“Sure there's Racism … But Homophobia—that's Different”

This chapter explores the perspectives of black lesbians as they discuss their lives in a social world where they are challenged by racism because of their African American ¹ racial identity and homophobia because of their lesbian sexual identity. There are almost 85,000 black lesbian and gay couples in the United States and they represent 14 percent of all same-sex couples living in the nation (Dang and Frazer 2004). This group is in a unique position given that their experiences are not the same as those of black heterosexual couples or those of couples composed of white lesbians or gay men. Little is known about this group since most sexuality research tends to focus on white lesbian and gay couples and most race-based research tends to focus on heterosexual couples.