HIV/AIDS Disproportionately Affects Black Washingtonians

Recent news coverage has indicated that Washington, D.C., is also the HIV/AIDS capital of the USA and a story from The Edge focuses upon the fact that the situation of HIV/AIDS infection among black Washingtonians is more than twice as bad as that of the overall population. Why? In large part because of horrifically homophobic black churches that pressure men to be on the "down low" and continue to pretend that the problem of HIV?AIDS doesn't exist. In the Norfolk area a number of black churches take homophobia beyond even the extremes of Pat Robertson and the late Jerry Falwell. Like in Washington, HIV/AIDS is terrible problem in the black community. The other thing that was striking from the Edge story was that 63% of new infections are NOT among gay men. HIV/AIDS has become a heterosexual disease, yet the Bible beaters continue to flog gays as the problem. As I have said before, religion could be a force for good in the world, but unfortunately seems to do more harm than good mosy of the time. Like the Nazi Pope, too many black ministers make the problem worse through their refusal to accept that being gay is normal for some of us and not a sin. The real sin is the way religious leaders treat their fellow man. Here are some story highlights:

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As public health officials continue to express concern in the wake of a report that found roughly three percent of the District’s residents live with HIV/AIDS, the epidemic continues to exert a disproportionately high toll on black Washingtonians.

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The report, which the District’s HIV/AIDS Administration released last Monday, indicated 6.5 percent of black men in the city live with HIV/AIDS. This statistic compares with 3 percent of Latinos and 2.6 percent of white males. The report further indicated men who have sex with men accounted for 37 percent of all transmissions.

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"If you look at a city and map out all the poor areas, they are usually going to be the same areas with high HIV/AIDS rates," he said. "There’s a reason for that."Jason Bartlett, deputy director of the National Black Justice Coalition, pointed out he feels cultural homophobia is another factor that contributes to higher rates of HIV/AIDS among black gay men and MSM. Activists, HIV/AIDS service providers and even public health officials have been critical of the black church for institutionalized homophobia and what they contend is an inadequate response to the epidemic. Bartlett stressed he feels religious leaders and others have a responsibility to address these concerns.

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"Our churches, our leaders are afraid to say gay, say LGBT," he said. "When you’re afraid to say it, it’s going to affect public policy."The District’s report comes less than four years after the Centers for Disease Control released the findings of a controversial survey that found nearly half of black MSM in Baltimore, Los Angeles, Miami, New York and San Francisco tested HIV-positive.