Barbershop Politics

This morning I went to get my hair cut at a new spot I found in S Philly. Previously I had been going to a Black barber in Center City, who was cool, but I often found his shop to be a little sterile and absent of the banter and philosophical discussions that happen in most Black barber shops. About a month ago I needed to get my hair but before going out of town and my usual barber wasn't in, so I went to this new spot closer to my apartment and ended up with the best cut I've had since living in Philly, so I have made the switch. Although, I feel a little shady since I had been going to my CC barber for almost 3 years. How do you tell your barber that you're seeing someone else now? LOL.

So as I was sitting in the barber shop, one of the guys asked what people thought of the presidential race as the TV was on CNN. There was a lot of back and forth of opinion that really made sense and I was encouraged to see that folks are astutely following this race and are in tune to the issues. They were all Black and I would say mostly over the age of 30.

Shortly after the discussion was under way, Barack Obama came on giving a live talk from the Clinton Global Initiative conference in Flordia. I don't know if it was being caught up in the moment of being in this Black barbershop with men talking inteliigently about the political race and their belief in Obama as a president, but as I listened to Obama speak, I just saw him as the president. Almost like this talk was being given a year from now. I was able to appreciate the broader view of his message, about the US taking the lead in preventing Malaria deaths in underdeveloped countries, the plan that he is working on along with others to solve the current financial crisis in the US, that doesn't make us tax payers foot most of the bill and addressing Global Warming, etc. He was so collected and delivered so well. It really makes one wonder how the hell George W. Bush has been able to lead this country for nearly 8 years, when he can't tackle the issues in the same way this US Senator can? I suppose it's because he swindeled 2 elections!

I wonder what the discussion on this race is in all the Black barbershops across the country? If the barbershop I attend is any barometer, then I'm glad there are potentially a substantial number of Black folks, who may not have been politically active in past years that are following the politics and not voting for Obama just because he's Black. In spite of my worries that race will matter in this race, I'll hold on to my fantasy that the speech I saw Obama deliver today was foreshadowing to him as the next US president.

Kick Them While They're Down!

Last week a friend of mine emailed me this article, which talks about a strategy the Republicans are planning to employ in Michigan (and I'm sure in other key swing states), where they plan to contest the eligibility of voters who may have lost their homes to foreclosure. The reason they feel they have grounds to contest these voters' eligibility is that if their legal residence is no longer in the district in which they are registered to vote, then they feel they have legal grounds to contest that persons eligibility to vote. Of course, they are primarily targeting areas in which there are high concentrations of Democrats, such as suburbs of Detroit. According to this NYT poll, the state of Michigan is still very much a split state. Talk about kicking someone when they're down or adding insult to injury, this takes the cake! It is nothing short of heartless for a political campaign to employ such "Barracuda" style tactics to win an election. This is the same party that swindled the 2000 and 2004 elections and they are doing their best to do the same in 2008.

I haven't heard of this kind of targeting going in Pennsylvania, but outside of Philadelphia and maybe Pittsburgh, there isn't a high concentration of people of color, especially Blacks, who tend to vote Democratic. A friend of mine in Philly who is an attorney and is volunteering on the Obama campaign said that he received word that they are galvanizing lawyers to be present at polling sites to protect voter rights in Delaware, Pennsylvania, Texas, and North Carolina. All this drama just for folks to vote?! Is our political voting system any better than in other, less politically developed countries where there are all kinds of antics employed by opposing parties so they can secure an election and have power over their countries? While things being done here in the US, may not be as overtly bold like threatening people to vote a certain way, some of the tactics being employed by the Republicans are not far from it.

Unfortunately, because racism continues to be so pervasive in this country, where narrow minded bigots (and not just Republicans), may decide to vote for McCain, because they just don't see a Black man running the country, the Dems may lose the election. How do you go from supporting Hillary Clinton in the primaries, to now supporting McCain for the general election? This makes no logical sense, other than the fact that for some, their own racist notions override their sensibilities. This is the very issue, coupled with the ruthless tactics being employed by the Republican's that could tip the election in their favor.

I happened to be IMing with someone I know in Toronto last night and he mentioned that many people in Canada are talking about this race and that they don't feel the majority of American's are smart enough to elect Obama. In his view, the majority of Canadians want Obama to be our next president as they feel he will be best suited to heal America's relationships with other countries among other things.

The question is, will enough American's be smart enough to see this?

My Vision for Gay Health












This is a piece I wrote a couple of weeks ago and was placed on Life Lube, a fabulous gay health website that can be found here. The version here on my blog is unedited. The version that appears on Life Lube had to be modified because of my partisan comments, which can't be posted on a site that receives government funding.

One of the most beautiful things about living in a country like the United States is that dreams can come true with commitment and hard work, even in spite of the many obstacles that may face us getting to where we want to be. I believe it was Nelson Mandela who said “It always seems impossible until it is done”. While this quote is fairly new to me, I have adopted it as a principle of the community organizing work I do both in the city of Philadelphia where I reside and in the national work I am involved in. Below are 2 facets that are part of my vision for a gay men’s health agenda.

Overcoming Structural Barriers & Asset Development

One of the things I feel is essential to improving our lives as individuals, which has reverberating effects on building stronger communities of gay men, is asset development. There are many counter-cultural forces that seek to rob gay men of our self-worth and self-esteem such as heterosexism, homophobia, religious violence, teasing and rejection by family, friends and faith communities. For 2009, we need to take the gay men’s health revolution in our own hands and use our existing assets as gay men to help strengthen our brothers who need support to get to a healthier place. Together we stand or divided we fall and the divisions in our communities along lines of masculinity, race and class among others only hinder the development of the assets that are needed to ensure the health and survival of gay men

Another major structural barrier is access to health care. We must continue to fight for universal health care, so that we are all ensured access to treatments that will keep us healthy, regardless of our sexual orientation. However, there are many benefits that would be afforded to gay men if we had universal health care. Consider a young gay man kicked out of his home for coming out, a man terminated from his job because of his actual or perceived gay sexual orientation or a trans man who has a general medical issue, but he hasn’t applied for health insurance because he doesn’t want to have to explain why his identification doesn’t match his appearance. Universal health care would give each of these people the access they need to maintain their health.

The HIV Epidemic and Beyond

HIV continues to be a major health crisis among gay men in the United States, especially among Black men who have sex with men. Just last month (August 2008), the Centers for Disease Control shared that their estimation of 40,000 new infections in the US annually is inaccurate and that they now believe that number to be 56,300. This is almost a 40% increase over the previous estimate. The majority of new infections by risk category are among men who have sex with men (53%) and when looking at age, the majority of new infections are among the 13-29 age group (34%) followed by 30-39 year olds (31%). Looking at how many young people are being newly diagnosed, I think we can in part, thank the abstinence only policies of conservative Republicans for these statistics. If our school system can’t educate adolescents about sex and sexuality, then how will they know how to protect themselves? Many parents choose to avoid having these conversations with their children, leaving our young people to experiment among themselves in a time when sexual naivety can have serious consequences.

If you never thought getting political and voting was important, now is the time to change that mind set and get active, because these statistics will only get worse if the McCain-Palin ticket wins in November. Especially given Sarah Palin’s super conservative views on sexual health, though one would hope she might be a little more understanding given her 17-year old, unmarried daughter turned up pregnant. Even in light of this unforeseen incident in her family, I doubt her conservative views on sexual education will change.

Given these new incidence trends regarding HIV, there is no doubt we must continue our efforts at prevention, but we must widen the lens and re-define the focus of health-related interventions for gay men. For too long gay men’s health has focused mostly on HIV/AIDS, to the detriment of other health conditions that have direct and indirect ties to HIV/AIDS. These other issues are not limited to, but include: mental health, the effects of forced sexual experiences, external and internalized homophobia, substance abuse, lack of knowledge on male specific health issues (ex: anal health, foreskin health, etc), and lack of testing for sexually transmitted infections among others.

These are just a few things I feel are needed to improve the health and well being of gay men in the coming years. I am committed to and will continue to work with my brothers and our allies to strengthen our communities. Earlier this year, Grammy award winning music artist Alicia Keys said in her acceptance speech that we need to remove the word “can’t” from our vocabulary. I agree with her and I also believe in the words of presidential nominee Barack Obama, that “yes we can” form an unprecedented gay men’s health revolution, so let’s make it happen!

Lee Carson lives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and is the president of a grass roots organization called the Black Gay Men’s Leadership Council, which is an organizational member of the Sexual Health Xchange. He works full time as a behavioral science researcher and part time as a therapist in a mental health clinic that exclusively serves the LGBT population. He has also taught in the masters-level social work program at Temple University.

Danger, Danger, America, We May Be In Danger

I, as well as many others are quite afraid of how close the presidential race is and all that is at stake if the Republican's gain control of the White House for another 4 years. I, like millions of others, have been inspired to become more politically astute and active in the past couple of years. My interest started shortly after moving to Philadelphia and really peaked when I saw the energy and vision that Michael Nutter was bringing to his campaign for the Mayor's race. This is why I did my small part to help him get elected last year. I have also become inspired by Barack Obama and cannot believe that we may actually have our very first Black President, and it's not the year 2100 for it to happen. While I also liked Hillary Clinton, I chose to support Barack Obama during the primaries, and low and behold he won the Democratic nomination. I am now 2 for 2 in my brief political career and hope with every fiber of my soul that I am 3 for 3 come November, because there is so much at stake in our country.

I have been following the presidential race closely, like millions of Americans and those abroad who are interested in seeing how things play out. I was surprised when McCain selected Sarah Palin to be his running mate. While she is well spoken, tough and carries her own, I don't think any of these characteristics qualifies her for the Vice Presidential position. I went through some things when I saw her speak at the Republican National Convention and lost count on how many times she zinged Barack Obama in her speech, which was full of sarcasm, with no substance. If you were a fly on the wall of my apartment, you would have thought I was crazy, the way I was reacting to the comments of Rudy Giuliani and Sarah Palin. I think from that I've learned that I need to watch the upcoming debates with other people that can empathize with my reactions, because I get too worked up and emotional about this whole race. I hope I don't have high blood pressure by November......LOL.

I understand the hype around Sarah Palin, but I hope it wears off before November and that people will really look to what she's about, what she's done and stands for. I hope women, who should have the right to dictate what goes on with their bodies, understand that electing this particular Republican ticket to office could undo many years of Feminist activism. I hope those that are on the fence will realize that MCain's decision to choose someone with so little national and foreign policy experience can be a really dangerous thing, especially with him being as old as he is and having pre-existing health conditions. As we age, health status can change very quickly and without much warning. I don't know about you, but I have no desire to have someone with so little national and foreign policiy experience running the country. It's one thing to run a state, while the largest area-wise, is one of the smallest population-wise, with fewer citizens in the entire state than a borough in NYC. But quite another to be responsible for the well being of millions of Americans in such a critical time of economic hardship, war and the countries declining status as an international super power.

We need to take into consideration the claims made by people who know her record in Alaska about how vendictive and vengeful she can be, in part underscored by the allegations of abuse of power that she is presently under investigation for. This is not a favorable characteristic of someone who we need to lead our country and not only improve our damaged relations with other countries, but inspire the millions of Americans who have been ashamed of how our country has been run for the past 8 years.

We don't need folks who are in bed with the oil industry, and for all his talk about oil independence and supporting renewable energies, McCain's voting record in the Senate doesn't support this. However, he knows this is a sticking point with Americans, so he is now changing his tone. Not to mention, that the use of oil and fossil fuels are adding to the Global Warming epidemic (though his running mate tries to minimize their impact), so drilling more, while it may be warranted to at least decrease foreign dependence, still needs to take a back seat to biofuels and other environmentally safe ways to keep our cars moving and power flowing. I'm not saying that Obama doesn't have his own blemishes in this area, however when you compare the two, you can see how Obama's plan is better. His voting history reflects his support of these initiatives before his run for the presidency.

There will be more to come on my thoughts. Later in the week, I also plan to post about an effort I have just become aware of by the Republicans who are galvanizing in Michigan (a swing state) to challenge voter eligibility of persons who may have had to move from their registered voting district due to a home foreclosure. This is shady business, but not unexpected from the party who hijacked Florida in the 2000 election and implemented other shady acts in 2004 to regain the White House.

My, My, How Time Flies!


As you can see from my last post, I've not posted anything on here in 4 1/2 months, but there is so much going on that I feel compelled to share my thoughts, even if hardly anyone sees them since I post so irregularly.

Overall, life has been good and I have had a number of great experiences since the beginning of the year. I taught 3 classes at Temple University this year, which has been an amazing experience. I taught in the graduate social work program and learned quite a bit about the subjects I taught and was inspired with how passionate and committed some of the students are to social work practice. Two other pieces of exciting news for me are that I have recently been selected to participate in a panel of experts to advise the Centers for Disease Control on a new social marketing campaign they are planning to develop for Black MSM. We had our first face to face meeting in Atlanta last week. The other event I'm proud of is that I am being honored by the The Attic Youth Center in November for my dedication to community service in Philadelphia's LGBT community. There are a couple of other things I may be involved in within the next few weeks, but they are not confirmed yet, so I can't share them publicly.

I hope to be able to post a little more regularly, especially since I have been so worked up about what is happening in our country politically, which is the subject of my next post. If there is anyone out there that happens to run across this, please check back in with me and hopefully I can get a fan base back.....LOL.