Abstracts

The purpose of this research was to investigate Conflict in Allegiance (CIA), an intersectional construct, and its associations with racism in LGB communities, perceived homonegativity within racial and religious communities, and frequency of unprotected anal intercourse (UAI) among religiously affiliated African American men who have sex with men (AAMSM). A review of literature on the established relationships between disproportional HIV-incidence among AAMSM, racism, homonegativity, and UAI was presented. The experience of CIA was hypothesized to correlate with racism in LGB communities, homonegativity within racial and religious communities, and UAI. A sample of 238 religiously-affiliated AAMSM completed the Conflict in Allegiance Scale, Racism in LGB Communities Scale, Homonegativity within Racial and Religious Communities Scales, and a frequency of UAI scale. Pearson product moment correlations were utilized to examine the hypothesized relationships between the variables and revealed significant correlations between CIA and the oppression-related variables. CIA was also found to be significantly correlated with UAI. Differences in CIA among participants who were younger (18-35) and older (36+) from self-described liberal or conservative religious institutions were sought. A two-way analysis of variance revealed no difference in CIA between older and younger participants from liberal and conservative religious institutions. These major findings, including additional findings, current literature, and theories of sexual orientation identity development were presented. Limitations, areas of future research, and implications Counselor Education and clinical practice were identified.