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Tuesday, May 20, 2008
46% Is Not Acceptable! HIV Rates Among Black Gay Men Continue To Rise
The figure is the number of black MSM who are infected with HIV according to a 2005 study of five cities—including New York—by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The corresponding figure for white gay men was 21 percent.
At the core of the crisis: Black MSM younger than 30. While the number of new HIV diagnoses declined by 22 percent among MSM older than 30 between 2001 and 2006, according to the city's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene found, it increased by 30 percent among younger men, doubling among MSM between 13 and 19. (In the latter age group, the cases grew from 41 to 87 cases.) Black and Hispanic teenagers comprised 90 percent of these new diagnoses.
Read the story here.
Man's Best Kept Secret In The Church: On the Down-low, Very Down-low is a new book by Lecei Wright. This time the down low tale is coming from a woman scorned in Jamaica. This particular story actually repulsed me. How many more people are going to bulk up their wallets at the expense of black gay men? Everybody's willing to tell their tale but nobody is willing to be a force to change the homophobic environment that causes the down low. Read the full story here.
Gambia's President Yahya Jammeh declares war on the gay community and gives them 24 hours to get out or "face serious consequences". This is also coming from a man who said he'd discovered a cure for AIDS and was able to cure patients in three to thirty days. Really. I'm not making this up. Read the story here.
5 Comments:
It lifted my spirits to know that people who are not black and gay are FINALLY starting to pay attention to HIV/AIDS as it effects BLACK GAY MEN. At least in one city.
May 20, 2008 2:05 PM
do you think it is homophobic environments alone that cause men to be on the DL? are there other factors? could it possibly be by choice?
all comments welcomed...thanks
May 20, 2008 5:00 PM
Keith Boykin wrote his book, 'Beyond the Down-Low: Sex, Lies and Denial in Black America', but it didn't get half as much attention as J.L. King's book about the same subject. I love Keith but his book was dry and vaguely uninteresting (sometimes "good taste" can be a bad thing, if you know what I mean).
Unfortunately, it seems to me that it takes a certain sensationalism to grab the attention of large numbers of black people and King hit the ball out of the park at the right (wrong?) moment in time. Then he lucked up with that interview on the Ophra Winfrey show and the rest was a train wreck for black gay men.
When is a sane, super smart black gay/bisexual man going to write a really good, COMPELLING book about our lives?
Selene: Read Keith Boykin's book, Beyond the Down-Low. It's the best statement out there, in my opinion, on the down-low by a black gay man.
May 21, 2008 9:21 AM
thanks anonymous...i'll try to pick that book up.
May 22, 2008 6:24 AM
Choice is also a factor.
Some people just reject the identity that will be imposed upon them if they were to declare publicly that they had same-sex attractions.
People should be allowed to define who they are for themselves.
I think that is equally why people run from being "out".
(Also a desire to not be different to the people around them--or to not play up such differences.)
May 23, 2008 1:28 AM
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