Other Faces Of AIDS

You You You You You You You You You You You Presentation of other faces of AIDS has been made possible in part by a grant from the corporation for public broadcasting You

And the next five years they're going to be a lot of people who are going to die There are too many dying more than 50,000 already Some of the names have been used to form this quilt, but it's a cover that cannot protect us from the chill of their disease AIDS acquired immune deficiency syndrome So far everyone who gets it dies, but who gets it? Is it primarily white homosexual males? For years, that's what many believed As a black gay man man who's actually been involved for a long time I have to be honest when the epidemic first hit in my gut What I said to myself was thank God is them

But thank God for a change. It's not us. It's always us But now we know that's not true. This disease does not discriminate. There are other faces of AIDS AIDS has always been a disease of them not us those homosexuals those drug addicts not people like you and me Whole communities turn their back on the epidemic and said that it just couldn't happen to them Chief among those that denied the possibility where America's black and Hispanic communities minorities But as you will see in the next 60 minutes that denial has already cost thousands of lives Threatens thousands more and should serve as a warning to the rest of America. I just woke up one day and the muscles hit an actor I have to feed it in such a way that I couldn't stand and so I

Said well, it's time to go to the hospital when I got here. They said that I was in really bad shape I thought that I was so clean so unique and different from everyone else And that goes to show that you're not that disease have no particular person You know you don't have to be a dirty person to have AIDS and our pediatric AIDS clinic 95% of our children are black I Learned in 1985 when the antibody AIDS antibody test was developed that I was positive Knowing about AIDS and having many friends who had become mysteriously all week. It didn't at that time even have the same names that It has now much much less was known Much as the death of Rock Hudson brought home the tragedy of this disease to small town America

The death of Max Robinson made black sit up and realized that AIDS is not just a disease of whites and homosexuals And homosexuals from ADC this is where I'll use tonight with Max Robinson in Chicago As the first black anchor of a weekday network evening news program Max was a symbol and role model for a generation of black men and women What are the million people had to be evacuated after one of the derail cars started leaking deadly liquid chlorine? Always a very private person Max spent his last years preparing his public for his death. I never recommended my way. I did the best I could But try to keep your integrity Because you're going to find out in life at the end. That's all you got And when Max was certain that he had the AIDS virus where the talk at his bedside Really a year before he died when he thought he was going to die the first time

And so I had never known Max to be homosexual And so the AIDS virus he had suggested he said no in my case It's a matter of promiscuity. Max did the best he could with his death With his death. It was his explicit wish That his death be used to alert African-American community to the danger of AIDS Max's famous and was famous black Whoever died of AIDS and therefore the message went all over the not only all over the country and all over the world Max's death not only made it clear that blacks were a part of the AIDS epidemic But it focused attention on the extent to which AIDS has spread in the black community It's something that cannot be ignored

I don't accept the notion that One is racist if one points out the fact that there is a disproportionate amount of AIDS cases among minorities in this nation That is a fact almost one out of three AIDS victims is black In some cities the AIDS infection rate in blacks is six times higher than in whites The minority situation in America is particularly telling for blacks 12% of the population 27% of the AIDS patients for Hispanics. It's 6% of the population 15%. If I had to Give a score To the things that most sorely affect this community age would would rank 95 at this juncture out of 100 This is the human face of those cold statistics babies

Of the almost 1500 children with AIDS 70% are black in Hispanic In large urban areas like Baltimore it's even higher Here nine out of 10 babies born infected with the AIDS virus or HIV are black These babies acquired their infection from their infected mothers They're basically poor women. They have a little identity of their own Their identity is found at either in the relationship with men who may move Around in the community who may be drug users and who are spreading HIV So far this four-year-old boy seems safe His mother, Laverne Hodges, is a recovering drug addict She became infected with the AIDS virus by sharing needles I tested HIV positive a year ago And that means that I have a disease With so far there's no known cure for it But it could be arrested if you do the right things that you need to do

And one for me is to stop using drugs, first of all And take care of myself, rest, sleep, not a lot of stress And with God's help, maybe I won't become full-blown and die I'm 34 years old I'm a recovering addict And I have two children I have an 18-year-old daughter and a four-year-old son What concerns me about that disease that I hope my son don't have it Because I use drugs when I was pregnant with them So had them tested and thank God so far he doesn't have it And I don't think that there are very many people saying to minority women You're at risk, and you're at risk for this, and this is this disease And then it's going to cause problems in your infants If you don't recognize and be tested for it That this behavior that we've sort of dismissed is a part of your life now And you need to understand how it's going to affect your children

That's not happening Sometime when you caught up in the drug world, you don't hear those things It's like we just live for danger And then I was well out, I wasn't educated about it So when a woman finds out she's infected, why would she continue to child there? One of the major factors in this is the fact that HIV is only transmitted to roughly 40% Of the baby's born to infected women So that every woman can believe she has only a 50-50 chance of transmitting this And again, human nature is to believe it won't happen to me I don't think I should have any more Because of the disease that I have, and it wouldn't make sense to try to bear another child I'll just be grateful for the two I have How is it that AIDS has become such a problem for minorities? How did it get so bad?

Well, there are a lot of reasons One is the cultural denial that the kind of sexual practices that put one at risk Are prevalent in the black and Hispanic communities People still have problems with homosexuality I mean, even though you're educated, or even though you're a clergyman, or whatever That didn't mean that you're sensitive to that particular community I'm an openly gay black man And in a lot of ways, that's really difficult Because like you said, there's like a stereotypical image of black man As a being really macho And I don't adhere to that And I've been attacked many times And it is difficult There's a lot of homophobia in the black community And I have sat in barber shops all over this country All my life and have heard some of the most homophobic conversations Real men don't, etc, etc, etc

And the both homophobic and anti-white They do it, you know, that's what they do We don't do stuff like that, so there's a giant kind of denial There are a number of us Who, in fact, identify ourselves as black gay men There are others who don't identify ourselves in that fashion at all That's not a part of our language That's not even part of our conscious That's simply part of our sexual expression Which is different By sexual and homosexual black men, many of them are still in the closet Whereas it's a lot easier to come out of the closet If you are white by sexual homosexual It's easier because there's a greater support mechanism We don't have the kind of support mechanisms That white gay men have A lot of the reasons why there's denial in the Hispanic community Boiled down to the fact that the disease was first described As homosexual disease

Or a disease of IV drug users The taboos that came along with those connotations I mean, there are people in the Hispanic community that are HIV infected They would rather say that they've shot up drugs for a number of years And say that they're gay or bisexual I never thought that the disease would happen to me Roberto is 40, a homosexual, and his aides This is what he looked like when he came here ten years ago From Cuba on the Mariel boat lift It may seem peculiar, but many Latin men are so macho That they don't even want to be around homicide They feel threatened by them In this sense, Latinas are still somewhat backward Roberto uses what little energy he has left To comfort others who also have AIDS There are many times in this community When parents return their backs on their sons

We've been sick with AIDS But I've always wanted to think that if my parents in Cuba knew I were sick They'd be by my side and do whatever they could for me I also have family here At first, they turned away from me But now I feel proud of them Because they are by my side And I'm helping me as much as they can Fighting this denial has become as difficult as fighting the disease itself But Tim Offord is trying We came into existence in 1985 To get the word out to the black community That AIDS is a very serious health threat to black people That it was an AIDS disease Which was simply confined to white gay men or IV drug users We also focus in on trying to provide educational resources To black gay men who were not identifying themselves With efforts at AIDS education

Which were being presented by the white gay male organizations We started doing safer sex parties Both as means of getting information out to these men But also providing an environment where for the first time They could feel comfortable talking about what it meant To be a gay person or a bisexual person within the black community It would seem to me that if you're putting lubrication On your dick and then on the condom that it would slip off during intercourse So why would you do that? I mean it's a slippery substance A lubricant that should be used are not as slippery As things like baby off The possibility of the condom slipping off does exist The component network also operates a shanty house in Chicago It's a shelter for black men with AIDS Listen to Arthur, a resident there Who chose to remain anonymous in order to protect his family

Capone has been there because I needed to place the stay I had nowhere to turn, nothing A lot of times you lose a lot of friends The only one thing I asked say if you lose a friend Because of your illness or anything Then there wasn't your friend anyway And that goes the same as a family member A family member shines away from you Don't want to be bothered with your talk to you Always tell that family member I will love you always until the end Who really cares? Who's willing to try? Who is willing to try? If you talk to people within the community They're aware When I say talk to people and you talk to leaders Talk to opinion makers These opinion leaders know what's going on But they're not willing to talk about it They're not willing to be public about it And that to me is a conspiracy And the reason from my perspective

And this is purely my own feeling about it That they're not willing to be public about it Or to talk about it Is the association that AIDS has With homosexual and bisexual behavior I think the one of all of the way they do my life Maybe one of all of the way they do my life This thing, this thing, this thing Denial is just one reason why AIDS has gotten so bad among minorities Another is lifestyle Many who live here engage in practices which invite trouble For instance, intravenous drug use Is a much bigger problem in poor and minority communities in this country Than in the white population What you're watching is self destruction A vacant house in New York City

Home to a constant stream of addicts A shooting gallery In New York City, there are 250,000 junkies People who use intravenous drugs At least half are infected with the AIDS virus And they spread it by sex and sharing dirty needles For many, the threat of eventually contracting AIDS Is overwhelmed by the immediate need to get high Their situation is so desperate because of their addiction That AIDS is secondary When the minute and the second hand come together Where the body says more dope Don't get between the addict and that fix And they don't have time to listen to anything else They're not interested in anything about AIDS Their priority is taking care of that craving Sometimes like if you're a drug addict, you see You're hurting, you want that shot of drugs And there's a needle there, you're going to use it

I can shoot noodles and bad dope and all that And in March of last year, they told me I had to hepatitis I went down to the prisonist out in Larissa And the lady down there, I forgot her name I told you, I look really bad And I had journalists, I had AIDS Each week, I feel myself getting weaker And weaker and weaker and weaker The average person right now, right here Out of us, that would go and take the AIDS test With test positive AIDS I would bet money on it I would say at least 80% Or the people right here on this corner They'd use drugs I would bet on it And it's the same We have a street out, we each chamber ourselves The New York City Department of Health And what they do is try to get the community involved Not just, because Ivy Drug users live somewhere

So that it's not trying to just influence His behavior, but trying to influence the community behavior AIDS and HIV infection, again, cannot be seen Is something that's confined to a particular community The extent that you care about the Black Ivy Drug user You also care about yourself, your children, your society And we need to care Because AIDS infected addicts have become a threat to the community as a whole They've helped to make AIDS a much more heterosexual disease in the minority community Than homosexual disease That's especially true among Hispanics and Haitians Where sexual practices also play a significant role in the heterosexual spread of this disease A lot of the cases, the majority of the cases tend to be heterosexual transmission So it's a sexual transmission to a heterosexual route

Which eventually will tend to be the norm In the nation, like it is in the other nations Where AIDS has been around for a lot longer We have a high incidence of AIDS and HIV infection also in Miami Within our community, what is acceptable in our culture Is the idea or the trend of having multiple partners At least in my country even here, the man is a macho Everybody knows that one man is able or should have more than one woman And it's not something they're doing because it's dirty, but it's part of our culture And because we know the risk of transmission, the mode of transmission of the AIDS virus Having that it is an accepted behavior to have multiple partners And it's very easy to understand why We have, it's a heterosexually transmitted virus at least in my community Dr. Trivia admits that anal sex between men and women is not uncommon here I think it's a more accepted behavior in the Latin countries Of course in Haiti also, you might have some women do practice

That behavior, but I don't think it's as popular as with Latin women And other third world countries who are mostly Spanish It's, in fact, it's a way of preserving one's virginity Virginia also, of course, one's virginity and some women like it, period The risk of possibly becoming infected with the AIDS virus Especially concerns those who view sex as a business Well, it's a death situation, there's no life But the only thing you can do is use condoms Do you? Always Do you have any condoms on you? Yes, I have two of them Three It's harder for me to get customers because of the fact that the AIDS disease I use condoms And it's not as easy as everybody on my condoms And I would never touch anybody without one

Before it was an old man's disease Now it's a man of women's disease Before it was a disease of specific sexuality I think that eventually, since it is a sexually transmitted disease, it will cross barriers Besides lifestyle and denial, there is one more crucial reason why AIDS is so rampant among minorities Many blacks in Hispanics have little or no access to the kind of healthcare that could keep them well And if you notice George, the people who have AIDS have never been in the mainstream of healthcare in America Homosexuals never have been The blacks never have been, Hispanics never have been We've got to change that Healthcare, first of all, is a luxury in minority communities, especially the black community

It's something you get when you have enough money If you don't have enough money, healthcare is the last thing you worry about Consequently, there isn't a long term established relationship with a physician You go to your local emergency unit at whatever hospital is nearby You have whatever the issue is at this very moment, taken care of Even if you're given follow-up appointments, I feel better, I don't really need to go back there Very often, the treatment is somewhat hostile Because you're coming in with this green card And look, here's another one of them, you know, coming in to deliver care So there's a lot of hostility just trying to get to the healthcare to begin with When the red flag goes up with us, we don't heed that red flag quickly enough And go to the doctor and then get involved in some kind of treatment And become diagnosed All diseases affect minorities disproportionately, it's not just AIDS Yet there are fewer doctors and fewer hospital beds where people can receive care Example, in Philadelphia, there are no public hospitals anymore

All of the medical facilities here are private Which means they don't have to take care of the poor who come to them for help In fact, the trend is to turn away those who have no money or insurance to pay for care The access is not there, because there's so much alarm about this disease What I really would like to see happen is in my meeting with the Here that these medical schools in the hospital will be to talk with them about opening up their doors Even in partnership with us, even if we have to, in some ways, subsidize them In a small way to open up certain beds, certain wings, certain facilities Within their health facilities, medical schools, hospitals for AIDS patients It is sad to say that our evidence is that probably only about a third of our patients Whether they're children or adults, are eligible for medical assistance

That even those who pay, and even those who are Medicaid eligible Only about half of their hospital rules are actually paid So there's going to be one day an awakening of the enormous unmet bills And hospitals that have been prepared to take care of these people may no longer want to do so So what's been the response to the AIDS epidemic raging in the minority community? Precious little For a very long time, no one has cared about the social conditions in these black and Hispanic communities This is like year two of this epidemic, where it's really year eight in minority communities Because you can't count the first six years No education and prevention directed to these communities ever took place before 1986 The federal government has the primary responsibility for getting the AIDS message out

Surgeon General Coop has been praised for his honest efforts But he's also been criticized because that message has not been very effective This is a behavioral disease So the weapon, the educational weapon, the only one we have has to be different We try to reach as many people as we can with as many innovative messages as we can And get as many people that could be role models and leaders talking, especially young people But the problem is bigger, we've got to attack ignorance, illiteracy and poverty Thursday night, I night out with the boys Few beers at election, sometimes we score Thursday nights That was the old me It took AIDS to make me realize that I was putting myself and my family in danger The most visible elements of the campaign have been the television public service announcements produced by the Centers for Disease Control In theory, the television spots were supposed to use our most popular medium to communicate the AIDS message to millions of us at the same time

In practice, however, it hasn't worked that well If you need to know more about AIDS and AIDS prevention, information is available Call your local AIDS hotline, or 1-800-342-8 But there are a tremendous number of broadcasters in our own experience That are very reluctant to address this issue head-on And I'm sure that with some of the messages that are out there, they're reluctant to air them in areas where they feel like they will offend the audience Some of the materials have not shown That some of the networks still have problems with, say, the condom message, for example It has not been one that they have been particularly willing to put on the air And particularly not at prime time hours I told you I could save my life just by putting on my socks You wouldn't take me seriously because life is never that simple But I can certainly see where a broadcast licensee who does not face that problem in his community

who hasn't taken the time to understand the depth of the problem Can make a decision that I happen to think is wrong, but nonetheless, I can see why they make that decision Recent congressional report slams the public health service and the Centers for Disease Control For producing ads that are so vague, they have no impact And for not pushing broadcasters to air the message during prime viewing hours We don't consider prime time to be necessary the prime time for the audiences we need to reach That's middle America time And it could very well be that the late evening hours are some of the daytime hours even are more appropriate for getting some of our ads messages out CDC is responsible in my opinion for not doing the best job possible And the White House stopped this education program I think they're guilty of murder in some ways

Because if somebody has a fact that can save your life and they don't tell you that fact I think they're responsible But the facts are so sensitive that neither the CDC nor many broadcasters felt comfortable airing them And the Centers for Disease Control is not about to put its name on things that would be considered offensive by the audience that we're trying to reach So that there are numerous compromises in terms of tone and texture and language and things of that sort To make sure that what we say carries the the appropriate message But in a way that's not going to turn off a whole bunch of viewers at the same time Well, I think it's absurd to say that the American people won't accept true facts It's easy. You look in the camera and you say to people and you have a movie star say I never thought I'd ever be talking to you about AIDS and never in my life Could I dream that I'd ever have to mention the word condom on television? So bear with me. It might save your life. You say that. People understand. They're not stupid

Besides content, there are more basic problems with the messages directed to minority communities When the public health service provides AIDS education, it gives out brochures It doesn't have pictures. It doesn't accept that they're a huge portion of the black population who cannot read That Ivy drug users don't don't pick up the New York Times so putting in, you know, articles about AIDS and safe sex and needle cleaning etc. just isn't reaching that population So when we talk about cultural sensitivities to recognize the differences to accept and recognize the differences In the various cultures that make up the country and saying all right Here's the basic message and then we'll modify that message to really reach the people that need to hear the message I think that was an age of problem three or four years ago. The communications were getting out in English A lot of the people that resorted to traditional media modes were getting the information in English if they understood English But those that did not we're not receiving anything any information whatsoever. They didn't even know what AIDS was

So the information needed to get out in Spanish in appropriate Spanish so that it would be acceptable to the lay person which had traditional Hispanic cultural values The communications gap is not just the government's fault initially Washington got little help from traditional sources like the black church My old life as a surgeon in Philadelphia when I had a deal with a problem or I wanted to reach the black community I went to the black ministers the black clergyman and they always responded

They got up in church next Sunday's and this is what you have to do But I've talked to black clergyman in Boston in New York and Philadelphia during the AIDS epidemic And as soon as you get on these two behavior problems I the drug abuse and homosexuality they look at their watchings they have gotten appointment I've not seen the organized hierarchy of the church in this country Black or white Catholic Protestant give AIDS and the the treatment of AIDS in our society The sort of priority that perhaps it may have attached to the civil rights movement or it may have attached in the early days to women's suffrage or that it may attach today itself to things such as hunger and homelessness When I started this work in 1985 there was little responsive any to AIDS

Since then I have been traveling across America and the world to speak to the issue of AIDS in the black community or AIDS in the minority communities Much of that has been to deal with AIDS and the church and what the church's responsibility was to this disease Today almost everyone in that forum has had to deal with AIDS in their church on a personal level with a member or a family member whether they called it AIDS or some other or some other cancer or something but they knew what it was and sometimes they really didn't have answers They really didn't know what to do and they needed to hear from someone who was involved So the black church is more involved and one thing I have to say in defense of the black church is that the black church is considered the center of the black community

and what we have to look at is the black church as in the black community was strapped with so many other things in this society that they have to deal with every day So it has quite an agenda to deal with before AIDS And when you look at our community one must understand that a community strapped with problems is not not looking for a new problem So that if there's any barrier they always ask me an interest if there's a barrier in my community I say there is no barrier there is concern when it comes to how much more Lord can we bear I don't believe that the black church has been fairly recognized for the power and potential it has in responding to this epidemic and many black churches have responded I think that the black church is the most positive response

and is the most productive place for us to generate a discussion around values and behavior But we in the church have got to be able to feel confident about the necessity to do that If we aren't able to talk about sexuality and drug addiction 20 years from now all the young people who we want to be the congregation members of our churches are going to be dead or so disaffected because they aren't ready for the condemnation and the moralizing that they're not going to be black church anymore The congregation in Reverend Bean's Church in Los Angeles is primarily homosexual so unity fellowship church was born out of the fact that there was all this pain all of this brokenness in and among a people of faith that already had a faith but a faith that they felt they could not exercise that they could not draw upon

because they had heard that somehow this God who made them who they are and as they are hated them for being who they are Okay No matter what is said from the pulpit and no matter what is said on television some of the messages might never get through because of an intense cultural aversion to what's being preached In our community still in the Hispanic community at least in what I've seen lately is that they still believe that the ace issue is mostly a gay disease It doesn't happen to us no I know soldiers

It is still a gay problem and it's hard to get through this message especially to the Hispanic man and make him realize that he is just as vulnerable as anyone else to get a disease The second aspect of this is the woman Hispanic woman We must have made him realize that it is just as responsible as the man to try to prevent this disease People are poor, people have problems, people are stressed out they can't pay their mortgage or their electric bill they are not going to be paying attention to the epidemic that is hitting the world, the pandemic that is hitting the world The next bubonic plague, they don't want to hear that, they are trying to find the money to put a chicken on their table The next day, I have known several African-American people who call AIDS And for a long time of course, the feminist wanted to either not admit it was AIDS or say it was acute pneumonia because of the social stigma attached to AIDS as it relates to homosexuality The fact of the matter is whether one is heterosexual or homosexual, we are all human beings

And it is a disease that there is no respect to a person's agenda So let's move beyond the taboo Some of us are awake, and it's cooler, and us decay So far, the most effective messages have been spread by community-based messengers So my family is very important Dr. Mimi Trivia is a physician born in Haiti She takes safe sex messages to beauty parlors in Miami's Haitian community We go to the beauty parlors because we're looking for the perfect environment The relaxed environment to start the dissemination of AIDS information in the Haitian community Mostly targeting the Haitian women, and we have a high incidence of pediatric AIDS Which is a more reason why we have to get to them to tell them what's happening, what's going on I tell them it's the problem, it's everybody's problem

And the reason why I target women is because I think women have to be I have to be empowered to make decisions and signal to pressures Whether from their partners or what have you Mimi's husband, Dr. Manuel Vega, takes a similar message to high schools And we give them the term retrovirus The reason why it's explained to them in this manner is so that they can start to forge an idea of a concrete element that we're going to fight against As they go through their school years and they go through the AIDS education curriculum They are going to receive the tools that they need in order to change their behaviors Which is our final outcome? That's what we want to achieve We want them to change their behaviors by the time they become sexually active So that they don't put themselves at risk Well at this point in their education, which is when they're getting started We need to pinpoint clearly who the enemy is AIDS is also a sexually transmitted container And you'll be surprised at the kids that really don't know about AIDS and their skill-tastic

The fact that they're being used is about you can get to AIDS from shaking hands You can get to AIDS from sitting around somebody if somebody cough on you You can get to AIDS But we want to give them the real facts about AIDS And we want to show them the things that they can do to prevent them You can get to the AIDS themselves Well we're into approximately eight elementary schools for junior high and for senior high schools in our area And what we're trying to do to give them a little education About it and that is way of pamphlets We do look testing with them, we show them films And we play little roles with them about AIDS On the streets of New York City, where IV drug abuse is the way AIDS is primarily spread There is project adept What we are out there to do is to give a message of AIDS prevention To tell them that you can survive with having an addiction, you're not going to survive with AIDS Basically we tell them how to protect themselves as far as using condoms As far as practice in safer IV drug use, we give them bleach kids Which include a two-ons bottle of water, two-ons bottle of bleach

Cotton a cooker where they use to cook their drugs Because if you share the water, the cooker, the cotton is not only the needle And the syringe, you're at risk of getting AIDS So the message that we give them is to learn how to sterilize all of those equipment Because in view that there's no drug treatment programs available in view That in 1972 was the last program that opened up here in New York City We have to do something, we teach them harm reduction How to safely shoot up and how to safely find a right vein whenever possible Again, we're not condoning drug abuse, we're seeing it as a way of teaching them How to not get infected and teaching them how to not spread this virus To their sexual partners, because many of them do have sexual partners The average person don't want to share needles, he only does it when there's no other choice That's the only choice left to him, it's the sharing of the needle That's why you're doing, you know, because the average person keeps his own set And he won't let nobody else use this set, you know But sometimes a guy come up to you and he's sick and you ain't got no money

And he needs a little money, you know, he'll give you a little money And you'll give him the news needle, you know, because he needed and you need the money Right now, we're dealing with an epidemic And we sort of even have to put aside drug use for now Because what's happening is young people are dying And they're not dying alone, they're taking their sexual partners and their children So yes, we say in a way, as seen as condoning drug abuse, but we don't see it like that We see it as a way of preventing the furthest spread of HIV infection To their sexual partners and to their children Talking about the kinds of things that the New York Public Health Department has done to fight this epidemic You talk about the outreach programs, but you don't talk about needle exchanges, how come? You're right, I happen I think one of the things that happens in New York City, particularly the controversial kind of things Like the needle exchange program is it becomes either or so that they say that Oh, we shouldn't have a needle exchange program, we should have just this I think with AIDS, one of the things that I have grown to understand and accept

That we've got to have in what I would call an eclectic approach And that is, let's try a multitude of things And whatever works, let it works because it'll work for some people and won't work for others But we've got to try a lot of things when we've got to try them quick We need to begin outreach industry In the street outreach, we will identify the specific populations that need more even-directed Education, transsexuals, there might be teens that are involved in sex for money Prostitution behaviors that we need to get information to that are gay-oriented There's different segments at that population And street outreach will find those segments and be able to better define our outreach efforts The street program's Curtis is referring to, are sponsored by Philadelphia's Babashi organization A group that focuses on sexual health issues affecting the black community One of the most successful programs involves the distribution of condoms in gay neighborhoods I think that you can reach a certain element of the population, the community By giving out brochures and by television programs and radios But I think it's much more one-on-one, it's much more personal

When you can hand people condoms and talk to them, why it's important to use condoms So, minorities are fighting hard against the scourge of AIDS, even though they often get little credit But to say that we haven't been doing this since day one of this epidemic Really speaks less of the fact that there wasn't any activity Is that there was this tremendous chasm that separated what the white community was doing From what people of color and especially in the black community have been doing No one really thought that the black community was involved in anything productive like this And they didn't therefore look for it I think in the last two years it's become much more clear That there have been many organizations that have been existence for some as long as five years now And unfortunately, let's be real honest, black people largely are invisible In much of this society, no matter what we do, unless we are on the five or six o'clock news Is having shot some people or robbed a liquor store or something

Unless we're one of the standouts and credits to our race kind of people Just to dry long so activities of black people in their day-to-day activities To make life better for themselves if families in their community gets ignored Since white homosexuals have presented a solid political front and had a lot of success There are now efforts to organize minority homosexuals Recently, a conference in Los Angeles brought together many of these groups from around the country And we are part of this community and it belongs to us as much as it belongs to anyone else There has been a black gay consciousness for probably 10 to 15 years for a few people

I think that that is changing in that in strategic places What I call miracles are happening It's significant that the minority AIDS project has evolved out of a black gay consciousness Even the black gay lesbian leadership forum is significant Because the forum exists not because we're angry at nine gay people And not because we're angry at non-black people The black gay lesbian leadership forum exists because we've decided that we can empower ourselves It's developing those alliances with both non-black gay organizations And non-gay black organizations and politicians and decision makers and power brokers Our relationships with politicians and learning to lobby and understand what living is about Training our community on the importance and the psychology of giving

And the fact that if you want an institution to thrive You need to support that institution, you need to support it by being there And by paying the expenses that are required to support that institution Good morning, good morning Larry Ellis heads a group called Life Link Life Link is the people with AIDS coalition in Washington DC It was formed about 20 months ago by myself and four other people living with AIDS We have lost one of our co-founders since We came together, I think, out of anger We saw racism, sexism, elitism Clicchism, clicchness, whatever, a selectiveness and who got help And we had to respond We saw too many people going without, particularly people who did not advocate well for themselves We saw that the biggest area of need is that many people were going without the know-how To get good medical care, to get social security benefits, to get Medicaid, to get food stamps

So we designed a service program, mainly around social service benefits And then we kicked in a very strong AIDS education speaker's bureau component As the AIDS epidemic continues to spread, there is a question Whether leaders in the minority community are fighting AIDS With the same fervor as they have fought for civil rights Almost five years ago, I began an effort with some other people across the nation to talk about this To do public service announcements, to appear on television, to hold hearings where possible And I'll be quite honest with you, a lot of people did not understand why there was some utility in doing that Why are you doing this?

It was slow in picking up the banner and beginning to wave it and talking to people about the impact that the virus had made In the black community and it was just believed by a number of people The black community has not been forthcoming historically I'm dealing with issues of sexuality And if we're not talking about the problems associated with heterosexual behavior And if we're dealing with a disease which is being transmitted primarily in this country at least By homosexual behavior, we're certainly not going to talk about that The whole society has caught on slow And last time to lift everybody up to a full level of full clutches I'm glad, for example, to President Bush, next steps this crisis as being as broad-based as it is As willing to invest money in age research The old myths about you can't throw money after it don't hold up in this case

This is a public health matter and you cure it by throwing money at it By making sure you've got the best people to do the best research to yield the best results And today, community-based organizations and minorities are fighting for the dollars To provide programs for their own people There's no question about there's been a huge change in the attitudes Each group, whether they're gay, white men or gay, black men or IV drug users And their advocates or community advocates such as myself We're having to say you've got to take care of our group And so what it does is pit one part of the community against another So that we're actually diverted from unity to face the federal government To face our state local governments to say we, the community are suffering from this illness They are literally pitting against one another Based on how the money is going to be divided Biggest lesson that I think has been learned from some of our past efforts Is that if you're going to reach minority people

You need to involve the minority community in doing that I think that our efforts now to fund more community-based organizations to do prevention activities Is reflection of that? Partnership is obviously going to be the key To making sure that minorities get all of the information as quickly as they can But information without a commitment of long-term resources Simply raises people's expectations It's no longer just education and prevention It's not how we're going to care for these people who are homeless Who are poor? Who don't access Medicare and Medicaid appropriately There are a whole range of much broader issues One of the greatest dangers we face in addition to the rejection of blacks and Hispanics with AIDS Is to have society say AIDS is its own industry We cannot let it get out of the mainstream of public health

We should be concerned about blacks and Hispanics Who have AIDS? Because they're blacks and Hispanics who are sick Not because they have AIDS I'm in pain day and night, morning to evening I don't want to die with these AIDS I really don't Our greatest fear is that it will still be a detached Detached disease in terms of the way we view it And that too many people will continue to say, well, I know it's there I know it's devastating and yes, it's terrible But it's someone else's disease It's America's disease and its cure will be an American cure Every child who dies from this disease diminishes us a little bit more Every adult who dies diminishes us a little bit more

And therefore we have a mandate to address all these issues if we can But we cannot work from the top down, we have to work from the bottom up I'm convinced of that Few people are very optimistic that the AIDS crisis in minority communities will ever be overcome One reason is that AIDS is just another problem that's been heaped onto this community And it's not even the most pressing one Homicide is the number one health problem here And finding sufficient food, shelter and health care Are much more immediate concerns than AIDS Since no one has ever found a way to solve those day-to-day problems How could one expect any progress on something like AIDS? Well, we've seen a number of community groups who are trying and having some success Because they understand that solving the AIDS crisis First means solving the other human problems here like poverty, discrimination and drug abuse And wouldn't it be ironic if AIDS, this so-called modern-day plague

forced us to finally find solutions to those problems that have plagued America for decades You take it all, make me want to harm the way they do my mind Make me want to harm the way they do my mind This ain't never this I live No, no, baby, it's a sad living, no, no, no, no Flation, no chance to increase Violence builds my mind, it's kind of hard

Setting that more off today Presentation of this program has been made possible in part By a grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting For a transcript of this program, send $4 to other faces of AIDS Maryland Public Television, Oings Mills, Maryland, 21117 Residents of Maryland please add 5% sales tax Here we go MATTHEW