Public interest in the topic only intensified when some journalists began connecting the DL phenomenon to HIV infection rates in black communities, which are disproportionately higher than among whites. Since the early 2000s, the topic of black men who have sex with men but identify as straight has been heavily discussed in major American media outlets. King wasn’t the first writer to tackle the topic, but he quickly became one of its leading voices after Oprah invited him on her show later that year to “blow the lid off” of the secret. What King knew from the lingering eye contact was that the black man he found in church was, like himself, “on the down low,” a phrase widely used to describe black men who secretly have sex with other men while leading publicly straight lives. King describes a scene common in some black churches: “I spotted this brother from my pew, ten rows back,” he writes. By Brandon Ambrosino | Religion News Service September 4, 2015
