I'm Still here!

It has been almost a year since I have placed a post on my blog. I don't know if anyone checks this out anymore, as I know it's easy to loose your base on the Internet when you don't post regularly and there are millions of sites to visit. But if anyone is out there still let me know by leaving me a comment :-)

Life continues to be well for me and I have had tons of great experiences in the past year, all of which would be impossible to sum up in this post. Two of the more significant positive things are the birth of my nephew, Junie, in March of this year and the other is that my ex and I are back together and working to strengthen our relationship. I often find with many people, including myself, that it's easier to leave a relationship than to work hard at it when you've found someone who is good for you. So I have decided to put the work in.

Work has been good. I continue to be involved in great research projects, all of which are going well. I presented at my first major conference last month in Washington, DC, which was the American Public Health Association Conference. This conference draws about 14,000 people annually and there were about 70 people in the panel session I presented on. My topic was on intimate partner violence and sexual abuse among Black men who have sex with men. Both of these are major interests of mine in relation to gay men because they occur at a significant rate, but are often not talked about. In addition there are very few services that exist nationally for both of these issues, yet they are significant public health concerns that lead to negative health outcomes for those who experience them. With that being said, I'm glad that I've been able to present this research, which I hope will eventually have a positive impact on making a case that services and interventions are needed to help men who experience sexual abuse and intimate partner violence.

I also continue to work as a therapist for the cities LGBT health center and things have been good. It seems lately that my clients have been a bit more challenging, but I'm holding on. I also continue to serve as the president of the Black Gay Men's Leadership Council (BGMLC), which is doing well. We have accomplished some great things this year and have even greater plans for next year. We also have a web site that we launched in June. Check us out online at www.bgmlc.org. We have a Kwanzaa event coming up again next month, which I will put up in a different post. It's funny that that the last time I posted was about our Kwanzaa event last year. I can't believe how fast the year has went.

I guess I have to be a little honest in that one of the main reasons I am posting today is that I want to post an essay I wrote this week in honor of World AIDS Day, which is today. I will also put that in a different post. Check it out and let me know what you think.

Keep checking in on me. I will post from time to time. I always welcome comments, so drop me one or two or more :-)