race

Days 1-3 of this conference, I’ve been overwhelmed by the plethora of issues I could cover on this blog and thus paralyzed.

After attending the Ecumenical Pre-Conference, I handwrote a long diatribe about the hypocrisy of the church as it relates to showing the love that is supposed to be at the center of Christianity towards queer folk. (This is a bit of a generalization as certain groups are very much trying, as evidenced by some of the discussions at the conference.)

Then I felt driven to write about how the women’s rights movement (again, generalization) has also, to some extent, failed to be inclusive in its agenda. This was inspired after participating in the session “Where are the voices of lesbian women?” in the Women’s Networking Zone. In addition to omissions around lesbian and transgendered women, many of us also continue to observe a striking disregard for issues of race with the rather myopic focus on gender that doesn’t encompass intersectionality. One hopes that the movement will begin to truly live up to the slogan of today’s march, “All women, All rights!”  read more »

Monday's Regional Dialogue for Women of Color of the Global North was a step to bring the impact of HIV&AIDS on minority women in the Global North off the back burner of the international HIV&AIDS agenda. The event was co-sponsored by Women of Color United, Positive Women's Network USA, TruthAIDS, and ActionAid USA and took place in the Women's Networking Zone.

Women of color in the Global North are dying at rates in par with many of their Global South sisters, but, national policies and media see us as invisible women.  There were about 30 of us gathered and we talked about the impact of race and ethnicity on our work.  There was an acknowledgement that the United States has an opportunity to learn from other countries' national AIDS plans.  Also, the U.S. HIV&AIDS community can improve in its efforts if it would expand its use of a gender analysis.

About eight of us were from Global North  countries. It felt awkward at times trying to explain some of the nuances of race and indigeneity. I think we all felt that.  Perhaps it was just me?  

A few clear points that came up were  read more »

There was a flurry of press activity yesterday due to the release of the long-awaited revision of HIV incidence estimates for the United States...

This morning, CHAMP put out a release calling for a national AIDS strategy that would bridge race and sexuality. Here's some of the key quotes; the full release is available in the AIDS2008.com press room:

Walt Senterfitt, CHAMP board co-chair and an epidemiologist living with HIV who served as a Visiting Scientist at CDC’s Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention:

“The new estimates confirm that a vast majority of new infections in the U.S. occur in gay and bisexual men, and that Blacks are significantly more heavily impacted than other racial/ethnic categories. However, the data fail to clearly link the two, perpetuating a longstanding, damaging polarization. We need CDC to clearly show the HIV incidence numbers in gay men and other MSM of color.

A substantial number of Black people infected every year are gay or bisexual, and a substantial proportion of gay and bisexual men infected are Black. In fact, the heaviest impact is at the nexus of the two – being both black and a man who has sex with men. Yet this population is significantly marginalized, even stigmatized within both larger populations of which it is an integral part. A national AIDS strategy must tackle this fundamental challenge."

Jim Pickett, Director of Advocacy at the AIDS Foundation of Chicago:  read more »