Posted on August 28, 2013
Source: Huffington Post
For decades, Bayard Rustin has been one of the least known, yet prolific, contributors to the civil rights movement. Rustin served as the brains behind the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, managing to coordinate and promote the event in just two months. But, as a gay man, Rustin was kept in the shadows by the homophobia of both his enemies and his allies at the time.
Today marks the 50th anniversary of Rustin's effort to collectivize a racial and economic rally that became a watershed moment for contemporary civil rights. Rustin emblemizes both a contemporary and historic fight for racial equality, which is now accompanied by a quest for economic justice, as well as gay rights. If alive today, Rustin would presumably recoil at the fact that Black gay men represent one the demographics most heavily impacted by HIV and suffer the greatest disproportionate burden of the disease.
The level of investment in HIV services targeting Black gay and bisexual men has never adequately reflected the burden of the epidemic borne by this community. What's more, there has been precious little quantitative research done on either the efficacy of programs that target Black gay men, or the true scope of service needs for them. As part of our RISE Proud initiative to highlight the HIV prevention and care needs of Black gay and bisexual men in the United States, the National Minority AIDS Council (NMAC) partnered with Dr. David Holtgrave from John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health to quantify both the scale of unmet needs within the community, and the level of investment necessary to adequately match the scope of the crisis. The research was supported by the Ford Foundation and provided some startling but critical insights. An article, outlining the findings, has been published in the most recent issue of AIDS and Behavior.
