It helped that the initial group of men whom I spoke to knew me from years earlier, when we became friends at a drop-in center for LGBTQ youth. How could I – a white, middle-class woman with no prior gang involvement – gain access to these gangs in the first place? Male spaces can be difficult for women to enter, whether it’s boardrooms, legislative bodies or locker rooms. Most of these gangs were primarily male.īecause even the idea of a gay man being in a gang flies in the face of conventional thought, the gang members I spoke with had to constantly resist or subvert a range of stereotypes and expectations. Then there were what I call “hybrid” gangs, which featured a mix of straight, gay, lesbian and bisexual members, but with straight people still in the majority. Others were the only gay man (or one of a few) in an otherwise “straight” gang. Some of the gang members were in gangs made up of primarily gay, lesbian or bisexual people.
The experience, which took place over the course of more than two years, allowed me to explore the tensions they felt between gang life and gay manhood.
