Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2006. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
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Washington Blade - November 24, 2006
Ryan Lee
"First, we must eliminate the stigma, discrimination and marginalization faced by many black gay men, and other men who have sex with men," said Robert Fullilove, associate dean for minority affairs at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University.
"A lot of what animates the sexual behavior [of black gay and bisexual men] is a sense of shame - it's subversive, it's secretive, it's hidden, it's rushed, and in that sense it's not safe," said Fullilove, who authored the study on behalf of the National Minority AIDS Council.
Black gay men continue to be the population hardest hit by HIV/AIDS, and with churches and other community institutions fostering homophobia, many "approach their sexual lives with a certain level of fatalism," Fullilove said.
"The sense has been when [black gay men no longer feel shamed], you're going to see folks who are more willing to take care of themselves," Fullilove said.
Blacks make up 13 percent of the U.S. population, but accounted for 51 percent of all new HIV/AIDS diagnoses in 2004, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention. Among blacks, men comprise 63 percent of new HIV/AIDS diagnoses, with gay and bisexual men accounting for 49 percent of HIV/AIDS diagnoses among black men.
Several studies also show that the prevalence rate of HIV/AIDS among black gay men is twice as high as that of gay white men, Fullilove noted.
Despite the significant toll HIV/AIDS is taking on black gay men, there is only a single prevention program specifically targeting black gay and bisexual men that is included in the CDC's list of "effective behavioral interventions."
"The federal government must aggressively invest in implementing additional interventions for this population, which has diagnoses rates twice that of white [gay and bisexual men]," Fullilove said.
But improved government funding is only part of the solution to the HIV/AIDS problem facing black Americans, said Phill Wilson, founder and CEO of the Black AIDS Institute.
"Perhaps the most important factor in reducing HIV risk for black gay men is the one that receives the least attention, and that is eliminating the homophobia and related stigma, discrimination and violence experienced by many black gay men," said Wilson, who is gay.
"Research has shown, and I can verify from personal experience, that the social stigma that many black gay men feel in their daily lives for being both black and gay carries into their experiences in the healthcare system [and into their sexual behaviors]," he said.
In addition to combating homophobia among blacks, the five-point NMAC study also recommends increasing affordable housing options to help stabilize black families; increasing the rate of African Americans who receive HIV testing and treatment; and reducing IV drug use and the prison rate, and the role both play in spreading the epidemic among blacks.
"My real hope is that this is not a report that, like so many, will wind up on the shelf of some library gathering dust," Fullilove said.
The NMAC report was announced during a Nov. 16 teleconference that highlighted two of the disheartening dilemmas AIDS activists and researchers face: getting black leaders engaged in the fight against a politically and socially sensitive disease, and getting anyone to pay attention to the decimating effect of HIV/AIDS on the lives of black gay men.
One of the reasons Fullilove said he is hopeful the NMAC report will be different from previously ignored studies is that numerous black politicians have endorsed the recommendations, as have leaders from groups like the NAACP and National Urban League. All but one of the five black members of Congress scheduled to participate in the teleconference missed it due to Democratic House leadership elections.
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