Bay Area Reporter - September 21, 2006
Katie Dettman

Lee's (D-Oakland) proposal came during a morning forum that she hosted at Oakland's Merritt College called "Getting Real: A Forum About HIV/AIDS in the African American Community."

The event was billed as: "an open and honest discussion on HIV/AIDS in the African American community, vulnerable populations, high risk sexual behavior, men having sex with men, and the role of the faith community in addressing this HIV/AIDS pandemic in our communities."

Lee hosted a panel of speakers that included: Sheryl Lee Ralph, artist and HIV/AIDS educator; Cynara Chatman-Dillon, educator and HIV test counselor; Dr. D. Mark Wilson, assistant professor of ministry and congregational leadership at Pacific School of Religion; Roosevelt Mosby, executive director of Sexual Minority Alliance of Alameda County; and Bishop Dr. Yvette Flunder, senior pastor at San Francisco's City of Refuge United Church of Christ.

When George Herring, president of Merritt College, introduced Lee as the only member of Congress to vote "no" to approving President Bush's resolution to launch his war on terror in September 2001, the crowd of 70 or so attendees stood and applauded her for over two minutes.

Lee welcomed the panelists and organizations present, and spoke about her two new pieces of HIV/AIDS legislation û H.R. 2553, the Responsible Education About Life Act, and the Stop STIs in Prisons Act.

H.R. 2553 will create a grant program that allows states (currently prohibited from receiving federal funding for sexual education and prevention programs that do not adhere to the Bush administration's mandated abstinence-only-until-marriage doctrine) "to implement a comprehensive approach to sex education that includes information about both contraception and abstinence."

The Stop STIs in Prisons Act will allow community organizations to distribute condoms in U.S. prisons, where the rates of HIV and hepatitis C infections are on the rise.

According to a news release on Lee's Web site, African Americans account for nearly 50 percent of all people in the U.S. living with HIV/AIDS, even though they represent only about 12 percent of the total population. African American women also account for nearly 70 percent of new infections among women, and AIDS is now the leading cause of death for African American women between the ages of 25 and 34.

Lee spoke of the need for help from churches in the fight against the HIV pandemic in the African American community. "Black clergy is critical and key û this is where a majority of our people are," said Lee.

Lee is co-chair of the Congressional Black Caucus Global AIDS Task Force. In Alameda County, over 60 percent of HIV diagnoses in women occur in the African American community. In 1998, Alameda County was the first in the country to declare a state of emergency on HIV/AIDS among African Americans.

Ralph, who recalled watching men dropping dead from AIDS on Broadway 25 years ago, said: "We sat back, we let it be okay because 'they' û gay people û were dying ? We took comfort in sitting in judgment because it was a gay white man's disease. Because we let it be okay, now look who it is. The same way they didn't come to the aid of gay people is the same way they're not coming to the aid of black people 25 years later."

Chatman-Dillon, who was diagnosed with HIV in 1993 days after her husband died from AIDS, gave an impassioned account of her struggles with discrimination because of her HIV status.

"Why haven't we marched on Washington, when it's women that are dying like flies?" she asked. "This auditorium should be packed with people. But nobody wants to own it, this disease."

Flunder spoke of the 149 people she has buried in the last 25 years at the hands of HIV and AIDS. Her former husband, Charles Flunder, was diagnosed and died in the early 1980s.

"I did not test positive and people say 'by the grace of God,' but that implies that people who did test positive do not deserve the grace of God," she said.

Flunder spoke of the challenges that the African American community faces in dealing with the HIV/AIDS pandemic that is ravaging their community. "We are our greatest enemy in this struggle," she said. "Religion is not a friend in many places to the stopping of HIV and AIDS. Our first struggle is fear. [Church people] are the most fearful people on the planet."

If the clergy and churches took the lead in removing the punitive aspects of getting tested and treated, people would be more likely to do so, she explained.

"The church has got to be a safe place to land. It's our time. Something has got to be done about our taking a prophetic role again. A prophet is the one who goes before and speaks truth to power and says difficult things. Barbara Lee is a prophet. Cheryl is a prophet. A prophet's life is a dangerous life because you move out in places where nobody comes with you. And you stand in that truth until people get it. You just keep on telling that truth because it came from God," Flunder said.

Flunder's church, City of Refuge United Church of Christ, offers free rapid-HIV testing services.

Wilson concurred with Flunder's statements, sharing his experiences as a gay man in the Baptist church. He is considered to be one of the first African American gay men and pastors ever to be "out" in a traditional African American Baptist church.

He asked that all clergy in the audience raise their hands, and three people did. "Where are the clergy?" he asked. He described a "message of fear" that is created in the Baptist church. "There wouldn't be a secret community unless we encouraged it with our teaching," he said. "I don't know if we're really going to get the black church on board."

Roosevelt Mosby of SMAAC also spoke, and gave each attendee a CD put out by Ambassadors for Change, called Healing is for You . The CD features gospel songs and messages that encourage HIV testing, treatment, care, and prevention. His goal is to use the CD to reach out and have 100,000 people get tested by December 1, which is World AIDS Day.

"As a gay black man, I need to go back to the church. The church cannot do it without me. And I cannot do it without the church. We're going to have to be uncomfortable," he said.

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