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Abstract: The purpose of Black feminist thought, was/is to acknowledge that Black Women have distinct experiences with both racism and sexism; gender scholars often avoid the use of Black feminist scholarship to meld the experiences of Black Gay men with the experiences of Black Women. For Black Gay men raised in the South, there is an obvious awareness of this potential conflation. There is a common misconception that men or fathers are exempt from experiencing the negative effects of patriarchy or heterosexism, however when those men are two Black Gay fathers, typical intersections of ethnicity, sexual orientation, and gender scripts are disregarded in hopes of altering the current picture of the ideal family. What then are the implications of the pursuit of traditional family values by two Black Gay fathers? In what ways are the lived experiences of two Black Gay American fathers represented within existing institutions of U.S. family values?
Keywords: Black Women; Black Men; Gay; LGBTQ; fatherhood; motherhood; Quare; critical race theory; intersectionality
I deliberately include numerous quotations from a range of African-American women thinkers, some well known and others rarely heard from. Explicitly grounding my analysis in multiple voices highlights the diversity, richness, and power of Black women's ideas as part of a long-standing African-American women's intellectual community ... this approach counteracts the tendency of mainstream scholarship to canonize a few Black women as spokespersons for the group and then refuse to listen to any but these select few.
(Patricia Hill Collins, 2000:xiii)
This picture, right here it means a lot to me, because everyday ... me and my fiancé Kaleb we strive to be the best fathers that we can possibly be towards our kids . as I look back at my life ... it just makes me want [my children's life] to be even better [than my own] ... Kaleb is there to help me ... I'm giving my kids the life I never had.
Kordale Lewis, 2014 [YouTube]
Black feminist thought has provided a platform to discuss the intersectionality of oppression as Black Women experience various forms of oppression within their positionality [sic] as Women and persons of color. The work of scholars such as Collins (1990; 1998; 2000) and Crenshaw (1989; 1991) provide representations of these intersections...