RUSH: Cheryl in Cleveland. It’s great to have you on the program with us. Hello.

CALLER: Hi, Rush. How are you?

RUSH: Fine and dandy. Thank you.

CALLER: You know, I couldn’t be more disgusted by this NIH study. Half a million dollars on examining what young adolescent boys are experiencing during their first sexual encounter? With all of the problems that beset the black community, especially black male adolescents, to spend this kind of money on this study is astonishing to me. I mean, why not put that money to trying to determine why 73% of black men abandon their children?

RUSH: We don’t need…

CALLER: Why not attempt to discover why there is such a rampant…?

RUSH: Wait, wait, wait. Let me take these one by one. We don’t need a study for that, because the federal government, under the aegis of the Democrat Party, has come in willingly and happily agreeing to be the husband.

CALLER: Of course they have, and we see what result of that is on black people, on black children especially. My point is, look, I know that this is all part of the grand liberal manipulation. What I would like other people to see, though, is that really, liberals care nothing about the state of black America. If they did, they wouldn’t waste money on this kind of nonsense. But they really would sort of look at these issues or try to look at these issues that affect the life and death of black children. Every time I get a —

RUSH: Cheryl?

CALLER: Yes?

RUSH: Are you African-American?

CALLER: Yes, I am.

RUSH: You are. Okay. I didn’t know.

CALLER: (chuckling)

RUSH: I just wanted to get that out there, because you are talking about the dissolution of the black family. You know, white people can’t talk about that.

CALLER: I know. (laughing) I understand. I understand. I have been black all my life and hope very much to die that way. (laughing)

RUSH: Well, the odds are good.

CALLER: (laughing) I have been a happy conservative since I discovered you about 20 years ago. You’ve completely changed my thinking on everything, and I do thank you from the bottom of my heart for that.

RUSH: Thank you very much. So let me guess where you’re going with this. You think that this study that is measuring the satisfaction levels of the first-time gay sexual experience of young African-American men is what? You think that this is an effort in the long term to convince —

CALLER: No, I think it’s part of a larger effort. You know, the one thing that blacks remain is more conservative on the issue of homosexuality than other groups. So there’s been this big push lately to make sure that black Americans know how wonderful the gift of homosexuality is. “Oh, there’s nothing more wonderful than two men having sex! It’s up there with curing cancer.” So we have shows like Empire.

RUSH: Jeez. (laughing)

CALLER: (laughing) No, really. The whole point of Empire is to blend, you know, homosexuality with rap music and bring it into our living rooms to let us all see how great it is.

RUSH: Well, now, I have to say that you’ve got a point about that. She’s talking about the TV show Empire. I get your point here. You think there’s a long-term effort being made here to dissolve the natural opposition to homosexuality, gay marriage, in the black community and turn that into support?

CALLER: Of course. I don’t “think;” I know. I know wholeheartedly that that’s what’s going on. And this study… I do want to bring to your attention one thing in this study, Rush.

RUSH: Okay.

CALLER: Because I went and I looked at the study after you mentioned it. One thing that it says really caught my attention. It said, “The study will also examine why some young African-American gay men seek out older partners, finding that older partners had ’emotional immaturity, could expose them 20 ‘more life experiences,’ and help young memorandum sort through, ‘sexual position and how to perform in relationships,'” unquote.”

Now, I’m going to let you in on a really closely held secret about black America, Rush. I grew up in a housing project, and in that housing project — and in just about every poor black community in this country — everyone in the community always knew who the older black men were who were plying these young fatherless boys with gifts, with candy, with money, with toys, you name it. This has always happened.

I mean, I haven’t lived in that particular lifestyle for a very, very long time. I’ve been very fortunate to be very successful in this country. But I know that that lifestyle still exists. You have a bunch poor, fatherless boys, and a bunch of older men who prey upon those boys. Now, it used to be a bad thing. It used to be called pedophilia. But apparently now it’s called (chuckles) “giving them emotional maturity.” You know, this is a study to me that is dangerous in many ways.

Because it’s one thing to say that, you know, homosexuality is great; it’s the best thing since sliced bread. It’s another thing to say older men who prey on young adolescent boys — and an adolescent is still underage — are no longer doing something bad, but they’re doing something great. They’re helping shepherd them into this journey on homosexuality. And that’s a problem. I’m not buying it, and I hope there are other intelligent people that are not buying that either.

RUSH: Well, I don’t think anybody knew that ’til you mentioned it. I don’t know conditions of housing projects to that extent.

CALLER: Believe me, it’s not just housing projects. It’s in black neighborhoods generally, and it’s quite understandable when you think about it.

RUSH: I just want to be perfectly clear: Are you saying that the elderly black men you’re talking about are gay?

CALLER: Not elderly, but adult. And what I’m saying is this. Yes, they are gay. There’s a big distinction, though, within black communities, again, that a lot of white people don’t know about. It’s the down-low phenomenon, which is black men who engage in sex with other men for years and years and years but refuse to call themselves gay. It’s a closeted behavior that, I guess with the change in societal norms, maybe they’ll be coming out of the closet to some degree, but, you know, a lot of books have been written about it, but we don’t need the books ’cause those of us who’ve lived it know it. You know, these are men who engage in sex with other men and who, again, my big concern, I don’t care what two consenting adults do, but I’ve seen the effect that these men have on young, poor, fatherless boys, who want nothing more than to have some of the material things that they see other people have.

RUSH: It sounds like you’re describing, after a fashion, a form of recruitment.

CALLER: Of course I am. That’s exactly what it is.

RUSH: Well, I don’t want to put words in your mouth. I’m not trying to lead you, but that’s what it sounds like to me.

CALLER: You’re not leading me. That’s exactly what it is. And again, there isn’t a black person within the sound of my voice that doesn’t know what I’m saying to you is absolutely true, 100% true. And it’s something that’s still covered up. And the way that things are going now, though, with —

RUSH: Well, now, wait a minute, I got one more question. If that’s true, where does this — I mean, I’m of the impression, and you mentioned it —

CALLER: Yes.

RUSH: — that homosexuality in the black community is frowned on, it’s not cool. And yet you describe this circumstance that every black person in the sound of your voice knows of that’s —

CALLER: They know that it goes on, they know that what I’m talking about goes on and goes on to a very large degree. It is frowned upon, hence the development of the down-low syndrome. It’s frowned upon, and so these people, these men don’t let their actual sexual predilections be known —

RUSH: You mean this is what “on the down-low” really means? Ho!

CALLER: Rush, did you not know?

RUSH: No, I thought on the down-low meant clandestine, secret.

CALLER: It means a lot of things, but again, within the black community, people know exactly what it means. And people know exactly what’s been going on for a very, very long time.

RUSH: I thought on the down-low just meant you aren’t down for the struggle or anything like that.

CALLER: Oh, no, no, no, no. No, no, no, no, no. Oh, Rush, the stories I could tell you. (laughing)

RUSH: See, I’m so naive about this stuff.

CALLER: For me, again, I can’t let this go without mentioning what I think is the most important thing, and again, that is the condition of black children in this country. They are living in terror zones. They are living in gangland war zones. If anybody wants to spend a half million dollars, spend it on that.

RUSH: Amen. I could not agree with you more on that. I appreciate the call, Cheryl.

CALLER: Okay, love you, Rush.

RUSH: Great, great, great caller, and we will take a break and be right back.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: It’s not that I didn’t believe our caller, Cheryl, but I still wanted to look it up. So I went to the Urban Dictionary, right there it is. “Down low” refers to when closeted black men leading mostly heterosexual lives seek other men for sex that is often anonymous and unprotected. And then they offer a quote, typical usage. “I’m a black man who likes other men, but because of the stigma in the black community about being gay, I will only have sex on the down low.” I’ve been using that phrase ’cause I like it, “on the down low,” to describe people doing things secretly, privately, which is halfway right.