Men on the down low: author J.L King exposes the sex secret that is devastating Black women

Jet, May 3, 2004 by Margena A. Christian

King tells women there are "100 percent heterosexual" men around. "Don't give up on love and finding a Brother who will love you, who will commit to you and be with you. Even though there are a lot of Brothers out here living this lifestyle, I pray that there are a lot of good Brothers who are not."

Intellectual property attorney John S. Kendall of Chicago is a straight, "traditionally heterosexual" man. King is Kendall's client.

"There are a lot of straight men, like me, still out here who love and will only love women," says Kendall. "He respected my lifestyle. Even though we may live, date and love in different worlds, there's no reason to say that we couldn't have a certain respect for each other. As long as you give me the respect that I'm going to demand, I'm going to give the same to you."

Weslee Pullen, a crime victims advocate in Columbus, OH, is straight, and like Kendall, "traditionally heterosexual." When other male acquaintances severed their friendship with King for fear of "guilt by association," Pullen didn't.

"Some people are homophobic and society dictates that," explains Pullen, who has been King's friend for 10 years. "I'm not the jury or the judge. I'm not in a position to judge a man. If a man is secure with himself and as long as what another man is doing isn't affecting you, what a person chooses to do is his business. That's not my call. That's between you and the good Lord."