Stand Up & Represent: A Special Discussion on Rebuilding Community

(Note: Here is an outline of the flow of the discussion and the information used to publicize it)

Objective 1: To identify & explain organizational and interpersonal challenges between Black Gay Pride's Official Organizers and Volunteers.”

How do we prioritize intra-community conflicts in our agenda to hold successful events? Where do we draw the line between “personal differences” and differences of principle? What does History teach us? Must the answers to such questions be decided by “the community” or left to individuals?

Objective 2: Identify key "next steps" in resolving these complex issues.

Community leaders, past & present ITLA Board members and volunteers will be present to discuss the organizational and emotional challenges of working together. Also in attendance will be Ulester Douglas, MSW of Men Stopping Violence.

Please join us Tues, 26 June @ 8PM for this very special Community Discussion.
139 Ralph McGill Blvd., 30308 Map
Please be on time. We will begin promptly at 8 and end promptly at 9.30

ALL GENDERS WELCOME.
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Thank you to everyone who showed for what for me was a productive discussion. I do not feel as though all of the concerns were addressed nor all problems resolved...but I feel hopeful and optimistic that most if not all left there with a clearer understanding of responsibility and our own individual roles in the productivity and continuity of community and organizations that serve us.

I look forward to the next meeting. (Notes on meeting coming soon!!!)
~Stephaun

POC & Public Health

I was just in Piedmont Park (Atlanta Pride) today and yesterday for 8 hrs each doing Hep Vaccinations, and a pure travesty and epiphany actualized itself right in front of me. We gave out 196 vaccinations yesterday and about 130 today, and the vast majority were white people. So you are probably wondering where my issue lies? With the fact that the majority of the people of color (regardless of gender) who walked by our booth didn't feel like Hepatitis was important to them to even receive information about the vaccine, let alone receive the FREE vaccination. Public Health is one of the only entities in this country that exists that mostly EVERYONE will have to come into contact with in some capacity or another for one reason or another. The fact that our people and our community is disproportionately affected by SEVERAL diseases and yet enough of us aren't concerned and doing something about it is very disturbing. Some of us sit very posh and on this "platform" as if we are immune to everything including death itself. Some of us are so concerned about "making it hot" or "just getting by" without regard to our of decisions impact our lives in the future and the current conditions of this community.

I have been in community building and activism as well as public health for well over 10 years total, and it was only recently that I accepted a position with an agency where I am actually being paid a salary to do this work. Prior to, I was making it hot in the community voluntarily and with the passion and force like I WAS being paid. I don't assume everyone will take up stock and responsibility as I have, or even close....I would like to impress upon people that caring and loving yourself is of the utmost importance to living a healthy quality life. I challenge everyone to love yourself a little more each day....just because something might not be affecting you now, doesn't mean it wont in the future.

I apologize for my tirade, but sometimes the attitudes of some in the community take me there.

Making a Comeback!!

THE RETURN OF BROTHERHOOD TO ATLANTA

Since 1992, no other entity in Atlanta, Georgia has impacted the lives of so many brothers than Second Sunday. With its roots at the home of Maurice O'Brian Franklin at the Ralph McGill Place Apartments, this organization has empowered, shifted, and refined the minds, hearts, and consciousnesses of many black gay or same gender loving men. For more information on their history visit Second Sunday History.

I am elated about the notion this organization is becoming active again. The past 2nd Sunday (June) marked the reemergence of this group, and what better way to do it than to have real conversations about some of the concerns and thoughts that many of us have had recently. The passing of J. Lawrence Warren, how personal choices of confidentiality of HIV/AIDS impacts us as a community, and what we can do to better support each other in this process. I would not be at all forthcoming if I didn't mention that this past meeting was emotionally charged.

I look forward to working with the group to help improve the flow of our community. Like my grandmother always says, "If you ain't part of the solution, then that means your part of the problem..."! So check out the website and come out and support. With a preliminary strategic plan in place, we are going to be seeking not only time and commitment from people, but also resources including financial contributions.

What Are You Connected To?

Proverbs 18:16(KJV):
"A man's gift maketh room for him, and bringeth him before great men."

This is a very powerful verse, and states that a man who presents a gift to someone will gain an audience with him. This verse can be looked at in two ways. First, some men use gifts to bribe or manipulate others for a favor that they are desiring. This verse also applies to God's gifts to men also. If we are gifted by God it will make room for us to gain an audience or favor before great men of authority. The Bible speaks of this in the New Testament as Paul, the apostle, gained an audience and the right to preach before King Agrippa (Acts 25) and other men of authority. We do not have to use gifts or money to buy our way into any situation when we have God's favor, as He will gift us with that favor and make room for us.

When I think about gifts and them making room for me, I think about a connection. A divine connection. An infinite connection. You see, in order to for a gift to make room for you, there has to be a "connection" or link to something to facilitate that process. Think about it. When you start your car to drive whatever your destination, you turn the key in the ignition then the current in the battery "connects" to the alternator to achieve the desired result of your car starting. Working in this analogy, one might say that the connection was made possible by the working "connection" of the car's electrical system or core. Imagine if you will, your core for a moment. Your inner-self or spiritual self. Your core is needed to facilitate or connect the process of you getting the desired result, much like a car's electrical system is needed in order to start a car when you turn the key.

As we individually start to examine what our spiritual gifts represent for us and how those gifts are brought forward, we can not omit that we must be connected to a spiritual center or core for the process to work effectively. In evaluating myself personally, I have started examining closely the things that I am intimately connected to as well as extracting the meaning and value they have in my life. Things like family, friends, career, education, and home are very important to me. Additionally, what I have started to notice is that constantly examining and evaluating the things that I have in my life versus the things I value is therapeutic in that I can objectively look at areas of my life that need to be amended.

So, as I close this thought, I leave you with this; as you go through life experiencing all of your challenges and successes, look at how your values and desires are intricately connected to your gifts. If you find yourself in a space where you aren't sure of your next move or even how you arrived at your current station in life....it might be helpful for you to ask yourself...

What Am I Connected To?

You Are More

You Are More

Young man you are more than your age and gender.

Young gay man, you are more than your age, sexuality and gender.

Young black gay man, you are more than your age, race, sexuality, and gender.

These are important concepts that many of us think about, but the question is do we really believe them? Do we really believe that love comes in many different forms? If creation is a reflection of the union of divinity and love, I ask then how can it be that my mere presence on this plane of existence is faulty? How can it be that we can love ourselves totally and yet hate ourselves in the same manner? How can it be that we can want the best for us, but be spiteful and jealous of the next brothers blessings? How can we speak about affirmation, community, and cultural-competence, when we barely believe in these concepts ourselves or only "practice" when its convenient? I am challenged as a older spirit because I believe that most of the disparities that exists within our community are nothing more than mirror images of ourselves and our souls.

The desecretion and destruction of our African culture does not have to consume us nor does our subconscious desire to emulate and assimilate into euro-centrisism have to be cause for us as a people to continue to embrace being marginalized as a culture. In a affirming discussion that I was a part of last night, one of the things that the young brothers felt was "missing" in our lifestyle are examples. This concept challenges me. I was honored to respond to this notion with love, strength, truth, and history; my response is simply "Be The Example". I find it really interesting when I hear many gay black men say they there arent many examples of how to "do this" or "live this lifestyle". As pioneers, inventors, visionaries, and prophets of many (if not most) of the greatest things in the history of the world, we have never really had an "example". Does this mean however that we should give up the fight? If everytime we gave up on a plight because the road was too long or too rough, where would we really be as a culture?

I started off by saying "You are more than...." because I truly believe that. Not because I wanted your attention and your ear.....but because history has shown me so.

Serosorting Risk Can Be High

Greetings Community Members:

This is very important to take note! There are too many people who are walking around under a "false" sense of their HIV status because they lack understanding of the "3 month window period". If you get tested, please understand that there is a window period of approximately 3 months, so any potential contraction of HIV within the past one to two months of you being tested may or may not show up!!! To put it simply, an HIV test will not truly detect whether you are in fact HIV negative at the time you are taking it!! My recommendation is that you follow up with a test at least 3 months after your last date of possible exposure to HIV, and while waiting for the 3 months to elapse, either refrain from sexual activity or use condoms 100% of the time so the window period is not disrupted. Please read the article below for more information......IF YOU ARE A HEALTH EDUCATOR OF HIV COUNSELOR YOU SHOULD BE INFORMING YOUR CLIENTS OF THIS 3 MONTH WINDOW PERIOD CONSISTENTLY!!!

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Read More

May 25, 2007

'Serosorting' Risk can be High
(AIDSmeds.com)

by Tim Horn

The practice of choosing to only engage in unprotected sexual activity with partners of the same HIV serostatus has been viewed by some public health experts as an effective HIV prevention tactic. But a new analysis, employing a mathematical model, suggests that this practice, known as serosorting, may actually be associated with an increased risk of HIV infection, largely due to recently infected individuals still thinking and disclosing that they are seronegative.

As is discussed in an article published in the February/March 2007 issue of POZ, many people living with HIV have based sexual and romantic choices on serostatus since the beginning of the epidemic. In recent years, an official term for this behavior was coined by prevention experts and is frequently used in the scientific literature: serosorting.

Same-status, or seroconcordant, partnering can alleviate pressures around issues like stigma, disclosure, and transmission fears. While serosorting is not uncommon among HIV-positive and HIV-negative individuals seeking out long-term romantic partners, it is also frequently practiced among people seeking out specific sexual activities, such as condomless sex with short-term partners. In fact, the latter concept is now supported by the San Francisco Department of Public Health (SFDPH) as an effective HIV prevention tactic, while other urban health departments, from Seattle to Denver to New York, are currently researching the potential of serosorting to drive down new infections.

SFDPH predicts that new HIV infections among men who have sex with men (MSM) citywide will be about 20% lower in 2006 than in 2001. The department attributes the phenomenon primarily to serosorting, which studies show has been on the rise among MSM in the Bay Area since the late 1990s.

In November, SFDPH began a highly visual print and Web campaign featuring silhouettes of naked men embracing in erotic poses with their HIV status branded on their shoulders, with a caption reading, "Status-Sorting is a Prevention Strategy."

But according to a research letter in the May 31 issue of AIDS by David Butler, MD, and Davey Smith, MD, of the University of California, San Diego, effective serosorting – as a method of preventing HIV transmission, at least among HIV-negative individuals seeking unprotected sexual activity with other HIV-negative individuals – is highly dependent on a key variable. "If other prevention methods, such as latex condoms, are not employed with every sex partner but only with those having a discordant serostatus, then knowing the true HIV status is imperative," they write. "Without lying, some HIV-infected individuals may mistakenly believe they are not infected and disclose as 'HIV negative'."

Because the effectiveness of serosorting depends upon accurate disclosure, Drs. Butler and Smith conducted some mathematical modeling to calculate the risk of transmission from 'HIV-positive' versus 'HIV-negative' disclosers to someone who is not infected and not using condoms. The modeling took into account two, often overlapping, factors that can work against serosorting: undiagnosed infections and infectivity by stage of infection.

Individuals who incorrectly disclose as 'HIV negative' are either chronically or recently infected. Although standard antibody tests diagnose chronic infection with a very low false-negative rate, acute disease – the first several weeks of the infection phase – cannot be diagnosed by standard HIV testing until after detectable antibodies have been produced. Individuals may erroneously believe themselves to be uninfected after a negative antibody test result, or if they haven't had a recent antibody test, and disclose themselves as 'HIV negative' to sexual partners when, in fact, they are highly contagious.

During the period of recent HIV infection, individuals typically have a much higher viral load than they do for most of the time that they are infected, and the viral load has been shown to correlate with infectiousness. During acute infection, which lasts approximately six to eight weeks, infectiousness is probably greater than at any other time. Infectiousness, however, can remain elevated for up to 25 months after infection. .

According to Drs. Butler's and Smith's mathematical model, as the proportion of recently infected potential sex partners in a population increases, the effectiveness of disclosure for preventing HIV transmissions by serosorting decreases. In certain "high-risk" populations and settings, there may be a significant percentage of people who believe they are negative but are instead in the early throes of HIV infection. In turn, HIV-negative individuals may actually face a lower risk of infection upon having unprotected sex with someone who is admittedly positive (and most likely in the chronic stage of infection with a lower viral load), compared to someone who claims to be negative.

"The effectiveness of serosorting on the basis of mutual disclosure of perceived HIV status is a flawed strategy for reducing sexual transmissions of HIV when it does not consider the prevalence of recent HIV infections in specific populations," the authors conclude. "Importantly, the individuals at greatest risk of HIV infection predictably belong to these very groups having the greatest proportions of recently infected people. By ignoring the increased potential for HIV transmission by recently infected individuals, serosorting may paradoxically increase the number of new HIV infections in certain populations."

Source:

Bulter D, Smith D. Serosorting can potentially increase HIV transmissions. AIDS 21(9):1218-20, 2007.

A Risen Star

This blog post is in memory of Jesse Lawrence Warren who passed away Monday, May 28th, 2007 at approximately 10:00pm. (Click here for the press release published by ITLA)

J. Lawrence Warren III, was a very powerful brother who would command attention when he walked into a room, insight thought and consideration in many, and even provoke emotion and energy from the most reserved. "L" as he was commonly referred, was a community activist and social justice leaders. He believed in the empowerment of all people regardless of sexuality and ethnicity, but especially for young black gay men. Lawrence Warren's passion was further fueled through his leadership of an organization in Atlanta, Georgia called MBK, Inc. in the year 2000 (from an earlier incarnation called My Brothaz Keeper founded by Kieron Williams, Kevin Bynes, Craig Washington, Ulester Douglas, and Duncan Teague) with a focus of providing a safe space to young black gay men ages 25 and under.

I had the pleasure of working with "L" in this venture during this time of new beginnings in my capacity of Executive Director and then later Chairman of the Board of Directors. I am confident that Lawrence's impact on the Atlanta community has brought many people together from different social circles and that his long lasting passion to see our community free of oppression, is a fight that will still continue in his and many of the other names' that have gone on before us. I pray for the family and community that they heal from his loss and begin to move on with their lives.

I look forward to the many discussions and meetings that his passing has brought forth. It is of course unfortunate that someone has to pass away in order for many of us to come together, but as I have often told my kids, some of us don't realize the power we have or the power of others until they are no longer here. I want to personally thank In The Life Atlanta and the Vision Church of Atlanta for all they have done in support of this young brother. I appreciate all of the kind words and statements that have been made by various community members. Anyone can blurt out negativity, but it takes a person of true integrity and wisdom to see past the personal feelings you have towards someone and see the "God" in them.

Lawrence, you will be missed brother. I look forward to seeing you on the other side at the throne of grace next to the Father.

Psalm 23 (KJV)

1The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.

2He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.

3He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.

4Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

5Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.

6Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.

~End.