LGBT-Affirming Black Churches’ Responses to the HIV/AIDS Crisis

Abstract

The HIV/AIDS crisis has disproportionately devastated the African American community. Some historically Black churches (HBCs) have developed an affirmative ministry for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered (LGBT) individuals. Using the heuristic methodology, the author explored the historical, theological, and practice dimensions of LGBT-affirming ministries at four HBCs. During a period of 4 to 6 weeks with each church, the author conducted narrative interviews with the pastors, participant observations, and church document reviews. Using narrative analysis and grounded theory, the data was analyzed for evidence of the LGBT affirmative ministries. Each pastor offered strategies for decreasing stigmatization, increasing LGBT self-love and safer sex practices, and decreasing HIV infection rates.

KEYWORDS:

• Black churches
• LGBT stigmatization
• HIV/AIDS
• pastoral care