bout 17 percent of gay men in Chicago are…
bout 17 percent of gay men in Chicago are HIV-positive — and half of them don’t know it.
That’s according to authorititative new estimates from the Chicago Public Health Department.
In particular, black men who have sex with men have double the HIV infection rates of white and Hispanic men, even though they don’t appear to engage in riskier behavior, Chicago health officials said today.
Their report was based on data collected last year from 570 Chicago men in the National HIV Behavioral Surveillance system.
It’s the first time Chicago health officials have used blood-testing to determine HIV infection rates in this high-risk population, said Christopher Brown, assistant commissioner of the health department’s STD, HIV and AIDS division.
Past estimates have relied solely on interviews with gay and bisexual men about their HIV status.
“What we found out pretty much confirms what we’ve known for a while,” Brown said.
See Study: Half of HIV-positive men in Chicago don’t know it
Chicago Sun-Times
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Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/07/bout-17-perce…
San Francisco tries to address HIV crisis among black gay men
A working group formed by the city of San Francisco to address the disproportionate level of HIV infections among black gay men has recommended the development of a center that would offer health services and provide a social space for this often-isolated segment of the community. The group, whose recommendations are based on interviews with black gay men and local and national HIV experts, also wants the city to offer HIV testing and prevention programs in three neighborhoods where most black men make their homes: the Tenderloin, Bayview and Western Addition. Bay Area Reporter (San Francisco)
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Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/02/san-francisco…
Black gay men seek community space in SF
Isolated not only from the larger LGBT community, but also from each other, the city’s black gay male population is seeking a place to call home.
Unlike other ethnic groups, the approximately 4,500 gay black men who reside in San Francisco do not have a central gathering place to meet, socialize and create a sense of community. The Castro is seen as a neighborhood for white gay men, and with the shuttering of the Pendulum bar several years ago, black gay men lost the last remaining gay space that catered to them.
“There is no place to socialize. It is very limited for us,” said Norman Tanner, an outreach worker with the San Francisco AIDS Foundation’s Black Brothers Esteem program who has lived in the Tenderloin since the mid-1970s. “The nightlife is not what it used to be.”
See Black gay men seek community space in SF
Bay Area Reporter, CA
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Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/02/black-gay-men…
Bias behind higher rates of HIV in black gay men?
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Gay and bisexual black men in America are the most likely people in the world to contract HIV, and community advocates say current efforts to stem the epidemic aren’t working.
“Gay black men are more likely to contract HIV than any other population in the country,” said Caudie Grissom, a counselor with Atlantabased National AIDS Education & Services for Minorities. “Even with all of our modern technology and medication, American black gay men are more likely to have HIV than people living in third world countries.”
NAESM sponsored the fifth annual National African-American MSM Leadership Conference on HIV/AIDS. Held Jan. 22-25 in Atlanta, it attracted hundreds of community organizers and activists from across the country. See Bias behind higher rates of HIV in black gay men?
Southern Voice, GA
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Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/01/bias-behind-h…
Ecuadoran Is Brain-Dead After Possible Bias Attack
The two brothers from Ecuador had attended a church party and had stopped at a bar afterward. They may have been a bit tipsy as they walked home in the dead of night, arm-in-arm, leaning close to each other, a common tableau of men in Latino cultures, but one easily misinterpreted by the biased mind.
Suddenly a car drew up. It was 3:30 a.m. Sunday, and the intersection of Bushwick Avenue and Kossuth Place in Bushwick, Brooklyn, a half-block from the brothers’ apartment, was nearly deserted — but not quite. Witnesses, the police said, heard some of what happened next.
Three men came out of the car shouting at the brothers, Jose and Romel Sucuzhanay — something ugly, anti-gay and anti-Latino. Vulgarisms against Hispanics and gay men were heard by witnesses, the police said. One man approached Jose Sucuzhanay, 31, the owner of a real estate agency who has been in New York a decade, and broke a beer bottle over the back of his head. He went down hard.
Romel Sucuzhanay, 38, who is visiting from Ecuador on a two-month visa, bounded over a parked car and ran as the man with the broken bottle came at him. A distance away, he looked back and saw a second assailant beating his prone brother with an aluminum baseball bat, striking him repeatedly on the head and body. The man with the broken bottle turned back and joined the beating and kicking.
“They used a baseball bat,” said Diego Sucuzhanay, another brother. “I guess the goal was to kill him.”
At least five calls were made to 911. As police sirens wailed in the distance, the assailants, described only as black men by the police, jumped into their maroon or red-orange Honda sport utility vehicle and sped away. Jose Sucuzhanay was declared brain dead on Tuesday after suffering extensive brain damage and skull fractures, according to law enforcement officials. He was kept on life support at Elmhurst Hospital Center, while his family decides whether to donate his organs, a law enforcement official said.
As word of the ferocious attack spread on Monday, an outpouring of anger and protest swept the city, from members of the City Council, the State Legislature and Congress; from religious, labor and civil rights organizations; from Latino and gay groups; and from the Ecuadorean and Hispanic communities.
“This won’t be tolerated,” Christine C. Quinn, the City Council speaker, said at a news conference on Monday on the steps of City Hall that drew dozens of public officials and leaders of civil rights groups. “We cannot and we will not let hate go unchecked in our city.” See Ecuadoran Is Brain-Dead After Possible Bias Attack
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Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2008/12/ecuadoran-is-…
