On Jan 25, 4:32=A0pm, Public Safety
Address.invalid> wrote:
> http://www.upenn.edu/pennnews/current/research/012110.html
>
> Through nearly 30 years of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, the infection rate amon=
g
> African Americans has remained steadily high. Although they represent onl=
y
> 13 percent of the U.S. population, blacks account for nearly half of all
> HIV/AIDS diagnoses, and have the shortest survival times of any race or
> ethnicity with AIDS.
>
> There has been much discussion about HIV/AIDS and itsault on African-
> American women, who account for 64 percent of all women living with the
> disease.
>
> Less mentioned is how the virus afflicts black men, who comprise 41
> percent of all men living with HIV/AIDS.
>
> Christopher Lance Coleman, the Fagin Termistant Professor of Nursing
> and Multi-Cultural Diversity in Penn=92s School of Nursing, is out to sta=
rt
> a dialogue about HIV/AIDS and black men with his new book, =93Dangerous
> Intimacy: Ten African American Men with HIV,=94 co-edited with a colleagu=
e
> from Virginia Commonwealth University.
>
> Coleman, who has been working in the HIV/AIDS field for more than two
> decades, says he was compelled to write the book because of the lack of
> non-fiction books addressing the topic.
>
> As the title suggests, the book tells the stories of 10 black men living
> with HIV. Coleman and his co-editor interviewed more than 20 black men
> before choosing the 10 that best represented a cross section of all the
> men.
>
> =93These 10 stories just shook me, and I had been at this for a long time=
,=94
> Coleman says.
>
> The black men profiled are young and old, ..., straight and bi.ual. A
> number had an early experience of inappropriate .ual behavior
> (molestation) or suffered other traumatic experiences, such as war.
>
> =93The sad part was that not a single one of these men went into counseli=
ng
> for it, or talked to anybody about it,=94 Coleman says. =93They just live=
d
> with it and then their lives just self-destructed. That=92s a common them=
e.=94
>
> Robert Smith (names and locations of the men profiled in the book were
> changed to protect privacy), in his early 60s, served in Vietnam, where h=
e
> picked up a drug and alcohol habit in order to =93block out some of the
> horrors I saw firsthand.=94 He tested positive for the virus in January o=
f
> 1989.
> Alvester Richardson, 56, was molested by his father and cousin when he wa=
s
> nine years old. He became an IV drug user and was diagnosed with the viru=
s
> in July of 1990.
>
> Marion Curtis Moore, Jr., 44, was molested when he was five by an uncle i=
n
> his early 20s. He was molested again when he was seven by a student three
> years his senior, and yet again when he was 14 by a man in his early 30s.
> He tested positive for the virus in February of 1990. In 1991, Moore was
> convicted of raping a 15-year-old boy and served 10 years in prison.
>
> Paul Mason, 54, the son of a =93serious=94 alcoholic military father, beg=
an
> drinking when he was 10 and later turned to drugs. He was diagnosed with
> HIV in March of 1992=97and continued to have unprotected .. He admits t=
hat
> he is the type of person responsible for the HIV/AIDS epidemic among blac=
k
> women.
>
> Coleman says that although traumatic experiences were not the sole cause
> of the men contracting HIV, it is certainly one of them, along with
> poverty and other social issues. The interviews for the book were
> conducted in =93some really interesting situations=94 and secret location=
s
> around the country because the men were afraid of someone discovering
> their serostatus (a term that defines whether or not someone is HIV
> positive).
>
> =93There were some cases in the neighborhoods that I went into that if
> anyone in that neighborhood knew about this man, he would be killed,=94
> Coleman says.
>
> Little has been written about black men and HIV/AIDS because it is
> difficult for black men to talk about .ual issues, in public or private=
,
> Coleman says. The triple jeopardy that HIV-positive black men face=97male=
,
> African American and HIV positive=97also factors into their silence.
>
> Coleman says there is a heightened homophobia in the black community,
> which stems from slavery and black men being castrated and not treated
> like men. He says the homophobia causes some black men to hide both their
> .uality and HIV/AIDS diagnosis.
>
> The book tells each man=92s story in graphic detail, so graphic that Cole=
man
> says it was difficult to get the book published. Nonetheless, he refused
> to change the language because he wanted the world =93to really have an
> inside view of each of these men=92s lives.=94
>
> =93I=92m glad that they=92re shocking because shock is what sometimes nee=
ds to
> happen to wake people up,=94 he says.
>
> Some readers have complained that the book portrays black men in a
> negative light. To this criticism, Coleman says, =93This book is unscript=
ed.
> These are their stories, not mine.=94
There is no such thing as a "black homo.ual" |
