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AIDS.gov recently attended the Black Gay
and Bisexual Men’s ***/AIDS Summit “
Putting the Pieces Together.”
Convened by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
We spoke with Dr. Timothy Harrison, the meeting facilitator
and a cross-section of panelists
who spoke at the meeting.
We're here today to discuss ***/AIDS and its impact.
The questions and issues affecting black gay and bisexual men.
We brought together a number of stakeholders
from community, from research and from government
-- state local and federal and we're here
to discuss some solutions.
What we talked about in today's meeting were three main
areas of concern: biomedical advances,
stigma and structural determinants of health,
and capacity building within communities.
So for black gay bisexual and other men who have sex with men
factors such as racism homophobia and poverty
as well as *** related stigmas solely based on ***
as a bad outcome in society can have very detrimental
outcomes for the health of these men.
The panel discussion was about capacity building
for organizations and for health departments
and what can be done to help agencies actually sustain
themselves as they transfer from *** prevention
to comprehensive, inclusive, black mens' health.
The panel talked about four difference categories:
tips, tools, techniques, and talents.
What that would actually mean to change the landscape
as we go from more of a public health model to a clinic
or medical- based model and how we can actually shift
to make sure that black men are at the center
of those health ideas and that they come into a safe,
secure, and nurturing environment for their health care needs.
Now more than ever there are all kinds of ways
that people can protect themselves against ***, number one.
And for people that are infected they're more incentives
to start treatment early the treatments are better than ever
and the treatments are less cumbersome than ever
so there's really a lot at stake for people to know their status
and to be able to engage in health care system.
There are many community based organizations around the country
that can provide support for people and I strongly urge people
who are watching us today to think about your individual behaviors
and think about where you can get support.
There's a group of committed people who care;
we need you to make this end;
we can end AIDS today if we all decide to do four simple things.
We want you to get the facts; know the facts; use the facts;
and share the facts.
For more information on *** and the national response
visit AIDS.gov.
To join in on the conversation follow blog.AIDS.gov.