Shameless: The Making of Black Gay Identities in La (PB) (2026)

How young Black queer men in Los Angeles reject stigma and stereotypes and instead find pride in their racial and sexual identities

Shameless is an in-depth exploration of the ways that young Black gay men in Los Angeles come together to learn how to navigate racial and sexual stigma in everyday interactions. Based on 4 years of intensive ethnographic fieldwork resulting in observations with over 200 young men in a Los Angeles community health organization, in-depth interviews with self-identified Black queer men, observations with gay kinship families, and media content analysis, Terrell J. A. Winder paints a full picture of the socialization and stigma negotiations of young Black gay men. He explains how traditional strategies like passing and covering can become untenable and ineffective for young Black gay men dealing with multiple stigmas simultaneously, who are looking to experience their identities with a sense of pride, rather than as a source of shame.