HIV/AIDS, Racism, and the LGBT Community

A report this week from the Washington, DC HIV/AIDS Administration has some staggering news from the nation's capital: 3 percent of the city's population has HIV/AIDS.  That rate, according to Shannon Hader of D.C's HIV/AIDS Administration, puts Washington, D.C. on par with Uganda and some parts of Kenya in terms of numbers of infected citizens, and D.C's rates are higher than almost all of West Africa.

Those facts should shatter the misconception that HIV/AIDS is no longer a problem here in the U.S.  HIV/AIDS is clearly not a developing world disease.

But is HIV/AIDS a black disease?  That's what Phil Wilson of the Black AIDS Institute argues, in a recent interview with On Point radio's Tom Ashbrook.   Here's what the Black AIDS Institute points out, digging underneath the surface of the D.C. study:

In the capital of the world’s richest and most powerful country, HIV prevalence is higher than in Port-au-Prince , the capital of the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. HIV prevalence among Black men in Washington is 40% higher than in sub-Saharan Africa generally. Infection levels among all Blacks in the District of Columbia are higher than in 28 African countries.

Wilson expanded on these comments on On Point, and his point is crystal clear: no matter how you cut it, AIDS in America is a black disease.  Here's his take:

The AIDS epidemic in Washington, DC is a canary in a mineshift.  It gives us a view into the window of what's happening with the AIDS epidemic all across Black America today.  AIDS in America today is a black disease, no matter how you look at it: through the lens of gender, sexual orientation, age, education, or socio-economic status, or where you live, black people bear the burden of the AIDS epidemic.

Is Wilson right?  It sure seems so, looking at the numbers.  And if he is right, what obligation does the LGBT community have to address the AIDS pandemic among African-American populations?

In the early-to-mid-1980s, HIV/AIDS was perceived as a gay disease (and to many, it still is), but required straight allies to combat.  When it comes to HIV/AIDS in the black community, there should be an obligation among LGBT communities of all races to work to fight the disease, based on our shared experience of the 1980s and beyond.  Wilson says solutions should involve (1) pushing for representation for Washington, D.C., (2) pushing to end abstinence-only education programs which offer misleading or false information about HIV/AIDS, (3) dismantling homophobia, (4) lobbying Congress to increase funding to cost-effective programs that promote HIV testing, prevent new HIV infections, and link people who test HIV-positive to life-saving medical care, (5) using culturally appropriate messaging on HIV/AIDS, and (6) grounding people with a sound knowledge in science about how HIV/AIDS is transmitted, and how to stop its transmission.

Those are ideas we should all get behind.  Some closing words from Wilson:

When the U.S. government gives money to foreign countries, it requires them to have an HIV/AIDS strategy.  The U.S. government does not currently have an HIV/AIDS strategy.

It's about time the U.S. developed an AIDS strategy that works to end the disease among all constituencies, black, white, LGBT, straight, men, women, rich, economically disadvantaged and more.