GEORGIA: "AIDS Finds a Hidden Niche in Georgia"

GEORGIA: "AIDS Finds a Hidden Niche in Georgia"
Atlanta Journal-Constitution (08.17.08):: Craig Schneider

The number of Georgians with HIV/AIDS leaped almost 27 percent from 2004 to 2007, reaching a cumulative total of 32,740 people, the state Division of Public Health reported recently. And those infected are increasingly younger, rural, black or female, and harder to reach with services and prevention messages, say health officials and advocates.

Homophobia in rural and black communities has often kept HIV/AIDS out of churches and schools, according to advocates, and disease-related prejudice still persists. Prevention messages geared to white, urban gay men do not resonate with rural and African-American audiences, they note.

In 2006, 71 percent of Georgians with HIV/AIDS were black, though African Americans account for about 30 percent of the state's population. Of the newly diagnosed, 79 percent were African American.

Silence, shame, and stigma are an "unholy trinity" preventing many African Americans from getting screened for HIV, said the Rev. Raphael Warnock, senior pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta.

A 39-year-old HIV-positive southwest Atlanta man, Hartsel Shirley, said fear of being exposed kept him from seeking care. "If you're black and a gay man, you're not even looked at as a man," Shirley said. "If you have HIV, you're almost not human."

Reaching gay men in rural areas, where they have few public gathering places, is so difficult that Lola Thomas, executive director of the Cartersville nonprofit AIDS Alliance of Northwest Georgia, virtually gave up trying. "We've stayed away from gay and bisexual men," she said. "They're much more difficult to target." The group focuses more on emergency assistance, financial help, transportation, and counseling.