How the response to the latest Diddy lawsuit exposed homophobia within the Black community

The number of sexual assault lawsuits against rapper and Bad Boy Entertainment founder Sean "Diddy" Combs keeps growing. 

On Monday, Rodney “Lil Rod” Jones, a producer and videographer for Combs with whom he worked on his Grammy-nominated album “The Love Album: Off the Grid,” filed a lawsuit against the music mogul. The lawsuit alleged that Combs sexually and physically harassed him, and drugged and threatened him for over a year, while also engaging in sex trafficking and running his inner circle as a “RICO enterprise” that functioned like a criminal organization, according to the Los Angeles Times. 

This is the fifth assault lawsuit filed against Combs since November and while he and his attorney have wholesale denied the allegations, the accusations are distinct in that they come from a male producer, which has sparked homophobia — and serious discussions about the homophobic rhetoric being used — within the Black community.

As reported by People, Jones produced nine songs on Diddy's “The Love Album.” During the album-making process, Jones said that he lived with Combs and “witnessed, experienced, and endured many things that went far beyond his role as a producer on the Love album.”

The lawsuit said since Jones was a videographer, he was “required” to “constantly” record Combs which resulted in securing "hundreds of hours of footage and audio recordings of Mr. Combs, his staff, and his guests engaging in serious illegal activity,” the court document said.

“Throughout his time living with Mr. Combs, Mr. Jones was the victim of constant unsolicited and unauthorized groping and touching of his anus by Mr. Combs,” the lawsuit alleged. Jones further claimed that he was subjected to work in Combs' bathroom while Combs “walked around naked and showered in a clear glass enclosure.”

Alongside Jones’ claims that he worked in a violent and abusive environment, he alleged that the cousin of Combs’ girlfriend and rapper, Yung Miami, sexually assaulted him in front of Combs and his employees. Jones also claims that he saw Combs bring sex workers to his Miami home and, on one occasion, suspects that he was drugged and possibly sexually assaulted by said sex workers. Also, Jones said in the lawsuit that he has footage of Combs "providing laced alcoholic beverages to minors and sex workers at his homes."

The lawsuit also names celebrities like Cuba Gooding Jr., whom Jones claims made sexual advances on him at the behest of Combs, who allegedly groomed Jones "to pass him off to his friends." Music industry moguls like former Motown Records CEO, Ethiopia Habtemariam and Universal Music group CEO Lucian Grainge, are also named in the suit as some of the other high-profile figures who allegedly witnessed misconduct by Combs, the Los Angeles Times reported.

In his suit, Jones also alluded to “a Philadelphia Rapper who dated Nicki Minaj” as one of the men in the music industry with whom Diddy allegedly said he had sex. 

In a statement to People, Combs' attorney denied the claims, saying, “Lil Rod is nothing more than a liar who filed a $30 million lawsuit shamelessly looking for an undeserved payday. His reckless name-dropping about events that are pure fiction and simply did not happen is nothing more than a transparent attempt to garner headlines."

The statement continued: "We have overwhelming, indisputable proof that his claims are complete lies. Our attempts to share this proof with Mr. Jones’ attorney, Tyrone Blackburn, have been ignored, as Mr. Blackburn refuses to return our calls. We will address these outlandish allegations in court and take all appropriate action against those who make them."

Following the lawsuit's digital circulation, people have made distasteful memes about Diddy's alleged sexual relationships with men. One post on X, formerly Twitter, showed an edited picture of Combs and rapper Rick Ross, looking like they were about to kiss with the caption “no way diddy got ross too.” It had 20 million views. 

Online commentators have similarly attacked Meek Mill —the Philadelphia rapper and Niki Minaj’s former fiancé — for allegedly having sex with Combs, with tweets like “meek mill was in nicki's closet like this when she left the house” being viewed millions of times. 

In response, Mill has lashed out online. 

In a long online diatribe, Mill wrote: "Every black blog site enhanced that post to make me seem gay…. I change laws for our people I donate millions … they are designed to destroy the image of black leaders! It can’t work with me tho you gotta really kill me and I still will get bigger after death! This god not me lol."

Several other of Mill's posts conveyed the same sentiment: He was furious that his reputation had now been tarnished by rumors about his sexuality and how this was just a way to "expose who's behind try to kill the black image of the most influential artists!"

However, other online commenters have pointed out that these memes — and Mill’s online rant — perpetuate some insidiously homophobic rhetoric, namely the idea that it is more shameful to be gay than to be an abuser. One person paralleled the response to the latest Combs allegations to those surrounding convicted sex trafficker R. Kelly, writing, "homophobia is a bigger sin in the black community over pedophilia, we saw this exact same s**t happen with r. kelly."

"Homophobia helps Diddy & others get away with this (alleged) behavior,” another said, “It’s unrealistic statistically that ALL rappers are heterosexual yet the mere rumor of being gay is still enough to sink careers. So blackmail is easy."

Another commenter pointed out that there seems to be more outrage surrounding this assault lawsuit against Combs than the four prior, which were filed by women. “Now that Diddy is accused of assaulting a man, you know that’s going to make people ‘care’ more,”they wrote. “Because people’s homophobia [is greater than] supporting all victims in general.”