46% of us = GENOCIDE!!

Leaders jolt black gay men against HIV
Christopher Curtis, PlanetOut Network

published Wednesday, August 17, 2005

According to a recent study by the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC), nearly half of African-American men who have sex
with men have been infected with HIV -- and a group of black leaders
is demanding action from the community.

The Black AIDS Institute published an open letter on Wednesday,
titled, "Nearly Half of Us May Already Be Infected. Who Gives a
Damn?" It noted that in June the CDC published a study showing 46
percent of black homosexual and bisexual men surveyed in five major
cities were already HIV-positive, an infection rate that was more
than twice the infection rate among men of other races.

"Forty-six percent isn't a catastrophe. It's genocide!" the letter
exclaimed. "To make matters worse, more than two-thirds of the HIV-
infected black men in the study were unaware of their infection.
That's right. Half of us may be infected and, of that half, two-
thirds don't know it and so almost certainly aren't doing anything
about it."

The open letter was signed by 51 leaders in the black gay community,
including "Noah's Arc" creator and executive producer Patrik-Ian
Polk, director/producer Paris Barclay and James Earl Hardy, author of
the "B-Boy Blues" series.

"Where is the outrage?" the leaders asked. "As far as we can tell,
following the CDC's announcement no black or gay media organizations
ran front-page stories. No civil rights organization marched in the
streets or called on policy makers to take action. No black
celebrities sponsored relief concerts. There wasn't even a call to
action issued by a black gay and lesbian organization!"
While the letter's writers admit charges of racism and homophobia
could be made, they "may be beside the point." During a town hall
meeting on the "state of black LGBT America" in Los Angeles in July,
the leaders noted, "AIDS was not even on the agenda."

"We have to start a national public discourse among ourselves about
this new AIDS reality. We must create a cultural shift to where
knowing your HIV status is the norm, where those of us who are
negative are committed to staying that way and where those of us who
are positive refuse to engage in behavior that might expose our
brothers to the virus," the leaders continued.

"We must all support each other in our collective and individual
campaigns to end the epidemic. Nothing short of an all-out
mobilization is acceptable. We must not allow any of the institutions
or businesses that we support to fail to do their part in ending this
epidemic. Most importantly, we must increase our visibility and
demand our rightful places in our communities," the letter added.

"There is a role for all parties to play -- government, the larger
black community, the white LGBT community, our society as a whole --
but we must be willing to hold ourselves accountable and responsible
for our own survival. How can black gay and bisexual or same-gender-
loving men ask others to respond if we continue to be so complacent
in the face of our own genocide?" the letter concluded.

Keith Boykin, president of the National Black Justice Coalition and
author of "Beyond the Down Low," also signed the letter. "It's time
for us to take action. Not the president, not Congress -- us," he
told the PlanetOut Network.

Boykin admitted he was not sure how much the letter would
accomplish. "I guess it depends on how widely this letter is
circulated. I'm hoping it will help black gay men to take care of
themselves."