Update: Living On The Down Low

by Tom Miller

It’s been on Oprah, so it must be a real concern. The topic: ostensibly heterosexual black men having sex with other men. We’re under the impression that if a white guy or an Asian guy or a Latin guy were to do it, he would just be a bearded gay (like in Far From Heaven).

So, the man that introduced the Down Low (DL) lifestyle to mainstream America back in 2004 (on Oprah), JL King is out promoting some of his new products and services. He’s got a murder/sex/power novel coming out this summer and a DVD/ speaking tour entitled No More Secrets, No More Lies, Saving Our Daughters about safety and honesty in regard to sex and sexuality. At any rate, Dr Love (as King likes to be known) blames the DL lifestyle on homophobia in the black community and relishes his role as educator and advocate. And we remember when ‘down low’ just meant secret. According to MLive he’s been approached to take his show on a national scale because he’s “the only African-American male in the country talking about sex and sexuality.” We think he’s forgotten about a man that we know as Leon Phelps and you may know as The Ladies Man. But we’re guessing that King’s advice is a little better than Phelps’ and somehow manages to not focus on the topics of Delta Burke, anal sex, and Courvoisier.

This whole thing makes us a little curious about R Kelly’s situation. He had a song called “Down Low,” an album called Trapped In The Closet, and disowned his brother after the brother (actual brother, not like hippies mean it) told people that Kelly was a bi-sexual. Then again, he supposedly tinkled on an underage girl, so let’s just say that his proclivities defy categorization and leave it at that, drip drip drip.