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. Read More »

Last week the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) reported that Blacks continue to account for the majority of new HIV infections in the United States. The statistics in the report are from 2006 and look at HIV incidence rates. Incidence refers to how many new infections are diagnosed in a year vs. prevalence which looks at the rate of HIV infection within a certain demographic group cumulatively over years.

In addition to the rates of new infections being primarily among Blacks, new HIV testing technology has also found that there are more new HIV infections occurring a year than was previously believed. The number the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has used for many years was 40,000 new infections in the US annually. However, in the August 3rd JAMA report, a new number of 56,300 estimated new infections was revealed, which is an almost 40% increase over their previous estimation of new infections annually. Read More »

“Crisis: 40 stories revealing the personal, social & religious pain and trauma of growing up gay in America” is a soon to be released book edited by Mitchell Gold that shares the personal narratives of 40 gay and lesbian persons from all over the country. A few of the interviews are with people of color such as H. Alexander Robinson (Executive Director of the National Black Justice Coalition), Alec Mapa (Actor & Comedian) and Rev. Irene Monroe (Nationally known lesbian theologian).

The book will be in stores on September 1st and can be found in Borders, Barnes & Noble and Amazon.com in hardcover for $23.95. For more information on the book, visit the website.