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Narratives About Homosexuality and Access to Social Capital in the Social Ecological Systems of Black Sexual Minority Men During Secondary School

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Narratives About Homosexuality and Access to Social Capital in the Social Ecological Systems of Black Sexual Minority Men During Secondary School PROFILES IN RESILIENCE: NARRATIVES ABOUT HOMOSEXUALITY AND ACCESS TO SOCIAL CAPITAL IN THE SOCIAL ECOLOGICAL SYSTEMS OF BLACK SEXUAL MINORITY MEN DURING SECONDARY SCHOOL by Matthew Messel A dissertation submitted to Johns Hopkins University in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Baltimore, Maryland October, 2015 © 2015 Matthew Messel All Rights Reserved Abstract This dissertation examines the role that gatekeeper narratives about homosexuality play in controlling Black sexual minority men’s access to academically related social capital in schools, families and churches during secondary school. Gatekeeper narratives are theoretically framed within master narratives and public narratives (Somers 1994) using a social ecological systems perspective (Bronfenbrenner 1979). Master narratives are identified through previous literature on sexual and race that have taken a historical perspective. Public narratives are identified both through previous literature and through a content analysis of sermons, political speeches, voting records, and social media commentary. Forty, Black sexual minority men were interviewed about their experiences and interactions with gatekeepers (teachers, classmates, parents, religious leaders) in microsystems (schools, families and churches). Master narratives of the heterosexual-homosexual binary and sexualized racism intersect to shape the experiences of Black sexual minority men and to frame narratives about homosexuality within Black communities. A diverse set of narratives exist within Black communities and are employed by gatekeepers, but two narratives emerged in interviews as the most widespread and most likely to remove men’s access to social capital across microsystems: the “Real Man” narrative and Biblical inerrancy. The “Real Man” narrative rests on a cultural value of hegemonic masculinity, while Biblical inerrancy often upholds a form of Christianity that marginalizes sexual minority people. Study men lost access to social capital primarily through indirect means. Relationships weakened when gatekeepers drew upon negative narratives, such as the ii “Real Man” narrative and Biblical inerrancy, and reacted poorly to learning that the study man was not heterosexual. This rejection caused many study men to experience situational depression, which diminished their ability to focus on academic work. Often relationships with gatekeepers improved over time. Even though many men lost access to social capital, all men were successful in school. This success might be attributed to the intervention of other gatekeepers who affirmed the sexuality of study men at critical points and to the resilience of the study men. iii Acknowledgements I would like to thank the Institute for Educational Studies, which provided funding for my graduate studies through a pre-doctoral fellowship program. I would like to thank my dissertation committee, including Dr. Ronald Walters, Dr. Terri Williams and Dr. Aaron Goodfellow, for their helpful comments and critiques as I worked through the proposal phase of the dissertation. I would especially like to thank my graduate advisor, Dr. Katrina Bell McDonald, for organizing the dissertation committee, for guiding me through the dissertation project from initial topic ideas to completed document, and for her assurance throughout the challenges of the dissertation writing process. I would also like to thank Dr. Karl Alexander, the second reader on the dissertation committee, for his thorough comments and edits on multiple drafts of each dissertation chapter and for his suggestion to restructure several chapters for clarity. I would like to thank my parents, Scott and Becky, my sister, Mary Beth, and Chosei for their encouragement and emotional support during the course of the dissertation project. iv Table of Contents Chapter 1: Introduction 1 Social Ecological Systems Perspective 3 Social Capital and the Social Ecological System 4 Narratives and the Social Ecological System 6 Research Questions 12 Methods 13 Interview Profiles 17 Chapter Preview 42 Chapter 2: Master Narratives 44 Moving toward a Heterosexual-Homosexual Binary 45 Sexualized Racism and Double Containment 56 Chapter 3: Public Narratives 63 Religious Narratives 66 Community Narratives 87 Individual Rights Narratives 102 Chapter 4: Schools 116 Relational Capital in Traditional and Pluralistic Schools 118 Social Capital Pathways 138 Chapter 5: Families 149 Reaction Patterns and Relational Capital 151 Social Capital Pathways 168 Chapter 6: Churches 176 Relational Capital in Authoritarian-Patriarchal and Traditional Churches 180 Social Capital Pathways 195 Pluralistic Churches and Social Capital Recovery 203 Chapter 7: Conclusions 209 Research Question 1: Master and Public Narratives 211 Research Question 2: Gatekeeper Narratives 215 Research Question 3: Social Capital Loss 224 Previous Literature and Future Research 225 Appendices 229 Appendix A: Methodology 229 Appendix B: Categorizing Narratives 238 Bibliography 244 Curriculum Vitae 289 v List of Tables Table 6.1. Ongoing Engagement by Church Category 196 vi List of Figures Figure 1.1. Examples of Social Capital Across Microsystems 4 Figure 1.2. Heuristic Diagram of Narratives and Access to Social Capital 12 Figure 3.1. Voting Record of Black Congressional Members on LGBT Issues 105 Figure 4.1. Forms of Social Capital in School 140 Figure 5.1. Reaction Type by Reduction in Access to Relational Capital 152 Figure 5.2. Forms of Social Capital in Families 168 Figure 6.1. Disapproval of Homosexuality by Religious Denomination 180 Figure 6.2. Natural Order and “Real Man” Narratives 178 Figure 6.3. Forms of Social Capital in Churches 196 Figure A.1. Religious Leaders Database 233 Figure A.2. Community Leaders Database 233 Figure A.3. Community Members Database 234 Figure A.4. Demographic Characteristics of Interview Participants 236 Figure B.1. Narrative Categories, Moral Ethics, and Reactions 242 vii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION In this dissertation, I hope to illuminate the experiences of Black sexual minority men as they transition to adulthood. Specifically, I investigate the role that narratives about homosexuality play in controlling men’s access to social capital in various, developmental settings. I focus on forms of social capital that aid the academic success of high school students for two reasons. First, academic success in high school is related to a number of young adult and later life outcomes, including economic security (Haveman & Wolfe 1984), physical health (Cutler & Lleras-Muney 2006; Lleras-Muney 2005), mental health (Castriota 2006; Oreopoulos 2007), and political involvement (Milligan, Morretti & Oreopoulos 2004). Second, the vast majority of literature on Black sexual minority men has focused on the growing HIV epidemic. While this scholarship is critical, it is also important to investigate other aspects of these men’s lives. I focus on Black sexual minority men because many studies on sexual minority youth have included primarily non-Hispanic White samples. While these studies have been illuminating, it is important to understand the unique experiences of youth who are both racial and sexual minorities. I chose Black men, rather than other racial minority men, because a larger body of literature exists documenting the experiences of Black sexual minority people than other racial minority groups. Studying the experiences of Latino, Asian, Native American, and other sexual minority men is an important avenue for future research. Yet, because so little academic research has focused on these intersections of race and sexuality, studying one of these groups would have required an amount of foundational research that was beyond the time and resources I had available for the dissertation. 1 Sexual Minority Students and Academic Experiences. Over the past decade, a large body of literature has addressed the experience of sexual minority students in schools. Much of this literature focuses on the frequency of bullying (Poteat and Espelage 2007; Poteat and Rivers 2010; Kosciw, Greytak & Diaz 2009) and its harmful psychological effects in late adolescence (Birkett, Espelage & Koenig 2009, Bontempo and D’Augelli 2002) and early adulthood (Toomey et al. 2010, Russell et al. 2011). A smaller body of literature investigates the academic outcomes of sexual minority students. These studies indicate that heterosexist stigma faced by sexual minority students in schools contributes to poor academic outcomes (Kosciw et al. 2013; Pearson, Wilkinson & Muller 2007). At the same time, research and popular media indicate that things may “be getting better” for sexual minority students in school (Savage & Miller 2011). National studies from the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) over the past decade show slightly declining rates of homophobic bullying and an increased presence of support for LGBT students in schools (e.g. gay-straight alliances) (Kosciw, Bartkiewicz & Greytak 2014). Yet relatively little is known about whether this is improving the academic experiences of Black sexual minority men1. Even less is known about how experiences in other social institutions—such as families and churches—relate to their schooling (but see Bajali et al. 2012). To understand the experiences of young Black sexual minority men in social institutions, I employ two theories—Bronfenbrenner’s social ecological model (1979) and Somer’s theory of narrativity (1994). I combine these perspectives to 1 The little research that exists suggests
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