Tak Yamamoto, a 51-year-old Japanese American, has faced similar struggles.
He remembers his minister saying, “God’s love didn’t apply to faggots,” and he saw many effeminate boys beaten for “trying to be women.” The clamor frightened him so much that he kept his homosexuality a secret for much of his life.īut two years ago, the 27-year-old social worker said he became so frustrated by such “backwards” attitudes that he organized a black gay group to demand recognition from churches and service groups. and Asian areas like Chinatown.’ -Deborah Johnson, black lesbian activistĬleo Manago grew up in Watts hearing friends and relatives say that homosexuality was “something only scrawny white boys got.” It has spread to black neighborhoods in South-Central (Los Angeles), Latino neighborhoods in East L.A. ‘The gay movement is not only in West Hollywood.
