Washington Blade - June 1, 2006
Katherine Volin

"I think by and large the larger media has done a poor job covering black AIDS in America in general and has done a very poor job in covering it in black gay men," says Phill Wilson, executive director of the Black AIDS Institute, a Los Angeles-based non-profit he founded in 1999 to mobilize black institutions to stop the spread of HIV/AIDS among blacks.

In 1988, the Washington Blade reported that HIV/AIDS education programs in Washington, D.C. were disregarding the rapidly rising rates of HIV infection among black gay men.

"We were actively looking for anything, any piece of information, that might help in the fight," Lisa Keen, former executive editor of the Blade, said in an e-mail interview. "We were reporting everything we could get our hands on that might be helpful, so we were scouring whatever statistics we could get, too. In the context of all this, we noticed the statistics on cases among black gay men in D.C. going up twice as fast as among white gay men."

The same article also revealed local black gay leaders had been calling for greater focus on black gay AIDS education since 1986. By 1987, the number of black gay men with AIDS in D.C. had outpaced that of their white counterparts. Nationwide, the statistics revealed a similar pattern.

As early as October of 1986, the CDC was reporting that the "cumulative incidence of AIDS among blacks and Hispanics was more than three times the rate for whites." By 1996, more AIDS cases were found in blacks than any other ethnicity.

Despite the constant and steadily rising statistics that indicated minorities were disproportionately affected by AIDS, a 2004 media study by the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, a non-profit organization that researches and informs the public about major health issues, found that only 3 percent of all the news stories about AIDS from 1981-2002 were about racial minorities in the United States.

"It's always been disproportionate," says Ron Simmons, executive director of Us Helping Us, a D.C. based black gay AIDS group, about the number of black gay men with AIDS. "It's just that it hasn't been given that much attention."

Keen says that the Blade did not give thorough coverage to AIDS among black gays.

"We weren't in a position to give 'thorough' coverage," Keen says. "We didn't have the resources necessary to deliver what I would consider thorough coverage. But we were always mindful that Washington had a majority black population and that we had a responsibility to cover news that would benefit black gays specifically, as well as gay men in general."

THE JUNE 1, 2001 Morbidity & Mortality Weekly Report - the same CDC publication that first reported in 1981 the "rare pneumonia" in five gay men in Los Angeles that would later be identified as AIDS - declared that "minority [men who have sex with men] have emerged as the population most affected by HIV." The report called for "behavior interventions" targeting minority MSM.

Four years later, MMWR released a five-city study that found 46 percent of black MSM were HIV-positive. The study sparked some media coverage, but failed to result in any in-depth reporting, according to Simmons.

"A year has passed," Simmons says. "There's been no real stories since. There's been no stories about what the CDC's been doing about black gay men specifically."

The trend is a common one for black gay AIDS stories, say Simmons and Francis Broome, a program coordinator for Many Men, Many Voices, a gay and bisexual men's support group sponsored by the Black Coalition on AIDS in San Francisco.

Part of the reason for the lack of mainstream media coverage is the apathy of the general public to the concerns of black gay men, according to Broome.

"It makes the news, and then nothing else happens afterward," Broome says. "It doesn't cause the outrage or community reaction. There's a lot of quietness around [black gay AIDS], particularly around the institutions: the church, the family, even within the black community, it's not something that's talked about."

Poor media coverage of black gay men in general certainly doesn't help the cause, Broome says.

"We don't hear a lot of things that are positive around black gay men besides AIDS, so I definitely think it has shaped how black gay men socialize and how they see themselves," Broome says. "There's not a lot of affirming things that are in the media about being black gay men. We hear about the downlow, about the church stigma and double lives and I don't see how that helps black gay men see themselves [in a better light]."

Katina Parker, media manager for communities of African descent for the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, says that the media depiction of black gay men has not been well rounded.

"Far too often we've seen media outlets irresponsibly and inaccurately paint black gay and bisexual men with a broad brush as deceitful boogeymen," Parker said in a statement. "I think that any media discussion about HIV and AIDS prevention within LGBT communities of color needs to explore these and other stereotypes that continue to reinforce an insidious closet for black gay and bisexual men."

ALTHOUGH IN AGREEMENT that the mainstream media have not adequately covered the issue of AIDS in black gay men, black gay leaders question whether niche publications have appropriately handled the subject.

"I think the black media does it best," Wilson says. "I think there's a concerted effort on the part of the black media to cover AIDS in general and to be inclusive of the black gay male community."

If black media outlets have been covering AIDS in black gay men, Simmons has missed it.

"Black media is focusing more on HIV, but again they're not focusing on gay men," Simmons says. "I have yet to see black media do something solely on black gay men."

The lack of coverage led Simmons to found the National Black Gay Men's Advocacy Coalition, a new lobbying non-profit group for black gay men. The group will not use government funds, Simmons says.

"We can lobby and advocate and not have to look over our shoulder or look out how the government funding is going to react," Simmons says.

Wilson says if the mainstream media are going to change how black gay men are depicted, then gay media outlets must lead the way.

"I do think there's a crucial role for the gay press as a bridge press between the black press and the mainstream press," Wilson says.

"Every time the gay press perpetuates the notion that gay equals white by portraying a gay community that is all white, that undermines the reality of our community and it makes it particularly difficult to talk about HIV/AIDS because the gay press is a forum where the black gay men have a potential to have some visibility," Wilson says.

060601
WB060601

Always watch for outdated information. This article first appeared in 2006. This material is designed to support, not replace, the relationship that exists between you and your doctor.

AEGiS presents published material, reprinted with permission and neither endorses nor opposes any material. All information contained on this website, including information relating to health conditions, products, and treatments, is for informational purposes only. It is often presented in summary or aggregate form. It is not meant to be a substitute for the advice provided by your own physician or other medical professionals. Always discuss treatment options with a doctor who specializes in treating HIV.

Copyright ©1980, 2006. AEGiS. All materials appearing on AEGiS are protected by copyright as a collective work or compilation under U.S. copyright and other laws and are the property of AEGiS, or the party credited as the provider of the content. .