Legacy denied: African American gay men, AIDS, and the black church.

This qualitative study explores the religious development and spiritual formation of African American gay men living with AIDS. In response to an in-depth interviewing approach, 10 men described their experiences of church participation. The participants' data reveal their religious initiation and participation as well as their need to extinguish their affiliation with the black church as a result of religiously sanctioned homophobia, heterosexism, and AIDS phobia. The article also explores the conundrum of an African American religious organization engaging in oppression despite its historic role of supporting liberation and opposing discrimination.