don’t have to be consistent.

Are rates of HIV increasing rapidly in the black community as a result of the down low?

There is a great deal of hype and hysteria, and we have no evidence that the down low is responsible for the rates of HIV in the black community. … Of the 7,000 black women in 2003 who had AIDS, 118 said that they had sex with a bisexual man. That’s less than 2 percent.

But if the down low were truly effective, how would they know if the men were bisexual?

Right. We don’t really know who is or isn’t on the down low. … There were almost 14,000 black men, twice as many as black women, who had AIDS (in 2003). If all these men were on the down low, we’d have much higher rates among women. There’s no research that has been done about the down low in a clinical setting. Also, the HIV/AIDS rates are not increasing in African Americans — they’re down 6 percent in the previous four years.

What is your message about the down low?

First, that we have to keep away from the hype. It’s a distraction from the real issues. It’s not new, it’s not just the black thing, and it’s not just a gay thing. The issue is how we can prevent the spread of the epidemic. … We have to understand that the down low distracts us from other personal actions … we’re not talking about needle exchange programs … we’re not talking about condoms in prisons … we’re not talking about health insurance for the 45 million Americans who do not have it, for the one out of five African Americans who don’t have health insurance. How do you encourage people to get tested for HIV if they don’t have insurance to treat HIV? It can cost $15,000 a year for medications and treatments. There are larger issues that are being swept under the rug or ignored as we’re hyping too much on the down low.

Were you surprised at the explosion of response to what you had to say, given that as you yourself stated, the down low had been the subject of media reports for several years before your book came out?

Yeah. I think it’s a really sexy topic. It appeals to so many people. It’s a mysterious group of men engaging in a clandestine sexual behavior … and women have reasons to be fearful of these men. I think the media hype is a troubling racist construction, a black male pathology. It demonizes black men as predators and black women as being diseased and undesirable, creating a battle of the sexes between black men and black women.

How do you feel about being the face of the down low?

I’m not. I think J.L. King (whose controversial down low book is what Boykin is disputing) is the poster boy for the down low. I’m the voice that’s challenging what he’s saying. He wrote a book, with no facts, no figures and he managed to scare a large percentage of the population … and it’s disturbing and disgusting to me that it came from a black man. … So if being the face of the down low means I’m someone who is explaining or refuting a lot of the misinformation, then I have no problem with that at all.

What else ya got for me? This:

*”Risk that more children will become homosexual through learned behavior”
*Gay civil unions become legal
*Adviser to Tory leader attacks gay sex laws
*The Marriage Debate Goes Multicultural
*Bill to legalize gay marriage clears first legislative hurdle
*Gates says Microsoft may reconsider its stance on gay rights bill
*Instant Message Puts Man At Gay Murder Scene
*City-County Council Rejects Sexual-Orientation Ordinance
*Former banker files gay discrimination claim
*Group visits LU to speak on behalf of gay students