By Lee Carson
The Black Gay Men’s Leadership Council is a local volunteer-run nonprofit organization founded in September 2005 to give a greater voice to the concerns and needs of black gay men and the black GLBT community at large in the city of Philadelphia. The mission of the BGMLC is to use advocacy, education and community collaborations to empower Philadelphia’s diverse communities of black gay men by focusing on their social and political advancement and health and wellness needs, while developing local, regional and national leaders.
Since our inception, we have worked diligently to fulfill the tenets of our mission. A few examples of our advocacy efforts include when we publicly expressed our concerns last summer about an HIV-testing media campaign developed by Philadelphia’s AIDS Activities Coordinating Office that contained what we thought to be culturally insensitive and inappropriate imagery featuring black men in the cross hairs of a gun with the tagline “Have YOU Been Hit?” As a result of our advocacy on this issue, we met with the city’s health commissioner about our concerns and developed a relationship with the Philadelphia Department of Health and, more specifically, AACO.
Out of this relationship came a small funding opportunity from AACO, which we used to implement several health-awareness initiatives.Additionally, in October 2006 the BGMLC sent two letters of support to Paul Vallas, former CEO of the Philadelphia School District, supporting the district’s decision to designate October LGBT History Month.In relation to education, our health and wellness committee organized a black gay men’s research summit and several workshops focused on black gay men’s health during the National LGBTI Health Summit held in Philadelphia in March. In December 2006, in collaboration with COLOURS, we conducted a Kwanzaa health and wellness event held at the African American Museum. At this event, we implemented a needs assessment to gain a better understanding of health information attendees felt they wanted to learn more about in relation to their bodies and general health needs. We plan to use this information to develop specific workshops and educational seminars.We have engaged in several successful collaborations with other community organizations.
In November 2006, we partnered with the Philadelphia Health Management Corporation to co-sponsor a community event at City Hall to disseminate study findings from the Black Men’s Health Survey (BMHS). The survey is the largest study ever done on the lives, experiences and HIV-prevention needs of black men who have sex with men in Philadelphia. We felt it important to make sure the findings of this study were reported back to the community of men from whom the data was collected. In February, we partnered with the Gay Men’s Leadership Academy to convene a retreat in the Pocono Mountains with a group of racially diverse gay and bisexual men with the goal of working toward the creation of a comprehensive gay men’s health agenda.his month, the BGMLC is launching its Web site www.bgmlc.org.
One of the main interactive features of the site is a blog, where we will post current newsworthy topics related to black GLBT communities locally and nationally. The site will also feature a calendar where visitors can view community events. Additionally, the site will contain resources on regional and national documents such as the Philadelphia LGBT community assessment report (2006) and the National Youth Homelessness report (2006). Also, interested parties can contact us through the site about membership.We are excited about providing this great new online resource for the metropolitan Philadelphia community. We hope you will stop by our site to visit and see what it has to offer. If you are interested in learning more about who we are, the site includes a history section with photos of the founders and a link to our timeline document, which details our creation and evolution as an organization.Lastly, the membership of the BGMLC wishes you a safe and happy pride!
Lee Carson is chair of the Black Gay Men’s Leadership Council. © 2007 Lee Carson