Bay Windows - February 24, 2005
Ethan Jacobs, ejacobs@baywindows.com.

AIDS activists last week called on black ministers to end homophobia in their churches during a forum on the impact of the HIV/AIDS epidemic on the African-American community. During the discussion, sponsored by the Bayard Rustin Community Breakfast Committee, Douglas Brooks, director of evaluation and planning at JRI Health, urged ministers "to say, both on a political level and then on a personal level, to say to its children, 'Come home, you are welcome home,' to make them feel safe at home."

The Rev. Martin McLee, senior pastor at the South End's Union United Methodist Church, acknowledged that there are issues where the GLBT community and black ministers may disagree, but he asked people on all sides to try to "work in community, even when we have differences" to address the AIDS crisis.

About 100 people attended the Feb. 17 forum in the Rabb Lecture of the Boston Public Library (BPL) and the often tense relationship between the GLBT community and the black church was just one of many topics up for discussion. The Bayard Rustin Community Breakfast Committee, which organizes the AIDS Action Committee's annual breakfast to draw attention to the AIDS epidemic in communities of color, sponsored the forum in partnership with BPL in honor of Black History Month. In addition to Brooks and McLee, panelists included Dr. Valerie Stone, medical director of Mass. General Hospital's women's HIV/AIDS service program, Rep. Gloria Fox of Roxbury, Gary Daffin, executive director of the Multicultural AIDS Coalition, and Tonia Hines, access and outreach coordinator for the Boston Living Center.

The event opened with a presentation by Stone, also a board member of AIDS Action, on the current state of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Stone showed that African Americans are more likely to contract HIV than white Americans and more likely to die from it. She said while African Americans make up only 13 percent of the population in the United States, they make up 51 percent of the AIDS cases in the United States. Among people infected with HIV, African Americans are ten times more likely to die from AIDS than their white counterparts.

McLee, who heads the HIV/AIDS Committee of the Black Ministerial Alliance (BMA), initiated the debate on the black church's role in fighting HIV/AIDS by calling on AIDS advocates and health care providers to "leave the suites and come to the streets." McLee argued that they should build partnerships with black churches to reach those most at risk. He said each church has different comfort zones in terms of addressing HIV/AIDS; as an example, he said at Union United, he makes condoms available to parishioners in his office, while other churches may take a more conservative approach.

"There are other churches that are really advocating on the harm reduction. There are other churches that only use the abstinence model. That's okay, let them do the abstinence model. But the point is, there are churches that are actively involved. But until the AIDS servicing community comes to churches, [saying], 'I want to ask you if we can try this, if we can partner in this way,' you'll be surprised that pastors will say yes," said McClee.

Brooks responded to McLee's comments by arguing that the church's stance on GLBT issues has kept many AIDS service providers from visiting the churches. "Reverend McLee happens to be my pastor, and he knows that I love him very much," Brooks said. "He also knows that I challenge him, and I just have to say that as important as it is for people to be in the church, I think it's also important for people to feel safe to be in the church."

Brooks added that in the past year the black church "has been used or allows itself to be used in political ways" that have made some members of the church feel unwelcome, but he stopped short of citing specific examples. He called on the church to reach out to gay and lesbian parishioners.

In 2004, the BMA signed on as a member of the Coalition for Marriage, an organization opposed to same-sex marriage that included conservative Christian groups like Family Research Council and Massachusetts Family Institute. The coalition led the lobbying effort in favor of a state constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage. McLee, who made history in 2000 by presiding over his congregation's vote to become the first black Methodist church to welcome gay and lesbian people as full participants in the church, published a letter in Bay Windows last April urging black churches to reject homophobia, but he declined to take a position on same-sex marriage, saying, "That is not my battle."

McLee answered Brooks's comment by arguing that the gay community and the black church must put aside their differences on marriage and other issues to focus on the AIDS crisis.

"There are many churches that will welcome persons fighting this fight, but if you think that the church is going to only be a place of harm, and it's those people over there, those church folk that just won't help us, then we'll continue to be in this place where you have the gay folk here, the church folk here, South End folk with money here, South End poor folk over here, the bisexual folk over there, transgendered folk way over there," said McLee. "So the encouragement is to really begin to be in conversation and to find a place to start a common ground with the understanding that it's not always going to be total agreement on all of these many issues that we face, but certainly we can agree to be in community in ways to fight this fight against HIV/AIDS."

Stone countered that the church's stance on GLBT issues was one of the major factors keeping many in the GLBT community out of the churches. "I think the real question here when you talk about coming to the church, the church accepts everybody but for many of them they urge them to repent for things they don't necessarily want to repent for but want to keep as part of who they are and what their lifestyle's all about," argued Stone.

Daffin, who also serves as co-chair of the Massachusetts Gay and Lesbian Political Caucus, which has been at the forefront of the battle for same-sex marriage, said AIDS service providers must separate identity politics from their work to end HIV/AIDS. "Obviously I'm a very out gay man, but I don't require, when we go to work with a minister or whoever, I don't need them to accept homosexuality or change their core beliefs, their religious beliefs at all. What we need them to do is to say [AIDS] is a real problem in the community," said Daffin. "That doesn't mean we allow people to disrespect us or not have dignity, but you have to be able to step back and say, this is the issue that we're discussing, HIV."

Several of the panelists argued that in order for the black community to marshal its resources against HIV/AIDS, the community had to take ownership of the disease.

"I think it's really important for us as black people to make HIV and AIDS our issue, because this is what I believe too. I believe, because I know my people, that if we see it as ours, we will take care of our people, we will serve them, we will do whatever we need to do in order to move to eradicate this virus from our lives, to close the gaps that exist and to do what we need to do," said Brooks.

Fox, who sits on the state's Ways and Means committee, urged attendees to lobby their legislators in favor of increased funding for HIV/AIDS programs and services. Magnolia Contreras, AIDS Action's director of external affairs, urged people to come to a March 1 lobby day sponsored by Project ABLE (AIDS Budget Legislative Effort), a statewide coalition of AIDS service organizations, and Fox seconded her request.

"I'd love to see some black and Latino folks there," said Fox. "It is the people's house. Why would you pay rent and never visit?"

050224
BY050204

Always watch for outdated information. This article first appeared in 2005. 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, 2005. 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. .