Call for Urgent Response From NIH, CDC and LGBT Community to Devastating Impact on Black Gay Men
"When the AIDS crisis began, the LGBT community came together with great force," said Darrel Cummings, Chief of Staff at the LA Gay and
A 2005 study from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in five major cities showed that 46% of black gay men had acquired HIV and that 67% of them were unaware of their HIV status. Surveillance data released by the New York City Health Department in September 2007 and other recent reports has heightened the concern of the leaders about the epidemic’s continued impact, especially among black gay men.
"It is shameful that 25 years into the epidemic, the National Institutes of Health has not done the research and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has not given us the tools to stop the impact of HIV in black gay communities,” said Ernest Hopkins, Policy Committee Chair for the National Black Gay Men’s Advocacy Coalition and director of federal affairs at the San Francisco AIDS Foundation.
Of 129 interventions developed to address HIV in African Americans, only one has been designed or adapted for black gay men. Additionally, very little research has been conducted to determine the actual costs of high rates of HIV among black gay men in the
"Our communities cannot accept that our lives are not worth the effort to engage in the research, prevention and care necessary to improve our health and better our lives,” the leaders’ statement reads.
Other LGBT leadership organizations participating in the meeting and their representatives were: Arcus Foundation (Cindy Rizzo), Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (Rashad Robinson), Gay and Lesbian Medical Association (Joel Ginsberg), Lambda Legal (Kevin Cathcart and Bebe Anderson), Log Cabin Republicans (Patrick Sammon), National Black Justice Coalition (Earl Plante), National Stonewall Democrats (Jon Hoadley) and the Task Force (Matt Foreman).
Also participating in the meeting were Hutson Innis, a member of the National Coalition for LGBT Health’s board of directors, Rudy Carn, chair of the National Black Gay Men’s Advocacy Coalition, and A. Cornelius Baker, National Policy Advisor for the National Black Gay Men’s Advocacy Coalition.
Statement of National Leadership Organizations in the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Equality and Civil Rights Movement on the HIV Epidemic in Black Gay Communities
As a concerned group of leaders in the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender equality and civil rights movement, we gathered in
Our concerns are fueled in part by the startling Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) study released in June 2005 showing a 46 % infection rate among black gay men in 5 major cities, surveillance data from the New York City Health Department in September 2007 showing a 33% increase of new HIV diagnoses over the past six years among gay men under age 30, and recent publications and presentations from Dr. Ron Stall at the University of Pittsburgh and Gregorio Millet at the CDC [visit LifeLube.org to see] demonstrating the many challenges remaining in bringing the HIV epidemic under control. The lack of an urgent response to this health crisis among a vulnerable group of our citizens is shameful and inexcusable in the
We call on the leaders of our nation’s LGBT organizations to join us in placing an aggressive response to the HIV epidemic among black gay men at the center of our agenda. We also call on all sectors of society, including government, media and philanthropy, to urgently address this disturbing situation across our country. Our organizations have pledged to move forward in coalition with the National Black Gay Men’s Advocacy Coalition, the National Coalition for LGBT Health and others in the coming days and months to turn the tide of this epidemic and the devastating impact it is having in the lives of so many in our communities.
Arcus Foundation
Gay and Lesbian
Gay and Lesbian Medical Association
Lambda Legal
Log Cabin Republicans
National Black Justice Coalition
The Task Force
(as of
Maybe these people in leadership could take a closer look at the strategy of let's get tested TOGETHER BEFORE we have sex for
ReplyDeleteA VARIETY of sexually transmitted diseases?...
As a phenomenon of potential sex partners' behaviors it should be looked at as all the other behaviors.
Ignoring it would be a rather telling behavior!
You have posted this same thing over and over again on this blog. We understand your point. Please refrain from posting the same argument multiple times. In the future, they will be deleted.
ReplyDeleteJim
Regrettably, that kneejerk overreative authoritarian behavior is what people encounter that instills reluctance to be forthcoming.
ReplyDeleteWhat leadership should do in such predicaments in engage rather than shun. It goes against the very principles enunciated for the summit.
It's a failure of our leadership in that unwillingness to engage even what may appear outrageous to their point of view. It the very same thing our antagonists do that we are doing too and we should avoid.
Well, you have posted the same thing at least 100 times on this blog, so I hardly think our cease and desist request is overreacting or kneejerk authoritarianism...
ReplyDeleteYou have hardly been shunned from sharing your idea. The issue, my friend, is you have ONE IDEA. And you post the content of that idea over 90% of the time you comment here.
Perhaps, as a leader, you should consider finding funding for a study or pilot program to see how your ideas play out in some kind of formal analysis. With data and proof of efficacy, folks would pay attention to your intervention. In the meantime, a constant drumbeat of the SAME THING over and OVER again and AGAIN is tiring and does not win you points.
A leader would try to find the means to PROVE that his ideas were worthy of consideration.
Jim