African -American gay and bisexual men: Racial identity, sexual orientation, and self -esteem

This study investigated the relationships among racial and sexual orientation identities, self-esteem, and psychological distress in a community sample of African American gay and bisexual men. There is a paucity of literature on self-esteem and psychological distress among these men in relation to racial and sexual orientation identities. This study challenged the current literature that separates African American gay and bisexual men into two groups: (1) Black gays, who identify primarily with a Black identity, and (2) gay Blacks, who identify primarily with a gay identity.;Participants were 110 African American men who self-identified as gay or bisexual and were recruited in a northern urban community. Participants completed a demographic survey, the Racial Identity Attitude Scale-B, Kinsey's Sexual Orientation Scale, the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, and a symptom checklist. Hypotheses were tested using rank-order correlations, multiple regression, cluster analysis, and analyses of variance.;It was hypothesized that self-esteem would be positively associated with comfort with sexual orientation, and that, consistent with theory, the four racial identity statuses would be independent from self-esteem. Psychological distress was hypothesized to be inversely associated with comfort with sexual orientation, positively associated with the three 'less mature'---i.e. Preencounter, Encounter, and Immersion racial identity statuses, and inversely associated with 'mature' racial identity---i.e. Internalization. All participants had higher scores on the mature Internalization racial identity status than on the other, less mature racial statuses. Participants generally reported medium to high levels of self-esteem, which was inversely associated with scores on the less mature racial identity statuses. Psychological distress was inversely associated with comfort with sexual orientation identities and self-esteem, but was not associated with Internalization. Five subgroups were derived using cluster analysis; these groups differed significantly among themselves on racial identity statuses, comfort with sexual orientation, self-esteem, and psychological distress. These results challenged the dichotomous schema proposed by other researchers. Support was found for a model of sexual orientation and racial identities among African American gay and bisexual men that is complex, not dichotomous; more specifically, the data indicated that achieving both a mature racial identity and comfort with a gay/bisexual orientation are not incompatible with each other and that both a mature racial identity and comfort with sexual orientation are positively associated with satisfactory psychological functioning rather than either one by itself.