ollaimh, I think your belief that it's mostly middle-class anglos that exert control on the beliefs and actions of their fellows is a little shortsighted. I heard on the radio recently that one of the hardest things about getting the AIDS-prevention message out to black homosexuals in the USA is that it's not cool to be homosexual in the black subculture, which places a great deal of importance on machismo (or osmething very similar to that concept) for its men. So far more black gay men are "closeted," proportionally speaking, than white gay men.

It seems this sort of "expectation" must come from within the black community, which seems to be exactly the sort of pressure we are talking about here.

JMHO.

Alex