While you haven’t heard much from the BGMLC recently, we are still doing work to benefit Black LGBT communities in the city of Philadelphia. We are in a period of re-focusing our efforts and building a stronger structure, so we can continue our work on a larger scale. We plan to do a membership drive later in the year, so we can tap into the energy and commitment others may have toward working with the BGMLC to help fulfill the organizations’ mission of improving the lives of Black gay men.

I want to share with you a few activities we’ve been involved in over the past couple of months, so you have an idea of what we’ve been up to. These activities include:

• spearheading a letter writing effort to the local STD control program to develop a better plan to address the increasing Syphilis epidemic among Black MSM in Philadelphia. This letter was successful and the STD control program has been convening regular meetings and developing a plan to provide community based organizations serving Black MSM with the support needed to do STD screening on site, versus having to refer them to city sites. It’s important for organizations who serve people of color communities to have the capacity to do as much as possible in house for our communities. This is a step in that direction.

• writing a letter to the administration of HC #1, located at Broad and Lombard Sts, to raise concerns about their treatment and care of LGBT patients. As a result, they have set up cultural competency trainings for staff and clinicians and have agreed to provide more LGBT positive materials in their lobby.

• aiding in convening a meeting along with a few other leaders representing people of color organizations to meet with the executive director and board members of Equality Forum to discuss ideas we had for greater inclusion of people of color in their panel discussions, including a specific idea for a national multi-racial panel, which they agreed to do for 2009. This meeting went well and the board appeared to be receptive to our proposals.

• hiring a consultant to do strategic planning for the BGMLC

• working to develop a structure for the LGBT People of Color Coalition.  The coalition consists of 14 organizations that are led by and serve people of color.  The coalition has executed two majorly successful events, the first being the political forum that took place in April of this year, the second was the multi cultural social at the William Way Community Center at the end of May.  The Coalition is composed of the following organizations: AIDS Services in Asian Communities (ASIAC), Asian Arts Initiative, Beta Phi Omaga Sorority, Inc, Black Gay Men’s Leadership Council (BGMLC), Black LGBT Archivists Society, The COLOURS Organization, Gay and Lesbian Latino AIDS Education Initiative (GALAEI), House of Blahnik, People with Hope Trans Conference, Philadelphia Black Gay Pride, Inc, Smoke Lilies & Jade Arts Initiative, Transmasculine Advocacy Network (TMAN), The Womyn’s Village, & Unity Fellowship Church Philadelphia.

We want the community to know that we are still here and doing the work we feel is important to communities of Black gay men and building bridges to other communities. While we’d like to do more, we realize the limits of being a small, volunteer-run grass roots organization and working toward a structure that will allow us to expand our efforts. I realize the less visible work we do may not always be known by the community, which is why as the president of the organization, I feel it’s necessary to convey this. The BGMLC plans to hold more community-wide events before the end of the year, including another Kwanzaa celebration in collaboration with other Black LGBT organizations, so stay tuned. Please continue to support the Black Gay Men’s Leadership Council in all of our current and future endeavors and if you have questions or concerns, feel free to email me at lcarson@bgmlc.org.