Got so mad I forgot to reproduce the story: February 11, 2001 Single-Page Format Secrecy and Stigma Keep AIDS Risk High for Gay Black Men By JENNIFER STEINHAUER Edwine Seymour for The New York Times Patrons watching a show last week at Two Potato, a bar in Greenwich Village that is frequented by black and Hispanic gays. Related Articles � Issue in Depth: The AIDS Epidemic � Health Care Policy Home � Health Home Forum � Join a Discussion on the AIDS Epidemic hey can't really say they didn't see "the monster" coming. For several years, blacks, and to a lesser degree, Hispanics, have been making up a growing percentage of those who are dying of AIDS, the disease known in the streets as "the monster." Last week, federal officials issued a study, conducted in six major cities, which found that 30 percent of young, gay black men are infected with the AIDS virus. In New York City, where the Department of Health studied 529 young men who have sex with men, 33 percent of the black men were found to be infected with H.I.V., compared with only 16 percent of the men over all, and just 2 percent of the white men. Blacks made up 27 percent of those surveyed. And so the question must be asked: after two decades of sunken faces on the evening news, political protests during rush-hour traffic, AIDS quilts, recriminations, free condoms and Marisol and Julio's drama played out in a subway advertising campaign, how can anyone fail to grasp that certain sexual practices can lead to a fatal disease? Those reasons, which have eluded health care workers year after year, appear to be as complex as they are numerous. Many stem from how a man perceives his homosexuality and how that plays out in where and how he chooses to have sex. Then there is the role of traditional black organizations like churches and their inability over the years to face homosexuality in their midst. The direction of money and resources to fight AIDS is also a factor, as, in some cases, are poverty, drug use and sexual abuse. So, undeniably, is youth. And difficult questions over whether traditionally white AIDS organizations may have given short shrift to black men underscore the painful racial chasms in this country that even a uniformly stigmatized group � gay men � sharing a singular horror cannot seem to bridge. "There is no black gay Mecca, no black Chelsea," said LeRoy Whitfield, a senior editor at Poz, a magazine that covers AIDS and H.I.V. "And because the community is so decentralized, prevention and outreach efforts are even more difficult. "There are some black church groups that are better at dealing with the gay community and others that are horrible," added Mr. Whitfield, who has written extensively about the infection rates among black men. "But I don't think the larger AIDS groups give the voice to the black gay community. A lot of these men don't have a grip on what they are feeling sexually, and I don't think many of the organizations have a grasp on how to communicate with them." It is this stigmatization of homosexuality by many African-Americans that leads many men to live secret sexual lives on the fringes of their communities, often under perilous circumstances. Walter, who is 25 and has been H.I.V. positive for seven years, has come to know that world intimately. (Walter asked to be identified by first name only to protect his privacy concerning his sexual preference and H.I.V. status.) Until a few years ago, though, the Village and Chelsea seemed to him as remote as Sri Lanka. He found his sex partners under bridges in his Harlem neighborhood or in Central Park. When he saw them later in the streets, often with their wives or girlfriends, they would avert their eyes. Dating was unheard of. "If you are doing what you are doing and not letting people know, that results in much more risky behavior," said Jamaul Roots, a prevention associate at Gay Men of African Descent, a social support group. "If your sex takes place under bridges and on Christopher Street down by the water, it seems dirty and you get it over quickly. You are not having conversations about `Hey, let´s protect each other.´ " In street vernacular, it is gay life lived on the "down low." Continued 1 | 2 | Next>> Single-Page Format Click Here to Receive 50% Off Home Delivery of The New York Times Newspaper. 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