In the hybrid gangs, members felt far more comfortable coming out than those in purely straight gangs. In “hybrid” gangs (those with a sizable minority of gay, lesbian or bisexual people) or all-gay gangs, the men I interviewed were held to many of the same standards.
He hadn’t known the others were gay, and they didn’t know about him, either.
One particularly striking story came from a member of a straight gang who made a date for sex over the internet, only to discover that it was two fellow gang members who had arranged the date with him. So most stayed in the closet, continuing to project heterosexuality, while discreetly meeting other gay men in underground gay scenes or over the internet.Īs one man told me, he was glad cellphones had been invented because he could keep his private sexual life with men just that: private. Would their fellow gang members start to distrust them? What if the other members got preoccupied about being sexually approached? Would the status of the gang be compromised, with other gangs seeing them as “soft” for having openly gay guys in it? Only a handful of them came out to their traditional gangs, and this sometimes resulted in serious consequences, such as being “bled out” of the gang (forced out through a fight).ĭespite the dangers, some wanted to come out. Being openly gay could threaten their status as well as their safety. The gay men in straight gangs I spoke with knew precisely what was expected of them: be willing to fight with rival gangs, demonstrate toughness, date or have sex with women and be financially independent.īeing effeminate was a nonstarter they were all careful to present a uniformly masculine persona, lest they lose status and respect. While my race and gender did make for some awkward interactions (some folks we encountered assumed I was a police officer or a business owner), with time I gained their trust, started getting introduced to more members and began to learn about how each type of gang presented its own set of challenges. I was openly gay – part of the “family,” as some of them put it – and because I was a student conducting research for a book, they were confident that I stood a better chance of accurately representing them than any “straight novelist” or journalist.īut I also suspect that my own masculine presentation allowed them to feel more at ease I speak directly, have very short hair and usually leave the house in plaid, slacks and Adidas shoes. It helped that the initial group of men whom I spoke to knew me from years earlier, when we became friends at a drop-in center for LGBTQ youth. How could I – a white, middle-class woman with no prior gang involvement – gain access to these gangs in the first place? Male spaces can be difficult for women to enter, whether it’s boardrooms, legislative bodies or locker rooms. Most of these gangs were primarily male.īecause even the idea of a gay man being in a gang flies in the face of conventional thought, the gang members I spoke with had to constantly resist or subvert a range of stereotypes and expectations. Then there were what I call “hybrid” gangs, which featured a mix of straight, gay, lesbian and bisexual members, but with straight people still in the majority. Others were the only gay man (or one of a few) in an otherwise “straight” gang. Some of the gang members were in gangs made up of primarily gay, lesbian or bisexual people. The experience, which took place over the course of more than two years, allowed me to explore the tensions they felt between gang life and gay manhood.