Mignon R. Moore

Lipstick or Timberlands? Meanings of Gender Presentation in Black Lesbian Communities

Mignon R. Moore Lipstick or Timberlands? Meanings of Gender Presentation in Black Lesbian Communities C onsider the ways in which the following women explain gender pre- sentation in one black lesbian community: Asa Bambir (age 34, executive assistant): 1 In New York I saw more of this butch-femme thing and I was a little floored by it, a little shocked, like why do people have to play these roles? . . . But at the same time I looked at it in awe because there was a part of my childhood when I really liked wearing boyish clothes, but I never did. . . . So, I was very intrigued by it, and I think over the years I’ve just been allowing that to surface. I really do like wearing boyish clothes. Were you drawn to women who were more feminine looking or less feminine looking? I was definitely drawn to women who were feminine looking, very feminine looking. Lynn Witherspoon (age 33, corporate attorney): When I first started to come out . . . it was interesting because I had this type that I was attracted to, and yet when I was going out I was always attracting the more butch looking women. And I was like, “Oh, I’m carrying this purse,” and all of these other things, you know, all these things you do in the straight community. So I had to change the way I dressed, and I stopped carrying a purse, and I was able to find women who I was more attracted to, to go out with. When I first came out I was wearing makeup; I stopped wearing makeup. Data collection was supported by the Woodrow Wilson Junior Faculty Career Enhance- ment Fellowship, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy, and the Institute for Research in African-American Studies at Columbia University. The Russell Sage Foundation generously supported the writing of this manuscript. I thank Karolyn Tyson, Elaine Harley, Laurie Essig, two anonymous reviewers, and the current and former editors of Signs for their helpful comments. Pseudonyms are used to protect respondents’ anonymity. Following Kath Weston’s (2004) model, I assign surnames to this study’s participants to convey a sense of respect and adult status not always afforded sexual or racial minority group members. [Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 2006, vol. 32, no. 1] ᭧ 2006 by The University of Chicago. All rights reserved. 0097-9740/2006/3201-0009

ARTICULATING A POLITICS OF (MULTIPLE) IDENTITIES

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Intersectionality and the Study of Black, Sexual Minority Women

This work examines the strategies Black lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people use in Black environments to proclaim a gay identity that is simultaneous with a Black identity. It identifies three distinctive features of LGBT protest in Black communities. Black gay 2 protest takes on a particular form when individuals are also trying to maintain solidarity with the racial group despite the threat of distancing that occurs as a result of their sexual minority status. Black sexual minorities who see their self-interests as linked to those of other Blacks use cultural references to connect their struggles to historical efforts for Black equality and draw from nationalist symbols and language to frame their political work. They believe that increasing their visibility in Black spaces will promote a greater understanding of gay sexuality as an identity status that can exist alongside, rather than in competition with, race. The findings of this research have implications for larger discussions of identity, protest, and gay sexuality in intraracial contexts.

Socially isolated? How parents and neighbourhood adults influence youth behaviour in disadvantaged communities

In my research on Black gay women creating families (Moore 2008, 2011), I talked several times at length with Zoe Ferron (a pseudonym). Zoe installs and maintains telephone lines and network optics for a major communications company. She stands about five feet, eight inches tall, weighs roughly 180 pounds, and at the time of interview wore her hair in dreadlocks that hung all the way down her back. Zoe was born in 1960 and raised in a predominantly white housing development in Canarsie, Brooklyn, during a time when African Americans were just beginning to integrate this tough white ethnic neighborhood. Asked how she thought of race, gender, and sexuality as identities that described her, Zoe said, “If I had to number them one, two, three? Probably Black and lesbian—real close, to be honest with you. I don’t know which would come up as one. Probably Black. Woman last.” When I asked, “What makes you say that?” she replied:

Race and Ethnicity in the Lives of Sexual Minority Parents and Their Children

William Julius Wilson’s model of adult joblessness, community disorganization and their effects on youth problem behaviour de-emphasizes the range in children’s outcomes across socially disorganized communities, and says little about the factors that influence this variation. It also does not address the processes by which family structure and relationships affect the well-being of African-American and poor youth. My work is part of a larger research agenda that has begun to address these issues by focusing on the differential rates of sexual activity among youth living in disadvantaged environments, and developing models to explain this variation. This work suggests that units of socially cohesive, stable adults exist among the social networks of successful children and families in poor neighbourhoods. It also points to the existence and functioning of alternative two-parent family structures and offers hypotheses for how family environment interacts with neighbourhood context to influence youth behaviour.

Two Sides of the Same Coin: Revising Analyses of Lesbian Sexuality and Family Formation Through the Study of Black Women

In this chapter we review the body of research on racial and sexual minority parenting in the USA and internationally. Findings in this literature point us toward broader conceptualizations of sexual minority parenthood that include stepparenting, kin care, and parenting in the context of heterosexual unions while maintaining a lesbian or gay identity. In addition, these findings challenge scholars to think more inclusively about what issues are relevant to sexual minority parents and children. Issues ranked as important by sexual minority parents themselves, such as welfare and immigration policies, are often neglected in scholarship that focuses disproportionately on parents’ gender and sexuality; this scholarship does not account for race, nationality, or other variance among these families. As much as this review provides important variation in the experiences of sexual minority families, it also challenges the academic community to substantially broaden its scope when studying same-sex parenting. The chapter concludes with directions for future research.

LGBT Populations in Studies of Urban Neighborhoods: Making the Invisible Visible

The present work analyzes results from a three-year, mixed-methods sociological study of Black lesbian–headed families. It identifies four points of departure Black women make from what the existing literature has assumed about lesbian families and lesbian practice. It links these ideologies and behaviors to the experiences of African-American women growing up in Black heterosexual families and communities, particularly the mother-centered quality of many Black households and the history of female labor force participation and economic contributions to the household.

Negotiating Emotional Support: Sober Gay Latinos and their Families.

When I first began my training as a sociologist, I learned about urban poverty under the mentorship of William Julius Wilson at the Center for the Study of Urban Inequality in Chicago. The 1990s were an exciting time to be in dialogue with the different schools of thought among those examining life in metropolitan areas. I decided to narrow my focus to the study of U.S. family formation and sexuality in urban contexts, and more than 20 years later I have not strayed far from those interests. The great ethnographies of urban neighborhoods have taught us many things about the ways individuals and families use that space, about the constraints imposed on them by community and larger institutions, about the role of the police in these neighborhoods, and the varied modes of surveillance of daily life. However, as I began the research for my first book, Invisible Families: Gay Identities, Relationships and Motherhood among Black Women (Moore 2011), I could find very few indicators of sexual orientation in these detailed studies of life in big cities. I searched through appendices, endnotes, as well as the primary content and theoretical framing of these books, but with few exceptions, the experiences of sexual minorities living in these areas were not represented as part of the social fabric of urban neighborhoods. Most ethnographic approaches to the study of city life are biased toward the experiences of people who claim heterosexuality. We do not see sexual minorities incorporated into larger analyses of family life in urban areas, or included, in studies of how the various social groups in a community work together or against one another in the acquisition of resources, against a threat of encroachment, or in numerous other situations as they arise in day-to-day living and survival. Ethnographers who spent months or years studying the detailed and mundane aspects of life in urban areas have devoted very little space in their published work to the existence of sexual minorities who also inhabit these spaces. Yet, we know they exist in these neighborhoods. Historians of LGBT life have shown us that sexual minorities have long flocked to urban metropolises (Chauncey 1994). Demographers have found that the largest numbers of same-sex couples reside in the country’s major cities (Gates and Cooke 2011). We know that African-American, Latino/a, and Asian-American sexual minorities tend to live in cities and towns with large numbers of their racial and ethnic group members (Gates 2012), and lesbian and gay people have historically been integrated into the everyday life of these communities (Carbado et al. 2002; Han 2015; Ocampo 2012). LGBT people in these neighborhoods congregate on the same street corners and building stoops as other residents, they patronize the same

Older Ethnic Minority Women's Perceptions of Stroke Prevention and Walking

This study explores how sober gay Latino men obtain support from their families. Familial ties can be a protective health factor, yet many gay Latinos experience rejection from family members because of their sexuality. There are very few studies that examine the extent and quality of emotional support from kin for this population. Understanding family dynamics within the context of recovery and sexuality can increase our understanding of how to leverage family ties to develop alcohol abuse interventions. The study was conducted via semistructured interviews with 30 sober gay Latinos using a grounded theory approach. Analyses of the qualitative data identified the following themes: family values shaped the participants’ perception of their range of choices and emotional responses; participants reported feeling loved and supported even when sexuality was not discussed with parents; and family support for sobriety is essential. Findings suggest that familial ties shape perceptions of support and importance of disclosing sexual identity. Family support often results from agreements about sexual identity disclosure, and some families can overcome cultural and religious taboos on sexuality. Future studies should investigate families that negotiate acceptance with their gay members, and whether they exhibit heterosexual biases that may influence the psychological stress of gay Latino men who wish to be sober.

Stigma and family relationships of middle-aged gay men in recovery

OBJECTIVE To inform the development of a tailored behavioral stroke risk reduction intervention for ethnic minority seniors, we sought to explore gender differences in perceptions of stroke prevention and physical activity (walking). METHODS In collaboration with community-based organizations, we conducted 12 mixed-gender focus groups of African American, Latino, Chinese, and Korean seniors aged 60 years and older with a history of hypertension (89 women and 42 men). Transcripts were coded and recurring topics compared by gender. RESULTS Women expressed beliefs that differed from men in 4 topic areas: 1) stroke-related interest, 2) barriers to walking, 3) facilitators to walking, and 4) health behavior change attitudes. Compared with men, women were more interested in their role in response to a stroke and post-stroke care. Women described walking as an acceptable form of exercise, but cited neighborhood safety and pain as walking barriers. Fear of nursing home placement and weight loss were identified as walking facilitators. Women were more prone than men to express active/control attitudes toward health behavior change. CONCLUSIONS Older ethnic minority women, a high-risk population for stroke, may be more receptive to behavioral interventions that address the gender-specific themes identified by this study.