Lee's Space

2008-12-14T13:01:00.005-05:00

Upcoming Public Holiday Events

Holiday Party @ MS. Tootsies
The BGMLC, COLOURS, House of Blahnik, the Black LGBT Archivists Society, Simply Christopher Entertainment, Smoke Lilies & Jade, GALAEI, Beta Phi Omega and Philly Black Gay Pride invite you to join us in a holiday celebration at Ms. Tootsies on South Street.

There will be drink specials and a nice holiday desert spread. We hope you'll join us!

What: Holiday Party

Date: Wednesday December 17, 2008- 5:30p

Where: Ms. Tootsies ( 1314 South Street)

Kwanzaa Celebration 2008

Yes, Kwanzaa is back and you are invited to join us. This year, the event is being co-sponsored by several Black LGBT serving organizations as has been the case in the past. This years event falls on December 27th, and Kwanzaa principle Kujichagulia- self determination. December 27th also marks the date our beloved Black gay civil rights pioneer, and native son of Philadelphia, Joe Beam left us for Heaven. There will be a special recognition of Joe Beam at this years event as well as an honoring of our elders.

This will be a great event and you won't want to miss it. There will be light appetizers and refreshments served. Click on the picture below to enlarge it for the details.

What: Kwanzaa 2008
When: Saturday December 27, 2008, 6p-9p
Where: William Way Community Center (1315 Spruce Street)
Cost: FREE

2008-11-16T09:38:00.004-05:00

My Attic Youth Center Leadership Award Acceptance Remarks

OK, so this in my last post on this event (smile). There was a very brief piece on WHYY FM Radio where my HIV prevention work was quoted. That clip can be found here.

As usual in my long winded nature I went over the time that was allotted to me for my remarks, but I felt it necessary to say these things while I had this platform.

Saturday November 15, 2008- Philadelphia PA
Attic Youth Center 15th Anniversary Crystal Gala

First, I want to thank The Attic for acknowledging my work with their leadership award this evening. The Attic is an important institution in our community and they have helped in many ways with the work I have done here in Philadelphia.

Being a leader and standing up for the things you believe in is an important asset to have in a society that often challenges who we are and in some cases our civil rights as LGBT people in America. I am immensely grateful for the opportunities that have been provided for me to be part of the leadership structure here in Philadelphia and the warm reception that I have received as a “transplant” to Philadelphia in the words of one of my community elders and mentors, Tyrone Smith.

For those of you who know me and know how long winded I can be, I won’t disappoint you tonight, but will do my best not to be so long that I’ll have to be ushered off the stage before the conclusion of my remarks. There are a few things I want to share this evening, while I have this soapbox:

It would be wonderful to think that we are living in a post-racial society because America has had the courage to elect Barack Obama as its first African American President. However, the reality is that we have more work to do in LGBT communities around issues of race and class among others. Unfortunately, the current gay marriage debate has once again bought some of these challenges in our communities to light. I am an optimist and believe that we have the capacity in our communities to have real conversations about how we are supporting all issues that impact members of LGBT communities whether it be issues related to HIV, gender identity protections, poverty, affirmative action, gay marriage, etc. In my short time in Philadelphia I feel we have made progress in this area and I am looking forward to us working collectively together to making Philadelphia a model community for inclusive activism.

Second, I want to send a call for action to all of you here tonight. Let us understand the goldmine we have in organizations that focus on developing LGBT youth in this community such as The Attic, COLOURS, GALAEI and others. If you were coming out 16 years ago, these organizations would not have been here for you and if we don’t continue to do our part to support these organizations with our presence, talents and money, they may not be here to serve our communities in the future. This isn’t to say that any organization is financially unstable, but to say that we know that given the current conditions in our economy, that the government has tightened its purse strings and programs serving sexual minorities will likely not be at the top of their list of programs to save.

Lastly, I want to say to the young people in the audience and “young” can be defined any way you’d like. I know sometimes it can be challenging to be who you are at home, in school, at work on the street and in any other environment at times. But know that your life is valuable and that you are a precious work of art designed by a higher power. I hope you will take the time to talk to some of your elders to learn from them what life was like and has been like as a sexual minority and likewise allow them to learn from you as a young person what life is like. Indeed if there were no elders to blaze the civil rights trails for us there would be no Attic, there would be no gayborhood , no LGBT community center and some of the other rites of passage we have obtained over the years. On the flipside, if we don’t invest in our young people, who are current and future leaders, we have the potential to lose the ground we have gained.

I’d like to thank The Attic for this award. I would also like to thank Georgeo Bosco, who is here in the audience, for his unwavering support and commitment to helping me whenever I asked him over the past several years. I’d also like to thank the countless numbers of you in the audience who I have worked with over the years. I realize that my efforts are only a small part of a larger mosaic of efforts put forth by you all to make Philadelphia a better place for its LGBT citizens.

In closing, I’d like to share my vision for 2009: Let’s build an unprecedented, inter-generational, multi-racial, multi-gendered, multi-issued LGBT rights movement. This task starts with us and ends with us. 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 president-elect Barack Obama, that “yes we can” form an unprecedented LGBT civil rights movement, so let’s make it happen!

2008-11-13T01:01:00.003-05:00

I Am Being Honored Part II

So I am only 3 short days away from The Attic's 15th Anniversary Gala where I will be receiving their Leadership Award. Late last week I got word that my full time employer was planning to do a press release on this. I am still a little in awe that all this is happening to me. I really am humbled by it all and I like the way the press release came out. Here is the press release:

_______________________________________

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

November 10, 2008

Contact: Jamie Arehart (267-350-7699 or jarehart@phmc.org)

Lee Carson to be Awarded Leadership Achievement Award
The Attic Youth Center to Recognize LGBT Activist

PHILADELPHIA - On November 15, 2008, activist, researcher, educator and social worker Lee Carson will receive the Leadership Achievement Award at The Attic Youth Center’s annual gala at the Ritz-Carlton in Philadelphia. The Attic Youth Center is Philadelphia's only agency exclusively serving LGBT youth and is one of only thirteen LGBT youth centers nationally. “Lee Carson is a man on a mission,” says The Attic’s executive director, Carrie Jacobs. “He is an individual who already has and will continue to make a huge difference in the LGBT community, particularly in the LGBT community of color.”

Carson has worked in the areas of HIV prevention and substance abuse rehabilitation in the LGBT community for the past ten years. “I am grateful to be receiving an award from The Attic,” says Carson, “and at the same time I am fully aware that my work is only one small part within a larger mosaic of efforts put forth by many toward creating a better quality of life for Philadelphia’s LGBT citizens.”

Currently a research associate at Public Health Management Corporation (PHMC), Carson works on several projects related to HIV prevention among men who have sex with men. "We are very proud of Lee and his recognition by The Attic,” says Lynne Kotranski, vice president of PHMC’s Research and Evaluation component. “Lee brings a unique set of skills to his work and commitment to the community–great clinical training blended with an understanding of conducting research on vulnerable populations.”

In addition to his research work, Carson works part-time as a mental health therapist for the Mazzoni Center, a health center serving Philadelphia’s LGBT population. Carson also serves as an adjunct instructor in the graduate social work department at Temple University.
Carson’s work as an activist in the LGBT community began in 2000, when he became an active member of the New York-based Men of Color Health Awareness Project (MOCHA), an HIV prevention organization. While at MOCHA, Carson served as a board member for the New York State Black Gay Network. After moving to Philadelphia, Carson co-founded and became president of a local nonprofit organization called the Black Gay Men’s Leadership Council, which advocates for black gay men in Philadelphia. He is also a founding member of the LGBT People of Color Coalition, which presently consists of 14 organizations that represent a broad cross section of LGBT communities across race and gender.

Carson’s commitment to the LGBT community has garnered him both local and national recognition. This past fall, he began serving on Mayor Nutter's advisory board on LGBT affairs. His familiarity with the LGBT community also led to his selection by the Centers for Disease Control as an expert on an advisory panel for a new HIV prevention campaign targeted towards black gay men. Carson has a bachelor’s of arts degree from SUNY Brockport, a master’s of social work degree from Nazareth College and is a licensed social worker in the state of Pennsylvania.

###

About PHMC
Public Health Management Corporation (PHMC) is a nonprofit public health institute that builds healthier communities through partnerships with government, foundations, business and other community-based organizations. It fulfills its mission to improve the health of the community by providing outreach, health promotion, education, research, planning, technical assistance, and direct services. Formerly the Philadelphia Health Management Corporation, PHMC has served the Greater Philadelphia region since 1972. For more information on PHMC, visit www.phmc.org.

_______________________________________

2008 has been the hell of year and I am most definitely looking to usher in 2009, as a year with more opportunities and definitely looking forward to the changing of the guards in our nations capital!

2008-11-11T23:29:00.002-05:00

Town Hall Meeting to Save Black Gay Men's Lives

Recently the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) released some daunting statistics related to the amount of new HIV infections that occur in the United States annually. Last week the Philadelphia Inquirer wrote a piece about the HIV epidemic in Philadelphia. You can find that article here.

In response to the growing HIV epidemic in our community, in which a significant number of new infections in Philadelphia annually are among men who have sex with men, the BGMLC, COLOURS and House of Blahnik are sponsoring a community town hall meeting to discuss what this means to our community and to share very specific ways you can do your part to help decrease the amount of new HIV infections in Philly in the coming years. This is a serious issue in our community and it will take all of us, gay, straight, men, women and so on to work together on this.

The event will take place on Thursday November 13th, 6pm at Arch Street Methodist Church (home of Unity Fellowship's Sunday service), 55 N Broad Street. The meeting will be facilitated by Dr. Lisa Bowleg of Drexel University and there will be representatives from the health department present to answer questions you may have about their response to the epidemic and you as a community member will be provided time to talk about what we should be doing to improve our prevention efforts. I hope to see you on November 13th!

2008-11-05T08:17:00.005-05:00

The Dems are Back in the Building Baby!

Words can't express how I felt last night when I saw the momentum swing so strong in favor of Obama and that emotion has spilled over into today and will for some time. Broad Street around City Hall here in Philly was on fire last night! There were thousands of people out celebrating and cheering the election outcome that none of us suspected would be the case even 2 years ago. America has elected its first Black President. I get the whole point some make that he ran for the presidency as a man who happens to be Black, but no one can remove his Blackness from the significance of this race. Indeed his race was an issue in this election and Obama overcame amazing odds in states that haven't voted Democratic in years! How the hell does that happen for one and that a Black man wins states where you can damn near count the number of Blacks per capita on your hands and toes!

I barely have a voice this morning because I was pretty much yelling for 2 hours on the streets "The Dems are back in the building baby! Racism isn't over, but it's been dealt a powerful blow!" That's the phrase I'm coining, because I feel it captures, in a small phrase, the essence of what has occurred. I was also yelling out a line from the Jeffersons theme song "We're movin' on up (baby!)" while I was doing the George Jefferson swagger.

Whether Obama won because people were fed up with 8 years of Republican mismanagement, or because they were more ageist than racist, or because they wanted to vote for a Black man just because they could is irrelevant at this point, because Obama is in the building baby! I think all of those things (and more) played a part, but the fact that enough American's overcame their racism to elect Obama is an amazing occurance. I just watched an interview with Maya Angelou on CBS and she said "America has grown up" and indeed it has. She (America) has made another step to transgressing the race issues that have plagued our country for years, yet I am keenly aware that racism isn't over, but it's been dealt a powerful blow!

The electing of Obama will send a strong message to our young people, especially those that have been disempowered by racism and other oppressions that maybe, just maybe I can become soemthing greater than I thought. We can't stop at voting for Obama, but we also need to be part of changing the direction of this country in a way that has never been seen before. If Obama could bring millions of new voters into this election, and have the largest voter turnout since 1908 (according to a CBS reporter), I hope that at least half of those will give in ways they may have never done so before to help America be a better place than it has been in the last 8 years (or in its history). I know 100% and unequivocally, I will be part of that movement.

I so badly wish that Malcolm, Martin and the countless others who sacrificed their lives to advance civil rights in this country could see this day they worked so hard to make happen. It was powerful to see the tears in Jesse Jackson's eyes last night. In spite of his disparaging comments about Obama's leadership a few months ago, the reality is that his civil rights work AND his run for the presidency in the 80's has helped Obama be where he is today. We cannot discount the contributions of the past for the mistakes of the present.

I even include 2pac as someone who I wish could see this day. Though his song playlist is full of contradiction (ex: Brenda's Got a Baby vs. Wonda Why They Call You Bitch), I still feel he had a level of profundity to his socially concsious songs that remains unparalleled. I will never forget the hook of one of his songs "Even though it seems heaven sent, we aint ready to see a Black president" ( a hook that Nas has in one of the songs on his current album as well) That day has come 'Pac baby! So maybe he's up there sippin' on a little Alize' or Thug Passion in celebration.

I know this post is a bit incoherernt, and all over the place, but given my current state of elation/emotion, concentration isn't something I possess at the moment. America is FOREVER changed and for the better. This revolution was televised!

2008-11-01T21:46:00.002-05:00

I am Being Honored and Other Life Events

I got word a few months ago that I was receiving the Leadership Achievement Award from The Attic Youth Center during their 15 year anniversary gala. This is the first award I have ever received from an organization, acknowledging my work in the community. The gala takes place in 2 weeks on November 15th at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Center City. One of the honorees with me will be Kelli O'Donnell, the wife of the icon Rosie O'Donnell. I have no idea if Rosie will be coming, but it would be fab to meet her! The gala ain't cheap, so I'm glad that I'm being honored so I don't have to pay for a ticket :-) Click here for more information on the gala.

On another note of positive news, I have been appointed to the Mayor's Advisory Board on LGBT Affairs. The board is responsible for providing advisement to the Mayor and his director of LGBT affairs, Gloria Casarez, on things we feel will improve the quality of life for Philadelphia's LGBT citizens. I am really psyched to be given this responsibility and am looking forward to some of the great things we will be able to do for LGBT Philadelphian's. So, if you are an LGBT Philadelphian and have anything you'd like to share with me about issues, concerns or ideas that you'd like to suggest, let me know. I'm not saying that I can make anything in particular happen, but if it is a good suggestion, I can bring it to the board.

Though mostly everything for me has been good, the one negative thing that has taken place in my life the past month is that my partner and I have split, so that makes me a single boy again. He's a wonderful man, but we just couldn't make it work. Not going into details here, but just sharing that aspect of my life.

2008-11-01T21:15:00.006-05:00

The Phillies Win and the Fans Go Wild!

I got this photo from a co-worker and I thought it was really cute. It was utter chaos in this city first, when the Phillies won the national championship. I live in South Philly where all the sports stadiums are and on the night the Phillies won the national championship, I was coming home from a debate viewing party for the final debate between Obama and McCain. When I got off the train, there were hundreds of people lining the street where there was a makeshift parade, honking horns and boisterous fans. I just stood there for a while, wishing I had a camera to capture some of the energy as it really was refreshing. It is great to be in a city that has major league sports and even better when they win a championship, something that's been illusive to Philly teams for 25 years.

I was afraid to see what the city was going to be like if they actually won the superbowl.......ha, kidding, I know it's the World Series. Well they won and the fans went wild! They tore this damn city up! I went out that night downtown and the city was wild, people walking in the streets and obstructing traffic, honking horns, hundereds of people on the streets. When I got down to S Philly later that night, you'd have thought there was a riot down here. Apparently fans had been looting, because all the stores that are normally open weren't allowing people in to keep the stores safe. There was trash and glass everywhere. Cars had been damaged, especially some of the ones parked right on Broad Street.

Philly fans are off the hook! Too bad that at such a positive time for the city, the fans had to do so much damage to it. But hey, go Phillies, we are #1!

2008-09-25T10:10:00.003-05:00

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.

2008-09-23T15:25:00.005-05:00

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?

2008-09-16T16:12:00.003-05:00

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.

2008-09-16T00:03:00.001-05:00

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.

2008-09-15T21:38:00.002-05:00

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.

2008-05-01T20:15:00.001-05:00

Mayor Nutter Names New LGBT Liasion

On Monday April 28, 2008, Honorable Mayor Nutter held a press conference to announce the person he has appointed to be the new Liaison to LGBT communities: Gloria Casarez. Gloria is only the 2nd LGBT Liaison in a Philadelphia Mayoral administration; she is the first Latina to hold this position; and she is the first liaison to work directly inside the Mayor's Office. For the past 10 1/2 years, Gloria has served as the Executive Director for the Gay and Lesbian Latino AIDS Education Initiative (GALAEI). She has also served on various boards such as Bread & Roses Community Fund and participated in many grass roots community organizing initiatives over the 13 years she has been out as Lesbian. While she will be doing some work in the Nutter administration immediately, she will not start full time as the liaison until July 1, 2008.

Here is the speech Gloria gave during the press conference on Monday:

This is a meaningful moment. For me personally, and for Philadelphia's lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender communities.

In this building.

In this city.

At this time.

It is a meaningful moment.

I was hoping we'd pack the room, and we have! I wanted the Mayor to see everyone he knows, and everyone he doesn't know yet today. Thank you for coming over to City Hall, today.

I'm warmed to see so many of my friends and colleagues in HIV and AIDS and in LGBT health, and to have family members here, close friends, as well as my partner Tricia Dressel. And, to see people who provide leadership across other areas of our community, who will take on the role as my new colleagues and friends from this point forward.

As Philadelphian's we credit ourselves with serving as the birthplace of the LGBT movement. I'm proud to have directly contributed to the development of our LGBT communities for the past 13 years - first, at the LGBT Center at the University of Pennsylvania and the past ten and a half years with GALAEI - which is truly one of our vanguard public health organizations. During my time at the Gay and Lesbian Latino AIDS Education Initiative, I was responsible for leading the organization's response to the AIDS epidemic. It is where I developed many collaborative efforts, particularly for youth, gay men, and transgender communities. Key among these programs of GALAEI that I initiated as Executive Director are The Collective, which was the first program in the city to launch Rapid HIV testing on a mobile unit, and the Trans-health Information Project, which is the largest multi-service transgender health program we've ever had in Philadelphia.

I'm a Philadelphian. I was born in this city and have spent my entire adult life working with people here in this city, to positively affect change. I come out of grassroots community organizing efforts across a range of social issues and I model a community organizing approach everyday. This model is one that requires that all voices are at the table and works to get those voices there. For those of you who have worked with me over the years, you know that I am diligent, I have vision, and I'm a hard worker. I plan to put those skills to use everyday in this new position.

I see this role as a facilitator of leaders. Leaders who work with constituents and individuals across a spectrum of issues of interest to LGBT people. I also see this role as a chance to work on the pressing needs of our communities, while at the same time building upon our strengths and making the most of our opportunities. I will build upon the initial groundwork laid during the previous administration and the previous liaison Michael Hinson, and my work with you will flourish with the support of Michael Nutter's administration. I see many conversations in our near future and lots of action to follow. And this conversation with the Mayor builds upon his positive track record of work for our communities for many, many years.

It's the end of April and we are in the middle of our pride season and we have a lot to celebrate. We had a great Black Gay Pride this past weekend. We're looking forward to kicking off the Equality Forum later today which runs through the week, and before you know it, we'll roll into June for the annual Gay Pride Parade and Festival. So, there will be many celebrations.

While we celebrate our lives and achievements as a community we also need to focus on the work in front of us. We have a pending State Senate bill that speaks out directly against our lives. So, we have a lot to work on. We have many issues on the national stage that will impact us right here in Philadelphia. I'm happy to have the partners in this room who I know will be a part of working with me on all of these things and I know that I will need them.

I know that our lives as LGBT people are complex and inherently political by nature. There are people who love us. There are people who hate us. And, there are people who feel that they tolerate us. Each of us in this room have experienced a measure of discrimination and some among us experience this daily. Regardless of whether we are also racial, ethnic, or religious minorities, our point of unity as LGBT people is fundamentally one of civil and human rights. We must be very clear about that. We must keep sight of that, and other commonalities, as others seek to divide us as a community. As a community, we are strongest at the points where we stand together.

I see by the crowd gathered in this room that we are off to a great, running start.

So, as we assemble in this building - our City Hall, and in this city - which is the cradle of liberty. We are strong - at this time. I see it as a responsibility for all of us to stand together to make Philadelphia a true city of Brotherly Love and I pledge to represent us with authenticity, integrity, and respect.

It is what I bring to the table every day.

In closing, I want to thank the Mayor for this incredible opportunity to do this work for city government and on behalf of our communities. We're going to do some really great things here.

2008-04-15T22:50:00.003-05:00

On Thursday April 17th, a major undertaking will take place by 13 organizations that are both run by and primarily serve LGBT people of color will be holding a political forum. The forum's co-sponsors cross racial and gender lines. We will have representation from the campaigns of both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. All three Democratic candidates running for PA State Senate District 1, which encompasses Center City and South Philadelphia will speak to the audience. There will also be a special guest appearance by none other than Flashdance/The L Word sensation herself, Jessica Beals.

The co-sponosring organizations are really excited about this event as it will serve to both increase our visibility to our elected officials and also develop our capacity as people of color to have our issues be part of the political process by creating a space for ourselves. If you live in the Philly area, please attend this historical event.

2008-04-05T21:47:00.005-05:00

Why I support Barack Obama

Below is an email that I sent to several friends expressing my support for Barack Obama. I'm posting here so that I can share my thoughts with a wider audience. I'm interested in hearing others' opinions of Barack Obama.

Hello friends. I know that some people keep their politics personal and don’t like to share who they support and/or plan to vote for, however, I have been fairly open about my support of Barack Obama for the next president of the United States of America. I don’t know who you support at this time, but I am hoping that if you’re undecided that this email will help you decide, since we are less than 3 weeks away from the Pennsylvania primary.

I have been selected to join Obama’s state wide volunteer LGBT leadership team to do outreach and educate Philadelphia’s LGBT community about his support for our communities. For those of you who live here in Philadelphia, you may have seen this weeks Philadelphia Gay News editorial slamming Obama for not giving them an interview at the time they asked for it. As a result, they call into question his support of the gay community. All I have to say about this is, in the words of the politically conscious rap group from the 90’s, Public Enemy: “Don’t believe the hype!”.

I am also not a one issue voter, and a candidate being good on LGBT issues is only part of what I look for and I believe that Barack Obama embodies the best qualities for the next President. Here are my reasons:

I was deeply moved by the speech he gave on March 18^th, here in our beloved city of Philadelphia, where he talked about the need to address race relations in the US in a real way. This was a risk for him as I think we all know that not all Americans want to deal with the racism that continues to exist in our country and would as soon vote for a candidate who is less direct on these issues than one who is. None the less our country would be much better off addressing race relations than denying them. Please don’t give validation to the distractions that those who don’t support Obama have drummed up to tarnish his integrity on race relations. Many of us have varying opinions on how Obama should have handled the Rev. Wright controversy, but I ask we keep our eyes on the future and ultimately whether you feel he handled it well or not so well, I feel he is the better candidate to make the progressive changes we need in America.
In my view, Barack Obama brings the enthusiasm, charisma and intelligence that is needed to bring our country to a more cohesive state. I don’t view his abilities unrealistically and realize that even if he were to be in office for 8 years that he can only take us so far, but I am willing to ride with him those 8 years to take us as far as we can go in healing some of the divides that exist. I think he is the better candidate to provide this kind of leadership and inspiration.
On several occasions Obama has stood before general audiences and included gays and lesbians as part of America’s future. What was even more striking is when he made a speech on the birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr. this year at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta and said

“…..we are told that those who differ from us on a few things, differ from us on all things, that the problems are the fault of those who don’t think like us or look like us or come from where we do………if we’re honest with ourselves we’ll acknowledge that our own community has not always been true to Kings vision of a beloved community; if we’re honest with ourselves we have to admit that there have been times when we’ve scorned our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters instead of embracing them”.

I don’t know about you, but to me this is a powerful thing for him to say in front of a primarily Black Baptist audience and underscores his credibility as a progressive candidate for making change in our country.

Barack Obama is supportive of the full repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). DOMA in essence says that if you get married as a same sex couple in one state, the rights you have been granted under that marriage are non-transferable and leaves it up to the discretion of individual states to nullify this marriage and its rights if they so choose to. Obama is the only presidential candidate that is in favor of a full repeal of this legislation.
If elected, Obama plans to develop a national HIV/AIDS strategy to find better ways for us to address the epidemic n the US and he is also supportive of the US increasing its presence in addressing the global HIV/AIDS crisis.
He is supportive of ending the war in Iraq, which has taken the lives of thousands of Americans and has cost our country trillions of dollars that have left many of those in our own country suffering evidenced by the cutting of many supportive social services, the faltering of our economy where gas prices are at an all time high, home foreclosures are up and we are on the verge of a recession. I believe Obama will surround himself with the right people to help him make good decisions about how to begin withdrawing our troops.
I feel that Obama brings a freshness to politics that hasn’t been seen in a long time. I admire how he’s handled the tag teaming of the Clinton’s and has done his best not to stoop to name calling and using the “kitchen sink” strategy that has been employed by his opponent. He’s not perfect, as no person is, but in my view he brings greater integrity to his politics than his opponent.
Analysis of voter turnouts during the primaries have shown that Obama does very well with voters who are registered as Independent and Clinton does not. This means he potentially has a better chance to beat McCain in November as he also has a strong appeal to Independent voters. A Clinton/McCain standoff could mean a much more difficult race for the Democrats than an Obama/McCain race would be.

I know this email is a bit long, but I wanted to make sure I conveyed to you why I think Barack Obama is the best candidate for the president of the United States. I have attached some documentation to support some of the things I mentioned above so that you can see for yourself where Barack Obama stands on not only LGBT issues, but others as well.

I am helping to plan outreach initiatives in the next couple of weeks and would like your help in a couple of ways:

Please send this email or one with your own reasons why you support Barack Obama to at least 10 of your friends and please cc me in. I promise that I won’t hijack your list and send emails out to them unless you specifically give me that permission. Plus with your forwards you can always blind carbon copy like I’m doing with this email. In your email, please request that they send your email to at least 10 of their friends.
For those of you who live in Philly, send me an email or call me if you’re interested in helping me do outreach in the LGBT community for Barack Obama’s campaign. I would likely only need 3-4 hours of your time one evening a week. Let’s be part of making history together!
Be sure to vote in the primary on April 22^nd and encourage your friends and associates to vote as well.

Thanks for your time and consideration. I hope you will give your support to helping Barack Obama win Pennsylvania and the general election in November..

Lee

* I am not an official spokesperson for the Obama campaign, just a loyal volunteer doing my part to help him win the primary and general election.

2008-01-02T16:34:00.000-05:00

Former B2K Member's Sexual Abuse Scandal

Many may remember the R&B group B2K from I guess it must have been the late 90's or so. Last week, one of the groups members known as Raz B and his older brother Ricky Romance came out publicly saying that their former manager Chris Stokes sexually abused them. In addition, they state he also sexually abused several of the other young male members he was managing at the time. Other former B2K member Omarion has publicly denied Stokes ever did anything sexually inappropriate with him. These allegations were released on Youtube around December 24th. Of course as usually is the case, the accused, in this case Stokes, counters that the allegations are completely false and he never did anything of a sexual nature to any of the young boys he managed. Here is one of the videos released where Raz B is filmed talking to someone about the abuse that occurred:

Rumors ran a muck following the videos release that an order had been put out, possibly by Chris Stokes, for the West Coast affiliated gang The Bloods to threaten them into recanting their statement about the sexual abuse. A few days after the accusatory video was released, Raz B is filmed rescinding his previous sexual abuse claims. Here is the video of Raz B recanting the statement:

Some of the confession video seems a little sketchy and has clearly been edited, so it makes it hard to know if there has been any manipulation of the context of his conversations. In the video where he recants his statements he doesn't look at the camera at all and seems almost like he's giving the confession against his will, which is what many are speculating. It seems hard to believe that Raz B would make these allegations up, particularly given that many male victims of sexual abuse don't come forward, much less in such a public spotlight. In addition, what would he have to gain by videotaping himself saying this? It seems he'd have much more to lose!

Regardless of his motive for coming out about the sexual abuse now, it brings to light a serious issue in Black communities: childhood sexual abuse. I'm fully aware that sexual abuse is not a Black issue and that it happens across all cultures, but this post is primarily directed at this experience among Black boys. For too long sexual abuse has been a silent culprit, robbing Black boys of their innocence, self worth and self esteem. This continues to be a taboo subject and one that I hope we begin to expose to a greater degree in hopes to decrease its prevalence in our communities and give the space for the victims to come forward and get help when it happens.

This post isn't meant to further sensationalize this story, but rather to share some quick thoughts on sexual abuse in Black communities. Regardless of the outcome of this case, I hope it brings this conversation into a public domain creating a space for its victims to come forth and give voice to their experience. Unfortunately, much of what I have seen so far on the Blogosphere and heard on the radio has largely been blaming the victim or further humiliating the victim.

For an online article about the story click here

To view the video featuring Ricky Romance talking about the sexual abuse allegations click here

2007-12-04T23:10:00.000-05:00

Brother To Brother Re-Release and Redbone Press

Brother to Brother
One of the most prolific early writings by Black gay men Brother to Brother has been re-released, 16 years after its original debut in 1991. The book was originally started by Joseph Beam, who died of AIDS related complications prior to the completion of the book, which was finished by his protege' Essex Hemphill. Brother to Brother is a collection of, at that time, new writings by Black Gay men. Brother to Brother was the follow up book to In The Life, which is the first book ever published with writings by Black gay men about our lives and experiences. If you have never read either of these books, it is worth getting them as these writings are the seeds of Black gay organizing in the United States.

Redbone Press
Redbone, is a Black book company that promotes the writings of Black lesbian and gay authors. The first book released by this company is titled "Does Your Mama Know: An anthology of Black lesbian coming out stories", which won 2 Lambda Literary Awards in 1997. Numerous books on the Black gay experience can be found on their site, including a recently released bibliography on Black gay and lesbian books titled "Carry The Word".

Below are some books from Redbone Press (click on them to make them larger). Visit their Website

here.

2007-12-03T17:21:00.000-05:00

Breaking The Silence

This looks to be a very powerful and promising event that will take place here in Philadelphia on December 7th and 8th. According to a local radio show today, where State Representative Vincent Hughes and his wife, the lovely Cheryl Lee Ralph were on, nearly 3,000 people showed to this event last year. Certainly there is a need to address mental health issues in Black urban communities. It takes no genius to know that the issues many Black urban folk are facing such as poverty, institutional and systemic racism, post traumatic stress disorder, trauma related to urban, family and peer violence, take a toll on ones mental health. In spite of the multitude of issues facing Blacks, we are the least likely to access mental health services. Hopefully events like this will truly help to break the silence and allow us to get the help we need to deal with the issues we ourselves, our family members and friends may face.

They have a powerhouse of speakers, which include:
Dr. Michael Eric Dyson, author, social analyst & minister
Dr. Therman Evans, Physician & pastor
Dr. Jawanza Kunjufu, Author & lecturer
Jennifer Lewis, Singer, actress & author
Dr. Alvin Poussaint, Psychiatrist & media consultant
Dr. Robin L. Smith, Psychologist, author & TV personality
Susan L. Taylor, Author & Editor of Essence Magazine

Sounds powerful! For more information on the event Click here.

2007-12-02T23:29:00.001-05:00

Kwanzaa Celebration 2007

This years celebration is co-sponsored by 5 Black gay organizations (BGMLC, COLOURS, Beta Phi Omega, House of Manolo Blahnik and Philadelphia Black Gay Pride) in the spirit of Ujamaa-Cooperative Economics. The celebration is free and open to the public. Please join us for this great event as we come together as a community to celebrate our prosperity in 2007 and get ready for an even greater 2008!

2007-12-01T20:17:00.000-05:00

A Change Is Gonna Come!

World AIDS Day always inspires me to reflect on how I started doing HIV prevention work for Black Gay men, which began officially, exactly 7 years ago today on December 1, 2000. I, at that time was thoroughly excited about landing a job with an organization in my hometown of Rochester, NY that provided services for Black men who have sex with men (MSM). I remember thinking, “Wow, how can an organization like this exist in a small city like Rochester?” But it did, and it still does, and it, like all of the organizations across the country serving Black MSM have more work to do than ever, because in spite of our best efforts with the limited resources the government has given us, we have fallen short of saving the lives of Black gay men from HIV/AIDS. A disease with a small name, but powerful punch, that has robbed our families and our communities of so many beautiful and talented Black gay men. However, I believe a change is gonna come!

The title of this essay is inspired by the politically charged song by the late Sam Cook, who spoke prophetic words about the change that was going to occur as a result of the Civil Rights movement to combat racial injustice in the United States. Like Sam, I feel “a change is gonna come” in how we address the HIV epidemic among Black gay men in the United States. Why do I think this? The answer is both simplistic and complex at the same time. It’s simplistic in that, we have no other choice but to attack this killer called AIDS “by any means necessary” to quote the late, great Malcolm X. Yes attack it with the same fierceness in which it is attacking us, an eye for an eye! The complexity lies in how we employ an effective response to stop AIDS from its relentless attack on the lives of Black gay men. Twenty-five plus years in the game and we are still coming up short! Maybe this is because we have viewed HIV prevention from a restrictive lens, focusing too much on education and giving out condoms vs. addressing the psychological, social, cultural and economic factors that contribute to the spread of HIV. Maybe it’s that HIV is a symptom of these structural issues and this is where we should shift our focus.

I get angry as hell and then sad when I think of the lives lost and how AIDS has extinguished some of our most important political leaders. I think back to the 80’s, when Black gay organizing began to congeal into a movement. I’m referring to folks like Joseph Beam, Essex Hemphill and Marlon Riggs. They put a face and gave life to Black gay organizing with books like “Brother 2 Brother” and documentaries like “Tongues Untied”. Indeed the tongues of Black gay men had become untied and we no longer had to live through the voices of gay white men who had more privilege and power to live their lives openly. I often wonder what Black gay organizing would look like today if AIDS hadn’t stolen their lives and the lives of countless other Black gay men. Just as I often wonder what the state of Black folks in this country would be if Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X were still alive. I suppose every war has its martyrs and in either case, lives were taken before their time and we should not let their deaths be in vain.

We must achieve a cohesive national response to revive the value of Black gay men in all of our diversity from the femme queen to the homo-thug, because when a person feels valued, they are more likely to protect their life and less likely to engage in behaviors that will put them at risk for HIV. But before we can rebuke larger society for how they treat us, we have some home cleaning to do. We have got to come back to a village mentality and stop allowing patriarchal, heterosexist and sexist notions to create hierarchies in our communities that leave some of us devalued, broken, depressed and suicidal. The hierarchy that has been created within many Black gay “communities”, which value masculinity and devalue femininity, is in part what fuels the alarming rate of HIV among Black gay men. We need to own up to this and realize that in some cases we are playing a co-conspirator role in this epidemic, which is ravaging our brothers (and sisters). Sam Cook said it well: “…..then I go to my brother, and I say brother help me please. But he winds up knocking me back down on my knees." It's amazing that in 2007, we are dealing with this same divisiveness amongst ourselves as was the case over 40 years ago. But I believe a change is gonna come!

I don’t view the need to build cohesion among Black gay men through rose-colored glasses, as I don’t expect us all to “just get along” a la Rodney King. This isn’t Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood or The Brady Bunch and the lack of cohesion that has taken hold in Black gay communities cannot and will not be solved in a 30 or 60 minute episode. We can only begin to address it through deep introspection, honesty and in some cases therapy. Yep, I said it, THERAPY. Some of us are damaged because of the things that have happened to us in our lives and going to a counselor isn’t a bad thing. Some of us are carrying the battle scars of sexual abuse, racism, homophobia, effemiphobia, emotional abuse, physical abuse, pain from damaged family relationships because of our same sex desire and religious homophobia to name a few. How can one carry these emotional scars with no outlet to heal and it not have a negative impact on ones self-esteem, well-being and self-worth? The answer is, it DOES impact us in ways that manifests itself through engaging in unhealthy behaviors such as substance abuse and risky sexual activity. If we dig deep into our psyche to find out how the things that have happened to us in our lives impact how we feel about ourselves and how we treat others, I think then we will begin to find a way to build greater cohesion among Black gay men, which in turn will help curb the HIV epidemic. We cannot heal, if we don’t allow ourselves to feel.

My challenge to my Black gay brothers for 2008 who carry these emotional scars is to seek a means to heal. Heal in the way that feels best for you, but don’t allow your emotional scars to erode your ability to connect in a healthy way to other Black gay men. Don’t allow the scars to erode your ability to protect yourself, your family and your community. It is up to us to get the help we need to feel better about ourselves, so we don’t put ourselves at risk for HIV. It is up to us to stop wounding each other with our words and in some cases our actions. And it is up to us to resist those patriarchal, heterosexist and sexist hierarchies from continuing to devalue and wound members of our communities.

While we face significant challenges as Black gay men across the United States in relation to stopping the HIV/AIDS epidemic, I continue to believe in Sam Cook’s prophetic words that a change is gonna come!

Lee Carson resides in Philadelphia, PA where he works as an HIV prevention behavioral science researcher and as a mental health therapist with the LGBT population. He will begin teaching in Temple Universities School of Social Administration in Spring 2008. He also currently serves as the president of a grass roots organization in Philadelphia called the Black Gay Men’s Leadership Council (www.bgmlc.org). “A Change Is Gonna Come” is Lee’s first essay written about the HIV epidemic among Black gay men. He can be reached by email at lcarson@bgmlc.org.

2007-12-01T19:07:00.000-05:00

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 :-)

2006-12-27T23:01:00.000-05:00

BGMLC Kwanzaa Event

You are cordially invited to a Health & Wellness Kwanzaa event being co-sponsored by the Black Gay Men's Leadership Council and The COLOURS Organization. In case you can't read the image here are the details:

When: Saturday December 30, 2006
Where: African American Art Museum (701 Arch Street)
Time: 7p-10p
Cost: Free!

The event will feature a live DJ, appetizers, free raffles for prizes, live performances and a formal Kwanzaa ceremony including acknowledgment of the youngest and eldest members in attendance, libations and lighting of the candles and reading of the Kwanzaa principles.

This is the last event of the year for the BGMLC and we welcome you to celebrate this event with us.

2006-11-26T23:33:00.000-05:00

When Life Hands You Lemons............

then make lemonade, as the old saying goes........ and that's just what I plan to do. Two weeks ago today was one of the worse days in my life. My relationship with my partner came to a screeching hault and then to make matters worse, I got in a car accident on the same day. Thank goodness, no one was hurt in the accident and I was not at fault for the accident, so hopefully it won't have any impact on my rates. The accident reminded me so much of those damn All State commercials on TV that show car crashes. I hate those commercials! The front of my car was pretty jacked up and not really drivable, so I was without a car for 2 weeks and boy did I miss not having it on the weekends. I decided not to bother with a rental for the weekends because I figured at the rate things were going, it would be just my luck to have something happen to the rental while it was in my possession.

I spun into an acute state of depression for a few days and was amazed at how fast life circumstances can change, for the better or worse. Unfortunately in this case, for the worse, but nothing that I won't get through with the support of family and friends.

So I have found myself back in the dating pool, which should be interesting. Between my two jobs and the work of the Black Gay Men's Leadership Council, much of my energy will be taken up, but all work and no play is not the way I plan to live. No time to sit around feeling sorry for myself, and in case anyone is wondering.......yes I am taking applications for meeting new people, hanging out and possibly casual dating......LOL, I have no shame.

2006-11-19T15:32:00.000-05:00

It's My Belated Blog-a-versary!!!!

Yes, that's me when I was almost 1 years old......wasn't I cute? I wanted something that was symbolic of Lee's Space turning a year old and what better way than to show my readers what I looked like when I was turning 1!

Wow, I can't believe it's been one year (and 2 weeks) since I started my blog. In this one year time frame, I have had 68 posts and over 5000 hits to my Blog! When I started I wondered if anyone would even come to my Blog other than the friends and family who I'd beg and send "friendly" mass email reminders to visit, so that I knew someone was looking. Since the start of my Blog I've been able to attract more people than just my friends and family. Blogging has also been a cathartic tool for me, allowing me to share my thoughts and views on social issues and hear what others have to say whether pro or con on my views.

How I Got Started
I remember hearing about blogs a couple of years ago, but didn't quite know what they were. Over time, I came across a few blogs online, but they were mostly news blogs and I wasn't really interested in them. Then I was on Keith Boykin's website one day and he had a post about 2 people, both of which I have had the pleasure of meeting since, who were dealing with life crises and Keith asked his readers to pray for them. He also had links to their websites and one of them was a Blog. The Blog I went to was that of the notorious Blogger No4Real4Real. After viewing his Blog, which is on Blogspot, I was intrigued by it as I had been trying to find an outlet to write what I wanted, without it having to be edited and packaged a certain way to fit in a magazine or journal. Blogging fit the bill perfectly. While on No4Real's site, I noticed the little icon at the top of the screen that said create your own and it was on from there. I remember being at work at the time and taking time out to create my profile for the Blog and selecting a template.....I was enthralled.

Hmmm.......What to Write About?
I remember wanting my Blog to be about my thoughts and views on social issues on a variety of topics, not all LGBT related. My very first post was about none other than ME! I wanted to give my readers, if there were going to be any, a glimpse of who I was. I hoped this would help people who visited my blog to connect with me a little more. I was also a bit leary about putting personal information about myself in such a public place and over time I have selected carefully things that I really don't care who knows about me, so that it wouldn't come back to haunt me.

When I first started blogging I was posting a couple of times a week, though I've found it difficult to keep up that pace, especially as my life has gotten busier with work and other activities I'm involved in. By time I get home most evenings I'm beat and don't have the mental energy to put together a post. Over time, I have also wondered what niche could I have my blog fill. A few months ago I was talking with someone and he was saying that he goes to my blog to find out about what's going on in the Black gay community of Philly. I thought to myself afterwards, wow.........that could be my niche. Though I haven't been posting as frequently as I'd like, I do try to post things that are going on here in Philly related to the Black LGBT community. Of course I don't capture everything, but I am going to try to make an effort to inform folks who visit my blog about what's going on here.

The future of Lee's Space
What will the upcoming year hold? I really don't know. I would like to get to a point where I post more frequently; time will tell if I can make this happen. Unfortunately I wasn't able to accomplish one of my New Year's resolutions, which was to make my Blog more visually appealing. I have seen other Bloggers create really nice pages on Blogspot, while mine continues to be the template I started with, but hey it works for now. Maybe this upcoming year will bring me some creativity in this area.

I'd like to thank all the people who have visited and/or commented on my Blog over the past year. Knowing that people are viewing and finding something useful on here is what helps to keep me going. Cheers to the next 365. Stay tuned.........

2006-10-30T22:47:00.000-05:00

What I've Been Up 2

I can't event remember th last time I posted something personal, but a lot has been going on, all of it good for the most part.......

PhD Program
I think I mentioned in my last post that I was planning to apply to a couple of PhD programs. Well I decided that I am defintely going to pursue that last leg of my educational career and have sent in most of the stuff I need for Drexel. I am also planning to apply to Temple, but haven't yet submitted my application. I have decided that I will go for my doctorate in Public Health. I think that fits best with my educational and career interests. I attended an open house for the Public Health program at Drexel and I really like what I heard. My preference really is for Drexel. As I was looking at what both programs offered, I learned about the difference between a PhD, which Temple has and a Dr. PH, which Drexel offers. A PhD is more classroom experience whereas the DrPH has more of a community, direct practice focus to it, though there is still classwork and projects involved.

Drexel has a few staff that are experienced in LGBT research, which would be my area of focus for my dissertation. Another reason why I think Drexel would be a good fit is that some of the professors there are involved in projects that I am involved with related to gay health. So, we shall see how it goes. The only thing I need to do now is take my GRE's, which I have started to study for. My plan is to take them the second week in December.

Social Work Exam
On another note, I am happy to announce that I am now a licensed social worker in the state of Pennsylvania! I took the exam about 3 weeks ago and it was more difficult than I thought it would be. I studied quite a bit prior to the exam and even bit the bullet and ordered a $75 online practice exam. I'm glad I did, because I think it really helped me get a better understanding of the kind of questions on the exam and more importantly, the rationale often used for what they feel is the correct answer.

While taking the exam, I felt like I was experiencing ADD. It was hard for me to focus and I found myself reading the questions over a few times and having to guess at some. By the end, I really wasn't sure if I had passed or not. The exam is 170 multiple choice questions and you are given 4 hours to complete it. It took me 3 1/2. The test is on a computer and it gives you your results immediately. I passed that exam by 3 points and I was happy as hell. If I would have failed, I don't think I would have taken it again anytime soon. There were 2 other people who took it with me and the guy who was monitoring the testing area was spilling their tea. He told me they both failed and that one of the women had already taken it 3 or 4 times. Today in the mail, I got my offficial license with my license number.........hey!

Now on to the GRE's............

Trying to Find Balance
This has been a difficult thing to do the past several months because I have been involved in so much stuff. My full time job is going well and I'm currently going through my 2 year review, which I expect to be favorable. I am also still working at Mazzoni Center as a therapist part time, which is going well. Tonight was a little tough as I have a client who is really going through a tough time and I'm feeling like we're not making much progress on his issues, meanwhile he's spiraling deeper into depression. We are working on some things, that hopefully will get him to a healthier place. On top of that I am quite busy with the Black Gay Men's Leadership Council. We have a lot going on as we were recently funded by the city to hold a Black Gay Men's Research Summit here in Philly in March of 2007 and also to spearhead the organization of a general gay men's health movement here in Philadelphia. I plan to do a post later this week about the work of the Council for those who might be interested in joining.

With all this going on it's difficult to find balance and take care of the other parts of my life that need attention like my partner, studying for the GRE's, rest and just having fun. Though I did find some time to hang out last Thursday evening. I was invited to a dinner party with a group of Black gay men in North Philly. These brothas get together every week to replenish their souls with good food, laughter and friendship. I really enjoyed it and am appreciative they let me into their circle and the food was bangin'!

Upcoming events
This weekend I am going to a bowl and brunch event which is a fundraiser for Mazzoni Center. I haven't bowled in several years, so I hope I can do a little somthin' somthin' out there this weekend. Next week is the big event that is co-sponsored by the BGMLC and my full time employer. I think it will shape up to be a nice event and there seems to be a general interest about it. Of course Thanksgiving is in 3 weeks, which I plan to spend here in Philadelphia. I'm not big on holiday's so I'm looking forward to getting them over with and embarking on a new year.

Also I am coming up on my Blog-a-versary!!!!! November 3rd marks my 1 year start of blogging. I can't believe it's been that long and I am also about to hit 5,000 views, which I am happy about also. I guess someone out there is paying attention to what I write.........LOL. I'll have to prepare something for my one year, not sure what though..........any suggestions?

iTunes Addiction
I admit it , I am addicted! I have been buying music like crazy off of there. I don't think I've been to the store to buy a CD in a couple of months. It's just easier to get it off of iTunes for the same price, actually a little cheaper if you consider the fact that you don't pay tax on iTunes purchases. They also sometimes give you extra tracks and/or a video. I've got to get a grip before I end up in iTunes Anonymous....LOL.

That's all I've been up to. Plodding along at the speed of life.

2006-10-30T07:40:00.000-05:00

Must Get Music

John Legend: Once Again
This album is off the hook! I think this new album is a nice change from his first, titled Get Lifted. I knew it was going to be a hot CD when I heard his first track "Save Room" which has a clean, upbeat tempo with nice lyrics. Some of the tracks such as "Each Day Gets Better" and "Slow Dance" remind me of songs from the late 70's, early 80’s that Marvin Gaye or Lionel Richie could have sung, but with a clean modern edge to them. I also really like PDA (We just don't care), which is another nice up tempo love song, with PDA referring to Public Displays of Affection. "Maxine" another love song that has a Latin sound to it has a refreshing sound. The most moving track on the CD, is called "Coming Home", about soldiers going to war and coming back home. This is a beautiful song with a simple beat that I feel can easily become a classic to play for our soldiers who return home from the war. It almost bought me to tears listening to it.

This album is a must buy for anyone who enjoys good soul music. It differs from his debut album in that there is no hip hop edge to this one and the songs are more diverse, personal and mature. Honestly, I don't know if he’ll be able to top this album as he has set the standard high for himself and other male soul artists. I dare say that Once Again is the best soul album by a male artist this year and I'm sure he'll win a Grammy or two off of it.

Rating: 5 Stars

Lupe Fiasco: Lupe Fiasco's Food & Liquor
Lupe Fiasco is a relatively new artist out of Chicago and I believe this is his first album and it is hot! This is the most refreshing hip hop album I've heard all year because his tracks have hot beats, thought provoking, socially conscious lyrics all with little profanity or misogynistic lyrics which plague most hip hop songs. This is another one of those CD's where every single track is noteworthy and I listen to the whole album without skipping tracks.

I heard of Lupe Fiasco before, but didn't know anything about him other than Kanye West mentioning him in one of his songs. What got my attention was his current single that I saw the video for on VH1 Soul called "Day dreamin'" which features vocals by Jill Scott. The song is hot and I think it was a good look on the collaboration tip, though Jill, when are you coming out with a new single? (Like she's gonna see this.....LOL). I think the first single from the album is called "Kick, Push", which has a hot beat and I absolutely love the song, the lyrical content and the message. Another song I really like is called "He say, She say" which is about the problems that can occur when a young boy doesn't have his father in his life. This song is laid out well and artistically done with the lyrics changing within the song to reflect the perspective of the mother, the child and that of the father. "Hurt Me Soul", another socially conscious song talks about everything from problems faced by poor urban folks, to problems with the misogyny in hip hop to references about the current political environment and other societal problems. The last track I'll mention that I really like is called "American Terrorist" which talks about historical and current social issues including racism and the manipulation of the American Indians out of their land.

This is another must buy CD and is a fresh departure from the status quo hip hop album.

Rating: 5 Stars

Robin Thicke: The Evolution of Robin Thicke
When I heard the first track off of this album "Wanna love you girl" featuring Farrell, I thought it was whack, well I still do, and when I heard the second track with Lil' Wayne called "Shooter" I thought that was whack too, although it's grown on me a little bit. Then I heard his new track, which I saw on VH1 Soul called "Lost Without U" which is a very hot song. It has a nice beat, and I like the falsetto-esque voice and lyrics. I decided to listen to the entire album via the 30-second snippets you get on iTunes and thought it was a good from what I heard, so I decided to get it and I'm glad I did.

The very first track on the album "Got 2 Be Down" is hot, which has a nice clean beat with a female vocalist who sounds like Faith Evans to me, who helps out on the track. "Teach U a Lesson" is another song that I really like. It has a nice smooth guitar and percussion beat to it and I like the content of the song, which sounds like he's playing out a fantasy where he is the teacher and his girlfriend is the naughty student who has to stay after school to be taught a lesson. I'm sure there are many a woman (and gay man) who want to be the object of his affections in this song.

Most of the tracks on this CD are quite good and makes him the newest member of the Blue-eyed soul movement. This album is artistic, has good lyrical content, with well thought out tracks. This is another album that you should definitely get if you like good soul music.

Rating: 4 Stars

2006-10-18T22:11:00.000-05:00

Be Social! A Social Event for Socially Conscious People!

Philadelphia Health Management Corporation (PHMC) in collaboration with the Black Gay Men's Leadership Council (BGMLC) and the Office of the Mayor of Philadelphia, are sponsoring an event to distrubute some of the findings from the Black Men's Health Survey. The details of the event are contained in the flyer below.

The Black Men's Health Survey is a study funded by the Centers for Disease Control, that took a close look at the lives of Black Men who have Sex with Men (MSM) in the city of Philadelpia and the sociocultural factors that contribute to these men's risk for HIV. This study is the largest ever done on Black MSM in Philadelphia, in which we surveyed over 500 men and completed 30 individual interviews and about 8 focus groups. The data from the 540 men was collected in 2005, so it is very current. Some of the things we asked men related to their experiences with racism and homophobia; HIV and STD testing history; experiences with religous institutions; sexual behavior history; drug use history; experiences of sexual abuse and questions related to bisexual behavior among others.

The event detailed below is an effort that PHMC the BGMLC and the Mayor's Office is making to ensure the findings from this study get back to Black MSM in Philadelphia whose lives are impacted by this information. We want Black MSM to see and hear about this study and the implications it has for improving services for them (us). This event will have a heavy social focus, with a little bit of learning thrown in, so come and enjoy free food and drinks and network with others while learning more about the lives of the men who took part in this study. This is an open invitation, but you need to RSVP to fran@phmc.org or call (215) 985-2547.

2006-10-11T08:16:00.000-05:00

BGMLC Letter to The School District of Philadelphia

Below is the contents of the letter that was sent to the School District of Philadelphia from the Black Gay Men's Leadership Counicl (BGMLC) in support of their decision to inculde gay and lesbian history month on their school calendar. For more information, see my related post from last week.

_______________________________________________________

October 10, 2006

Philadelphia School District
440 N Broad Street
Philadelphia, PA 19130

Dear Mr. Nevels:

This letter is written in support of the School District of Philadelphia’s recent decision to include Gay and Lesbian History Month to its school calendar. This is an important decision, which will help create safer and more supportive learning environments for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) students. As you know, both verbal and physical discrimination against GLBT students can have detrimental consequences on not only their academics, but also their mental health and overall well-being. For example, in 2005, the Youth Risk Behavior Survey, a national survey implemented by the Centers for Disease Control, found that “Nationwide16.9% of young people in grades 9-12 seriously considered attempting suicide during the 12 months preceding the survey” Other research has found that GLBT teens account for up to 30% of all teen suicides in the United States. This underscores the need to have the important dialogue that will be created by educating adolescents on GLBT issues.

I know the school district is meeting significant opposition from parents, teachers and other community members about this decision, but we hope that you will maintain your stance in spite of the resistance. Schools play a unique role in students’ lives and help them learn about the multitude of cultures that exist in the world, which is what makes it the perfect place for adolescents to learn more about the lives of GLBT’s. Schools owe the students a fair and balanced education which will allow them to make the decisions they will based on the factual information provided to them by teachers.

In closing, the Black Gay Men’s Leadership Council fully supports the school districts bold and admirable decision to be inclusive of its GLBT students. We also support the great work that the Greater Philadelphia Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Questioning (LGBTQ) Youth Coalition has done and continues to do in conjunction with the school district to educate teachers and administrators on GLBT issues. This decision alone provides the opportunity to: help decrease the dropout rate among GLBT students because of anti-gay school environments; help decrease suicide among GLBT teens who feel they have no supports or places who validate who they are; and help refute stereotypes and negative perceptions of GLBT’s, which helps to eradicate homophobia. Addressing these important public health issues speaks to the commitment the Philadelphia school district has to making the school system a place where all students are welcome and reflects your true investment in cultural diversity.

The Black Gay Men’s Leadership Council lends its support to your efforts and if there is anything we can help with, feel free to contact me. I can be reached via email at phl_bgmlc@yahoo.com or by phone at (215) xxx-xxxx.

The mission of the BGMLC is to use advocacy, education and community collaborations to empower Philadelphia's diverse communities of black gay men by focusing on their social and political advancement and health and wellness needs, while developing local, regional and national leaders.

Sincerely,

Lee Carson, MSW- Chair
Black Gay Men’s Leadership Council
_________________________________________________

If you live in the Philadelphia area, and would like to give your support write a letter to the City School district letting them know you support their decision.

2006-10-03T23:13:00.000-05:00

Are You A "Bitch"?

Today I came across a disturbing social marketing campaign that makes the Philadelphia "Have YOU Been Hit?" campaign look good. As you can see the main media image features a young Black man, well built with his hand on his crotch and the tagline "Don't Be A Bitch. Use A Condom!". This imagery is yet another example of poor social marketing meant to get Black gay men to practice safer sex. This campaign was released in San Francisco and apparently was paid for with money from the SF Department Of Health, which is hard to believe, given the content of the media. However, this editorial in a San Francisco paper states otherwise.

So I cruised through the site to see what was there and with every page I became increasingly angered by the content. First of all, the term "homoboy" is an offensive play on the urban vernacular donned by young Black men. When you click on the dog, who I presume is a female dog, it takes you to a quiz that is supposed to determine if you are a "bitch" or a "homoboy" based on your sexual practices......sorry, but I'll pass on both terms. I took the quiz and answered the sexual questions with a high sexual risk and the quiz told me this. How is this message supposed to change my behavior? Someone please school me, I just don't get it!

So then, I looked at the outreach workers who did outreach for the project and while several of them appear to be Latino and one Black, this makes the issue more disturbing, especially with their "homoboy" bling necklaces. Regardless of race, this is just wrong. It's hard to believe that someone thought this campaign up, and it's even more difficult to believe that a funder paid money to develop and implement this campaign into the community and thought it was okay. For that one Black outreach worker in the photos, he needs to be bitch slapped for engaging in a campaign that makes a mockery of his race!

I don't think I've ever seen a media campaign so racist, sexist, judgmental and inappropriate. If you look at the staff of the agency, Better World Advertising, who developed this campaign, there is only one Black person and a few other people of color. I don't know how they could have in good conscious put this campaign together and expect it could be effective. So if I decide not to use a condom, I'm a bitch? Oh yeah that's going to get me to start practicing safer sex. If you look at the questions and the response categories in their survey they are extremely offensive as well. No wonder why HIV infections continue to rise among Black MSM, because many of the messages developed for us promoting better sexual health miss the mark and are inappropriate, culturally insensitive and just don't make sense!

This website needs to be shut down and removed from the Internet. Please join me in writing to the media firm who hosts this website and let them know your thoughts. Don't allow this offensive and racist content to remain accessible to the public. We should not allow our sexual health to be reduced to "bling bling" and racist notions of how Blacks act, dress and think. Send an email to the social marketing firm who created the media and hosts the website at: contact@socialmarketing.com .

2006-10-02T16:15:00.000-05:00

Philadelphia School District adds controversial celebration to calendar

Last week the Philadelphia school district announced a bold decision to put gay and lesbian history month into their school calendar. Of course this decision hasn't come without protest by parents and others who feel that homosexuality shouldn't be "promoted" by the school district.

Those who oppose the idea of having gay and lesbian history discussed in school are trying to compare gay history with that of Black history, trying to make the point that one is valid while the other is not. Most folks who oppose gay and lesbian history month do so because they feel homosexuality is a choice, unlike race which you are born with and is unchangeable. On the contrary, depending on which side you stand, it could be argued that homosexuality is innate (you're born gay or lesbian) and that therefore it isn't a choice. Either way there is a long history of contributions that gays and lesbians have made to American history and continue to contribute to society every day. The issue for me is more about acknowleding the diversity that exists in our society.

Personally I'm tired of homophobic Blacks trying to act like gays and lesbians are trying to ride on the backs of the Black Civil Rights movement and trying to demote homosexuality to a choice that can be changed at any time. I believe there are some parallels to both Civil Rights movements, but of course they are not the same and I don't think there are any LGBT's saying they are the same. Indeed, Black gays have been around for years, even during the Black Civil Rights era, lest we forget James Baldwin or Bayard Rustin. So for Black gays at that time, they paid twice the toll of discrimination. Besides if you want to be flip about one not being able to change their race, we can look at Michael Jackson as a reference point. No shade, but at this point, I think he's his own unique race.

In addition, a benefit to having a gay and lesbian history month in the schools will begin a crritical dialogue, that if handled correctly, can have a positive benefit on changing negative perceptions of homosexuality. For lack of a better word it can begin to "normalize" it as a healthy lifestyle which would have positive implications on eradicating homophobia. If conversations are starting with students when they are young and positive images are being presented about gays and lesbians, then thousands of young people can be saved from experiencing the pain of the closet and hostile, homophobic school environments. One of the activities that 9th graders would have to engage in as part of the month is to read a story on the coming out process.

I think this is a great idea the Philadelphia school district has taken on if they handle it correctly. I hope they won't be discouraged by homophobic zealots who seek to keep LGBT's oppressed. To see a video newsclip of this story click here.

2006-10-01T21:30:00.000-05:00

Update on Rally in Harrisburg

The LGBT Philadelphia contigent was active at the Rally in Harrisburg for stricter gun laws in the states capitol on September 26th. We had over 30 people in attendance and all of us met with staff in state legislators' offices to support Mayor Streets "one gun a month" legislation.

Group Photo in Philly before going to Harrisburg

Group Pic in Harrisburg: expressing our pride

LGBT advocates on the Capitol steps making a presence

There were hundreds of people at the Rally on the Capitol steps

Mayor John Street closes out the rally with his speech

Why the need for this bill?
Did you know that in the state of Pennsylvania that a person with merely a permit, can purchase as many guns as they want at any given time? Literally a person can walk into the gun store and buy 20 guns at one time if they wish. Unfortunately this exact scenario happens often in real life, which is how the streets get flooded with guns. A new term I learned in this process is called "straw purchases", which is used to identify a process where someone who has a legal permit to purchase guns does so and sells them to people often times who don't have a permit. People who don't have a permit, don't have one for a reason, usually because they are a convicted felon, have lost their ability to legally carry a gun for some reason or because they are a minor. I don't know about you, but I don't want either of those people getting access to as many guns as they want because of lax gun laws!

It seems silly that we'd have to fight state legislators so hard for something so simple and humanistic! Mayor Street is asking that the law be changed so that only one gun a month can be purchased by a person with a legal permit. Even that's a lot, but it's much better than unlimited purchases as often as you want. Who needs 12 guns a year?! I wonder if those in the capitol found themselves mourning the loss of family members from gun violence, if they would finally wake up to the need to pass this legislation?!

Blacks in the inner city of Philadelphia know all too well what the plethora of guns is doing to our community. There are over 280 homicides in this city so far this year, the vast majority of them involving guns. That is about 1 death a day to gun violence! Several victims this year have been less than 10 years old! Two days before we went to Harrisburg, a 5 year old girl was killed as her mother drove down the street and happened to find herself in the crossfire of a shootout, which claimed the life of her daughter. When will this madness end? While there is no simple answer to this question, I know one thing: if you limit the number of guns that are available on the street, you will make a dent in gun related violence.

Another part of the legislation Mayor Street is trying to get passed would allow for an increase in funding for social service programs for inner city neighborhoods in Philadelphia. Though the issue of decreasing violence will take a multi-dimensional approach, increasing effective social service intervention programs is definitely a crucial need in this fight to decrease violence.

Let's hope that those in Harrisburg who have the power to make this legislation happen, will do so. We can't afford to continue to allow the overflow of guns on our streets, that most often are claiming the lives of young Blacks. Do those in Harrisburg have to wait until it's an issue effecting affluent suburban Whites before they will take action? If we have not learned our lesson by now that an issue that plagues one segment of the community so virulently, effects us all, then we will continue to pay the cost of our ignorance.

Please write your state legislators in support of the Mayor's bill. This is a much needed first step in a larger battle to save our community. Click here to find your state legislator. If you want suggestions on what to write to your legislative official Email me

2006-09-21T11:06:00.000-05:00

Join the Harrisburg Rally for stricter gun laws

Anyone who lives in Philadelphia knows that there is a huge urban gun violence issue here, which unfortunately isn't an issue unique solely to Philly. The Mayor of Philadelphia, John F. Street, has organized a rally in Harrisburg to convince state legislators to pass stricter gun laws in the state of Pennsylvania.

The city of Philadelphia endorses the following priorities to be addressed by the state:

Responsible Gun Ownership:
The Administration supports legislation introduced by the Philadelphia Delegation that requires gun owners to maintain guns in a secure lock box, requires trigger locks on all guns, and requires the immediate report of lost, stolen or missing firearms to the Police.

Limit the Number of Guns in Philadelphia:
The Administration supports legislation that limits the purchase of guns to one-gun-a-month, and legislation that cracks down on straw purchaser activity. It is important to note, that legislation in this category will only be effective if it is implemented statewide. A one-gun-a-month law that only affects guns purchased in Philadelphia will do little to stop the influx of guns into the city.

Increase Penalties for Crimes Committed with Guns:
The Administration supports legislation that makes possession of any illegal firearm a felony and moves more gun violations to state and federal courts

Why is this issue important to LGBT's?
Following is a statement from Michael Hinson who is a managing director for the city and the Mayor's liaison to the LGBT community:

"As leaders in the LGBT Community you might wonder, 'what does this have to do with me?' Remember that our community is made up of many communities. Through our various communities we face a myriad of issues including issues of violence and again specifically hand gun perpetrated violence. we can all think back a little about several high profile cases of LGBT individuals in particularly young people who have been the victims of such violence. Further, because the Mayor has outlined a model that includes social services as part of the solution, one doesn't have to think far about what we can do in our communities especially with young people if we were to receive additional supports for social services. Lastly, this is a "huge" opportunity for us as leaders in the LGBT community to stand side-by-side with other community leaders on issues that affect us all. This will certainly help us in our ongoing efforts to bridge our issues with those of the larger community... .'ally building'."

How can you do your part?
Join the Black Gay Men's Leadership Council, Outfront ( a local political group) and a variety of other LGBT organizations on a bus we have commissioned for the purpose of going to Harrisburg to support the Mayor's efforts. Here are the details:

When: Tuesday November 26, 2006

Time: Bus leaves Philly @ 8am, leaves Harrisburg @ 3:30pm

Departure: William Way Community Center- 1315 Spruce Street

A light breakfast and lunch will be served to attendees in our group. For more information call: 215.817.1417

2006-09-10T23:52:00.000-05:00

Flavor Of Love Season 2

Ok, tonight's show was a mess. I missed the first 10 minutes, but the last 50 minutes were off the hook! I've been inconsistant with my viewing of the show, but I think this season is most definitely spicier than last season. From the first show the girls were starting to throw down, apparently setting a precedent for this entire season, because there have been at least 3 or 4 physical altercations since then. I don't really care about who wins the show, I just watch 4 the drama. Once again the show has an appeal to me, though I feel like I shouldn't be watching it because it's so ghetto and sideshow freakish, the way these girls act for a chance to date a washed up, crispy Flava Flave. It's so funny because in real life, would any of these girls really fight for Flaves attention like this? But alas, let me take the show for it's face value, which is entertainment, and that it is.

The Twist
As soon as I started watching the show tonight and saw that New York from last season was on it, I new all hell was about to break loose. I figured it was a matter of time before he bought her on the show and had her interview the girls, like he did with his former Celebriality flame Bridgette Neilson last season. Having your ex flame, who still has "feelings" for you, give you a report on what she thinks of the other women vying for your affection is like asking Tom the cat to guard Jerry the mouse (all you 30+ folks can appreciate that reference, unless you've seen repeats on CN). Having her on though, I'm sure boosted his ratings for tonight, because there was nothing but drama from the moment she stepped in the house.

The true twist was when he gave New York a clock at the end of the show, which now puts her back in the competition a second time for Flave's "love". This is nothing more than a publicity stunt to boost her career (whatever that is) and to give the show better ratings. New York is so exxxxtttttrrrrraaaaa, it makes no sense. It's really hard for me to sit there and see how she acts and treats others on the show and already has me secretly wishing to see her test the wrong girl and catch a beatdown.

The funny Part
Buckwild, had a rough night on the show. New York was so rude to her when she was critiquing the girls and told her "you look like a fairy princess.........who resides over the pit of hell". That is the classic extraness of New York.

But the true shade is when Buckwild got caught slipping out of her ghetto vernacular "role" she's been playing up on the show. Flave picked up on it immediately and called her on it, which was so funny. She said she loses her ghetto accent when she gets upset, but shouldn't it be the other way around? The ghetto usually comes out when you get upset. Buckwild resigned from the show once she saw New York would be living in the house, which I wish she would have stayed, because she might have been the one to give New York that beat down. She said she just got off probation.........hmmmm, I wonder for what?

The whole energy in the house will most defintely change with New York being there again, which really isn't fair to the other girls because she has more history with Flave. Especially since she was runner up on last seasons show, but stay tuned, because the previews for the upcoming shows look like DRAMA!

Check out New York's My Space page

2006-09-09T22:55:00.000-05:00

Savior or Sambo?

Okay, when you look at this picture of Terrell Owens on the cover of the new ESPN magazine what do you think? Please, use free association. One of the first words that comes to my mind is Sambo! Why on earth would he take a picture like this and allow them to put it on the cover of their magazine? I think this picture looks incredibly racist and too closely resembles the racially inflamatory charactures Whites used to draw of Blacks in the early 1900's.

Maybe I'm taking this too seriously, but I think this picture is incredibly offensive. Yes TO has a bangin' body and no one can deny that, but he's a mess. He's a had a stormy career for a while now and left a bad taste in my mouth, as well as many Philadelphian's with his antics while he was with the Eagels. Now he's starting them all over again in Dallas. I don't follow TO closely, but it seems that he needs to be more careful of how he presents himself to the public.

I bet there are a bunch of rednecks in Texas having a field day with this picture and I can only imagine what they're saying as they drink beer at their favorite saloon and use this photo as a dart board while watching the Cowboy's play.

While image isn't everything, it definitely means something and TO just keeps damaging his, but of course that is just my opinion. What do you think of this picture?

2006-09-02T12:06:00.000-05:00

The Evolution of Absolutelee

Life has been traveling at the speed of light, with no signs of slowing down. I'm glad to be home this weekend, with no plans to travel for a little while. I have pretty much been gone almost every weekend since June and I am perfectly content chillin' out with no real plans until tomorrow evening, when I'm planning to go to a party with my partner and some friends. I'm not one that is big on holidays, but I am glad for the extra day off for Labor Day on Monday, so it's all good.

My summer has been enjoyable, though I have been back home more times this summer than I would have liked, but each time I went was for important occasions. The most important of those being my 'lil sisters wedding. It was great and she was absolutely beautiful and I was pleased to walk my mother down the isle to light the ceremonial candle and a few other things I was involved in that allowed me to be part of the special moment. Initially I was planning to post pictures on here of the wedding, but because of some of my recent media exposure, I've seen how easy it is for people to find out personal info on me, so that has caused me to be a little more cautious. Hence my decision not to post any pictures of her or my family on here.

Just this week I have come to a couple of conclusions about my professional direction. First, I am planning to sit for my social work licensure exam by early November. I am just entering my 2nd year post master's, which is what is needed before you can take the clinical exam, which is the one I would like to take. The problem is that I don't work in the field full-time, and in order for me to become a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW), I need to have 3600 hours of practice, which has to be completed in a 6 year time frame. I don't know that I'll be able to make it as I currently only work approximately 10 hours a week doing therapy. I talked with my supervisor where I do my mental health work and she told me that not all of that time has to be direct clinical, and that some of the work I do at my full time job may apply toward those hours. I need to clarify all this with the licensing board to know which exam I need to take. The clinical exam is the most difficult. Really the main benefit that I can see getting the clinical licensure versus the Masters level licensure is that the clinical allows me to bill Medicaid and other insurance sources should I want to go into private practice. Even if I got the Master's level licensure, it would be a step up from what I have now and I could always take the LCSW exam later. If anyone comes across this post and is going through this process or knowledgeable of it, let me know.

The other decision I've made is that I am planning to apply for a doctoral program. This will be a major commitment should I get accepted, because it'll be like 6 years of school. This decision came out of the blue this week, which is the same way my decision to go to grad school came when I applied back in 2001. I mean, I had some fleeting thoughts of returning to school, but never really entertained the thought until this week. There are three degrees I am thinking of, which are to get my doctorate in Public Health, Social Work or Psychology. I am heavily leaning toward Public Health though. The program I'm most interested in is at Drexel and the other is at Temple. I have been researching both programs and at this point I think I prefer Drexel’s program.

As I have been researching the requirements for admission and the expectations for the doctoral programs, I have to say that I feel a bit intimidated and wondering if I have the intelligence and skills to complete the program. I know there are a lot of people who start a doctoral program, even master's programs that don't end up completing for various reasons. I'm also not thrilled AT ALL about taking the GRE's, which are required of all the doctoral programs I've looked at so far. Hasn't academia realized that these standardized tests aren't good measures of intelligence or academic ability? It would be wonderful if they figured this out before the fall of 2007.....LOL. But I've made up my mind, that I will do what I need to do to get into a doctoral program. Paying for it is a whole other issue, but I'll cross that bridge if I get to it. One thing I'm looking into is seeing if my job can help me out. They are partnering with Drexel to provide financial benefits, such as tuition breaks for employees who want to get their Master's degree in Public Health, so I'm hoping this benefit, if it actually materializes will also extend to employees who want to pursue a doctoral degree.

These are lofty goals, but so far, I have been able to accomplish all of my academic goals, so I hope these will be no different. If I were to obtain my doctoral degree, I believe I will be the first to do so on both sides of my family, which would be a great accomplishment.

Anyone else out there in a doctoral program or thinking of applying? I can use any insight or support that's out there.

Have a good Labor Day weekend and try to stay dry!

2006-08-30T22:43:00.000-05:00

15 Year Highschool Reunion

Wow.....I can't believe that it has been 15 years since I've been out of highschool. It really doesn't seem like it's been that long, but it has and it was good to catch up with people after all these years. Even though I stayed in Rochester, for 13 years after highschool, there were several people that I hadn't seen in 15 years. A few moved away, but a good number of folks stayed in tha Roc.

The reuinion was well organized and everyone looked good. On the real though, there were some people that I had to look at the nametag to remember who they were. Some I didn't remember that well as we didn't talk much in highschool. One thing I had forgotten was that I didn't take a senior picture. I don't know what happened, but I felt a little left out because everyones senior picture flashed across the screen during dinner and mine was missing. None the less, a brotha was happy to have got up out that joint.

During the tour, we were told that Wilson Magnet is now rated as the 24th best highschool in America. That's pretty prestigous given the number of highschools in the country. They have also upgraded the school, and I'll tell ya, these youngsters have it good (I know I sound old..."youngsters", who says that.....LOL). They built a whole new section onto the school, with a new gym, they have a plasma TV in the lunchroom now, they have a new beautiful library, and new locker rooms among other things. Here are a few pictures of my fellow Wilson alum:

The outside of the school

The picture is the man who the school is named after

The flags represent flags from the nations of current and past Wilson students

Group pic outside the school. Believe me there were more in our class, but only a few showed up for the school tour
(don't want people to think I was in a "special" class.....LOL)

Me, gettin' ready to hit the evening party

Us at the hors'd'vours/happy hour portion of the evening

Us after dinner and several drinks......open bar all night and we were feelin' lovely!

2006-08-24T08:00:00.000-05:00

Entertaining Television

Noah's Arc
I just got through watching the 3rd episode of Noah's Arc and all I can say is drama! Well there wasn't that much drama until the end, when Alex was apologizing to Guy for being jealous of he and Tre's friendship. When Guy (apparently Gay Guy) hugged him and then said in his ear "wait 'til I take your man bitch!", I just about fell out! At first I thought Alex was dreaming, but I don't think that was the case. This is the kind of drama and suspense that Noah's Arc needed to boost it's ratings and likability this season.

Personally, I think the show is much better this season and I found myself rushing home tonight from my part time job to catch it. I missed last weeks episode, so I found myself going on iTunes to download it, instead of waiting for it to run again on Logo. I'm glad the story lines have improved and that there is more depth to the issues they are dealing with on the show. I like the flirting between Noah and Wade, that plants the seeds of a possible reconnection, but subtle enough that it leaves you wondering if it will really happen. I am glad that they aren't all of a sudden back together after one episode, which is how fast story lines seemed to move in the first season.

Fantasia Barrino movie
I surprisingly found myself liking her autobiographical movie "Life Is Not a Fairy Tail" that came on The L ifetime Channel the other night. Fantasia played herself in the movie, which I was a bit suspect about, but she did a good job I thought. She's a good actress and I like how they incorporated actual clips of her when she was on American Idol. Overall I enjoyed the movie and think she can have a future in acting. In most of the movie she had longer hair (weave), which I thought made her look better than with the short hair. I think the short hair makes her lips look bigger as well as her face. The longer hair tones both down to make her look.......well as cute as she's gonna get.

Kadeem Hardison played her father, and looked old. I know that's how they had him look in the movie for the role, but I suppose he hasn't really had many acting options since "A Different World" and "A Vampire in Brooklyn", which starred Eddie Murphy and the always ghetto fabulous "you gots to coordinate" John Witherspoon. Loretta Divine played her grandmother. I would have been offended if someone asked me to play the grandmother of someone who I'm only old enough to be their mother in real life. But I suppose that she hasn't really starred in any big movies since "Waiting to Exhale" so she's taking what she can get..........I ain't mad at that.

Surviors next season
Did you all hear that the next season of the hit CBS show Survivor will be splitting the teams along racial lines? That should be interesting to say the least. I don't really watch the show, but I always watch CBS's morning show before going to work and Harry Smith always does a recap of the previous nights show and interviews the most recent ousted member.

I think they are really gonna get the drama they're looking for this season on Cook Island. The races on the show will be a Black tribe, a White tribe, a Hispanic tribe and an Asian tribe. So is this a ploy to increase ratings by exploiting racial tensions that will no doubt rear their ugly heads on the show? The show's host Jeff Probst said on yesterday morning's Early Show

"the idea for this actually came from the criticism that Survivor was not ethnically diverse enough, because for whatever reason, we always have a low number of minority applicants apply for the show".

So I guess this move is to create an equal opportunity show? It'll be interesting to see how the next season of Survivor plays out.

2006-08-16T21:53:00.000-05:00

More of the BGMLC in the news

I did an interview with a woman named Kellee Terrell who is a reporter for poz.com on Monday. I think she did a good job of balancing this story out. I still can't believe how much exposure this story has gotten nationally. Here is the article she wrote which can also be found here.
____________________________________________________

Bang-Bang, You’re Dead: HIV Activists Shoot Down Fear-Based Prevention

by Kellee Terrell

August 16, 2006—Take the face of a young, handsome African-American man. Put it squarely in the crosshairs of a sniper’s rifle. Slap that image on a poster, with the tagline “HIV: Have You Been Hit?” Then plaster the ad on public buses, trolleys, and trains—and in clinics and print and broadcast ads—across Philadelphia. And what do you get? Depending upon whom you ask in the City of Brotherly Love, you have either a vital recipe for HIV prevention among gay and bisexual men of color—or yet another incendiary stereotype suggesting that guns and violence are the only language African-American men can understand.

The $236,000 campaign, which the Philadelphia Department of Public Health launched in May, responds to alarming data that the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) released last year. The report found that in five American cities (Philadelphia wasn’t included), 46% of African-American men who have sex with men (MSM) were HIV positive; two-thirds of those had told pretest interviewers that they believed they were negative.

What’s more, the CDC notes, African Americans are ten times more likely than Caucasians to be diagnosed with full-blown AIDS when they first test positive for HIV, due partly to low testing rates. So the city interviewed several advertising firms, then tapped the local, black-owned Zigzag agency to craft a strategy. “This was an entire social marketing campaign,” says Mark Norris, 45, Zigzag’s president. “This campaign is about saving lives.”

And indeed, many in its target demographic embraced it. Carlos Harkum, a 25-year-old HIV positive gay man who lives in gun-ravaged North Philadelphia, told POZ.com, “I liked the ads. I thought they were catchy, and people need to get tested here. It’s like, ‘Have you been hit?’ ”

However, the campaign itself was hit—when it crossed hairs with another Philadelphia health emergency. As of August 16, a wave of record-breaking gun violence had claimed 244 murder victims in the city since January 1, 2006—most of them African-American. (Another 1,200 Philadelphians have been injured.) The perceived threat is so severe that in July, Philadelphia Mayor John Street made a rare public television address, urging citizens to “take a deep breath before resorting to the use of guns to settle minor conflicts.”

Not-so-minor conflicts arose over Zigzag’s poster—as gay, African-American and AIDS activists assailed the city and the agency, citing what they called an insensitive and self-reinforcing affirmation of violence. Hassan Gibbs, 49, an HIV positive treatment educator at Philadelphia’s largest AIDS service organization (ASO), Philadelphia Fight, says he didn’t mind the ads at first but soon changed his mind when activists sent him e-mails. Gibbs, who is gay, says, “Every day here is like Iraq; every day we count down [the murders] on the news. The [Zigzag] ads are culturally inappropriate. Young men here glorify shooting each other, and [the firm] should have left the guns out of the ad.” Diagnosed in 1985, Gibbs says he is living proof that, as he puts it, “HIV is not a death sentence” and that contrary to the ads’ implication, “once you’ve been hit, you’re not necessarily dead.”

Among the ads’ more vocal opponents is Lee Carson, 33, chair of the city’s Black Gay Men’s Leadership Council. “We need to be culturally sensitive,” he says. “ Not only are black men usually victims of gun violence, but these ads further perpetuate the existing stereotypes that we are gun-toting hoodlums.” In a letter to the interim director of the Philadelphia Health Department, Carmen Paris, Carson wrote, “Given the violence perpetuated against gay men, it is not far-fetched to see how this campaign fosters violence.”

Zigzag’s Norris says he still doesn’t understand the activists’ objections. “We don’t agree that these images have anything to do with violence,” he says, adding that the campaign was endorsed by two focus groups from gay and African-American organizations. “I did not choose it,” he adds, to which Carson responds, “This image should never have made it to the focus groups at all.”

Such fear tactics—images of guns, lesions, scorpions and skeletons, plus spooky, threatening ultimatums—are hardly new in HIV prevention, and their use perennially sparks controversy in the AIDS community. Although Norris says Zigzag “rarely uses fear campaigns,” he adds that “MSMs or men on the ‘down low’ are so hard to reach that fear is the most effective way. Do you pussyfoot around and spend government tax dollars on a campaign that you know won’t work?” Norris says the campaign has been extremely successful, claiming that calls to the Philadelphia Department of Public Health’s HIV/AIDS hot line have increased by 150%. (Department spokespeople did not respond to POZ.com’s numerous requests for comment on this story.)

David Malebranche, MD, 37, an assistant professor of medicine at Atlanta’s Emory University who has extensively studied the African-American MSM community, doesn’t dispute Norris’ numbers. But he does question what he considers the agency’s sensationalistic approach in achieving them. “When government dollars are involved, [prevention contractors] only want to show good numbers up-front,” he says. “I think using fear as a last [desperate] resort is garbage. Everything fear-based comes down from our president who uses fear to launch every agenda.”

Adds Carson, “Phone calls do not translate into testing. We need campaigns that are going to change behaviors over the long haul. We also need to address the underpinnings of HIV—heterosexism, stigma and homophobia.” Malebranche suggests, “What young MSMs need are more strategies that focus on how we can become more empowered and negotiate our mental health without the fear.”

During the week of August 7, local and national media, including the Associated Press, reported that the Department of Public Health pulled the campaign in, well, self-defense. “Not so,” Norris says. “The health department never pulled the ads; they were being phased out on schedule, and this part of the campaign ran its course.” He pauses. “Now, we are ready for Phase 2.” Norris didn’t specify what that phase would involve but did offer these clues: “We will work with any and all groups to make sure that everyone’s opinion is considered. But that will not preclude us from creating sometimes controversial campaigns to get the results our clients are after. We’re not gonna go and get tamed.”

2006-08-15T08:01:00.000-05:00

2006-08-10T21:42:00.000-05:00

The Power of Advocacy

Many of you may have seen on Keith Boykin's site or Rod 2.0 as well as the print media that an organization I belong to has taken on the Philadelphia Health Department regarding an HIV testing campaign that we feel has harmful reprecussions to members of the Black MSM community here in Philadelphia. Some may disagree with our opinion on the campaign, but none the less we feel we did the right thing by calling on the DOH to pull the campaign. You judge for yourself on the content of the imagery:

So would seeing these images make you want to run out and get an HIV test?

Below is the contents of an article that made national news, which was spurred by a press release that was sent out by the Black Gay Men's Leadership Council, the organization that spearheded the effort to get this campaign pulled.

__________________________________________________

Anti-AIDS ads pulled following complaints of violent images

By Marie McCullough, Inquirer Staff Writer

While Philadelphia's mayor and police commissioner have been campaigning against surging gun violence, the city's Department of Public Health has been fighting another scourge with both barrels.

In public service ads urging HIV testing, young African American men are shown in the crosshairs of a gun with the tagline "Have YOU been hit?"

The $236,000 campaign - aimed at gay, bisexual and "down-low" men - ended abruptly yesterday, a few days after the Black Gay Men's Leadership Council went public with concerns it has been raising since December.

"Putting the face of a Black man in the crosshairs of a gun paints a damaging message about violence and Black men... . Given the violence perpetrated against gay men, it is not farfetched to see how this campaign fosters violence," Lee Carson, chair of the year-old leadership council, wrote last month to interim Health Commissioner Carmen Paris.

Yesterday, Paris stressed that she "inherited" the campaign and only recently saw the ads. But she added, "The right thing to do, of course, is not to promote any message that could be perceived as promoting violence."

The campaign launched in late May with ads on SEPTA buses, television, postcards and a Web site, www.dontguess.org.

On Friday, the Web site featured ads and video clips of men in gun sights. Yesterday, they were gone.

Whether this was a result of planning or embarrassment is unclear. The kickoff news release said the campaign's developers would "promote the need for testing throughout the year," but Paris said the campaign was scheduled to end Aug. 3 - last Thursday.

That came as a surprise to UPN 57, one of the TV stations that has been running the ads. "There is no indication of a kill date on any material given to me," said Shelley Hoffmann, UPN's public affairs coordinator.

Even David Acosta, the city's coordinator of AIDS prevention programs, said he was told only yesterday that the campaign he was overseeing had been "pulled as of August 3."

Philadelphia's seemingly intractable crisis of gun violence has gotten so bad - particularly in poor, predominantly minority neighborhoods - that Mayor Street and regional leaders, including Cardinal Justin Rigali, held an unprecedented summit meeting at City Hall on July 31. As of midnight Sunday, 238 people had been been murdered, compared with 215 at the same time last year.

But HIV/AIDS hits the same neighborhoods. Originally the plague of young, middle-class, gay men, HIV/AIDS now predominantly afflicts the marginalized poor, especially African Americans. Black people account for more HIV and AIDS diagnoses and deaths than any other racial or ethnic group in Philadelphia and nationally.

The "Have You Been Hit?" campaign illustrates the challenges of finding a catchy yet careful way of motivating them to find out if they have a potentially deadly sexually transmitted disease.

Zigzag Net Inc., the Philadelphia-based marketing company that developed the campaign, spent months setting up two focus groups to evaluate the most effective themes.

"We are aware of objections to the campaign," said Zigzag project manager Aaron McLean. "However, we acted under the explicit direction of the city Health Department. The response in the focus groups was very positive."

But while McLean said each group had "10 or 12" men who represented the types that resist testing, a letter from Gay Leadership Council member Kevin Trimell Jones to a city AIDS officials suggests otherwise.

Jones, an AIDS researcher at the University of Pennsylvania, complained last December that the first focus group had only eight men, and most didn't fit Zigzag's own recruitment criteria. Most had been tested for HIV recently, and at least one worked with a local AIDS service organization.

Mark McLaurin, founder of the New York State Black Gay Network, said that, to be effective, AIDS prevention campaigns must address underlying problems such as homophobia and substance abuse - and stop fear-mongering.

"I can't imagine the vetting process was well-grounded in this targeted community," he said of Philadelphia's ads. "Above and beyond the obvious issues of scapegoating and demonizing HIV-positive people, for a campaign to simulate gun violence in a city that has been ravaged by gun violence, I'm almost speechless."

2006-08-10T19:49:00.000-05:00

The 2 1/2 month Hiatus

So much has happened the past few months that there's no way I can summarize it all here, but there have been lots of positive things going on for me. Part of the reason I haven't blogged in so long is because I've been really busy and had a lack of motivation to write. But I'm baaaack!!!!

One of the highlights in my life since I last blogged is that I went to my family reunion during July 4th weekend. It was our 25th consecutive reunion, in which I have not done so well in getting to them all in my adult years. It was great to see all my family, and to see how big it's gotten with the younger generation. I also built stronger connections with some of my 2nd cousins, that oddly enough, I never really talked to all that much in past years, but something changed this year and that was a good thing. My partner went with me and everyone loved him. It was great to see that they were accepting and I didn't really feel any shadyness from them about me bringing him.

I have still been working as a therapist in the LGBT mental health center, which I enjoy greatly. I have been running a mental health support group there, which has been pretty successful so far. My full time job has been going well also and I have been busy with our new project. It's exciting being part of a creative, dedicated team of people that are working hard to make this a successful project. As you can see from the other post I have on here about the Philadelphia Health Department, that it's not always easy putting together a media-based intervention, and we want to make sure we develop something that will have a positive impact on the community.
The most exciting thing I have coming up is this weekend. My little sister is getting married. She is beautiful and I know she is going to be stunning on her wedding day. I have to head home tomorrow to help her prepare for the wedding. She says she's not stressed, but can't wait until all of it is over, so her life can go back to normal. I'm sure the day will turn out well and the weather is going to be perfect on that day. Finally the heatwave is over.

My involvement with the Black Gay Men's Leadership Council has been productive. I took the position of chairman of the group a couple of months ago, so I have invested a lot of time in helping the organization find it's direction. The post above illustrates some of the work we're doing in the Philadelphia community. We also have another Professional Black LGBT networking event next week, August 17th 5:30-7:30 at the Griffin Cafe' on the corner of Bank and Market Streets in Old City. If you're in Philly, stop through and socialize, it'll be a good time and there are no other events like it in the city, so we are breaking ground.

Keep checking in, I plan on posting regularly again, so stay tuned!

2006-05-25T18:31:00.000-05:00

Let The Philadelphia Gay News Know......

they cannot continue to marginalize the lives of Black LGBT's in their paper any longer! As I said in my last post, I was angered that the Philadelphia Gay News (PGN) provided absolutely no coverage of the events that took place during Philadelphia's 7th annual Black Gay Pride celebration at the end of April. As expected however, there was a great deal of coverage on the Equality Forum in their newspaper, which took place the week after Black Pride. For those of you not familiar with Equality Forum, it is a big LGBT event, here in Philadelphia that takes place the last week of April/1st week of May and is primarily frequented by Caucasian LGBT's. I have no beef at all wtih Equality Forum, just with the PGN and what it chooses to report on.

It's this kind of lopsided coverage by the PGN on the lives of the Black LGBT community that continues to keep the lives and contributions we make to the larger community invisible. It's also saturated with racism, promoting White LGBT prominence, while feeding into Black LGBT marginalization. Black folks who are desperately seeking to find a positive image of themselves in the gay press, such as the PGN, are hard pressed to find one. I believe the gay press has a responsibility to cover the full spectrum of the LGBT experience, and the Black Gay Men's Leadership Council (BGMLC) is going to hold the PGN accountable for this.

Below I have pasted the letter that the BGMLC wrote to the PGN. If you know of anyone in the metro Philly area, send them a link to this post. We need all the community support we can get to put pressure on the PGN and to let them know that the Black LGBT community DOES have a powerful voice when we feel we're not being treated with respect. In case you want to send an email, write a letter or call the PGN, here is the contact information:

505 South 4th Street
Philadelphia, PA 19147
(215) 625-8501
Web addy: www.epgn.com
Editor: Marco Baker
email: marco@epgn.com
_______________________________________________
DATE: May 22, 2006
FROM: The Black Gay Men’s Leadership Council
TO: Marco Baker, Editor of the PGN
RE: PGN and marginal coverage of certain LGBT communities

Dear Mr. Baker:

As a collective of Black Gay men who live in the City of Philadelphia, we write to express our disappointment with the lack of diverse coverage in your newspaper, and, in particular, the 7th Annual Philadelphia Black Gay Pride events. We are concerned that celebratory events targeting racial and/or ethnic LGBT communities are regularly left invisible.

Beyond doubt, we appreciate the important coverage of Equality Forum. But as one example, there were four pieces dedicated to the event, with one piece featuring a full page of photographs in the May 12-18 issue. Though you wrote one short article and one slightly larger article about Philadelphia Black Gay Pride prior to the events, the actual events received no coverage.

Philadelphia Black Gay Pride featured many newsworthy and outstanding events; notably, a panel discussion on safety and civil rights concerns. The event brought together local and national civil rights and law enforcement organizations, and diverse members of our community. This standing room only event was moderated by Loraine Ballard Morrill, the News and Community Affairs Director for Clear Channel Communications Philadelphia. The lively panel concluded with the debut of a palm card that provided suggestions on what to do if stopped by the police and tips for reporting hate crimes and police maltreatment. Despite a press release and a follow-up phone call, the PGN missed an important opportunity to report on alliance building and collaborative work between entities that recognize and support the human nature of safety and civil rights concerns.

Unfortunately, this type of silence propels a dangerous message: positive, noteworthy events targeting our non-white LGBT community members are not important or newsworthy. Additionally, it helps maintain, support and uphold the idea of ‘black LGBT invisibility’ and the myth that homosexuality is a “white thing.” This is a racist message that homophobes often use to build and strengthen alliances and create arguments against gay marriage or any other civil rights issues that require the support of all communities, especially our straight allies.

Members of our communities must be careful to not provide ammunition to those seeking to limit or take away our fundamental rights. We cannot tolerate marginalization within the LGBT community. Hence, we demand that the PGN provide greater press coverage related to the diverse LGBT experiences occurring in Philadelphia, including LGBT communities of color. We believe that there are ideas and solutions on how to provide ample coverage. To this end, we, as members of the BGMLC, are willing to meet with the appropriate PGN staff to share our ideas on making your paper more inclusive of diverse LGBT experiences. We ask that you seek and incorporate these, and other, ideas so that politicians and local businesses can continue to use the PGN as an adequate source to fairly and effectively reach constituents and clients. We share your vision of an honest news source that works with integrity and professionalism to serve the LGBT community. With these changes, we believe that the PGN can serve as a model of fair, non-marginal “gay press.” Even still, it can exist another 30 years with deeper respect from Philadelphia’s racially and/or ethnically diverse LGBT communities.

We hope to receive a response to this letter by June 19, 2006. We can be contacted via email at phl_bgmlc@yahoo.com. If you respond by phone or postal mail, contact Lee Carson at (215) xxx-xxxx or by mail xxxxxx, Philadelphia, PA 19145. If we receive no response, we will be forced to believe that you are uninterested in this communal plea to uphold ideas of diversity and inclusion. We will organize a community response, including contacting businesses that advertise in the PGN to enlist their support in having a media source committed to covering the diverse experiences of our community.

In Anticipation,

Lee Carson, MSW
Black Gay Men’s Leadership Council

2006-05-14T22:57:00.000-05:00

Pride, Anger, Unemployment & India

I haven't been posting on current events recently like I would like or have in the past, but believe me, I have opinions on some of the things I've been seeing in the news. As has been the case the past few months, the past few weeks since my last post have been busy. The title of this post reflects a few of my experiences since my last post.

Pride
Black Pride here in Philly was pretty cool. I have to admit though, and maybe I'm a little biased, but I most enjoyed the events that the Black Gay Men's Leadership Council (which I'm a member of) hosted. On the Friday evening of Pride, we held a Civil Rights panel at the host hotel. We put a lot of work in the few weeks prior to the event to get the panelists together and to get our palm card developed that we wanted to debut at the event. The palm cards inform people on how to protect their civil rights if they feel they are being treated unfairly by the police or if they find themselves the victim of a hate crime. The cards also provide contact information for resources that can help a person in the event they find themselves the victim of a crime. We had over 50 people who attended the panel, so the room we had was pretty packed and we were able to capture the panel on film. There was a large youth presence, which was great and they asked questions and shared some of their negative experiences with the police. Overall we got positive feedback about the panel and the Council is working on identifying the next action steps we plan to take on this issue.

Our second event was a networking happy hour event, held in CC, around the corner from the host hotel. Again, we had a good turnout and there was a good mix of men and women, which doesn't happen often in social spaces that I've seen here in Philly. The Hors d' vours at the event were off the chain! They had a brotha wishin' I bought a Ziploc bag to put some of the appetizers in. And yes I would have done it if I had one.....LOL. Since we had 2 successful happy hours at this venue, I think we're going to try to do it on a monthly basis, so any Philadelphians who come across this, hit me up and I can let you know when they will be held.

On Saturday night there are always two main men’s party's that happen, thrown by the same people every year. The Firm and then a guy named Chris. As folks may have read on Clay Canes Blog, The Firm wasn't letting trans folks into their party this year. Historically this party advertises to a more "masculine" crowd, and urban "thug drag" is the uniform of choice for its attendees. I was finding this hard to believe, that during Pride, one of the party's would discriminate against a segment of the community like that. So I decided to ask someone who would know if this was true or not and he confirmed that they were indeed not allowing trans folks into their party. I didn't feel that I could support an event like that, so I decided to go to Chris's party, which was at a club that has 3 floors, with a different style of music on each and no limitations on who could or couldn't attend. The party was nice, but it was madd crowded. I don't know what possessed me to put on the footwear I did, but I should have known better. I had on some suede Timberland sneakers and by the time I left the club they were a mess. I had a huge boot print on one of them.

We attended the community event the next day, which was held indoors since it has historically been cold and sometimes rainy on the day of that event in the past. I think with the event being indoors, it shifted the energy and I didn't like it as much as I did last year. Of course this year, it was warm and sunny out, go figure. I was just about through though, when they started a competition on who can tell the best "you know you so ghetto when...." joke. Why do we always have to go there?!?!

Anger
The Monday before our Civil Rights Panel during Pride, I sent out a press release to several media sources in hopes we might get some coverage for the event. The one media outlet out of all of them, that I thought hands down should have covered the event and wrote something about it, was the local gay newspaper, called the Philadelphia Gay News (PGN). Two days prior to the event, I called the Editor of the paper, who I understand is a Black Gay man who would hopefully be interested in covering the story. He didn't answer, so I left him a message. Well.......not only did they not provide any coverage of our event, but there was absolutely no coverage of Philadelphia's Black Gay Pride at all in their paper the following week. I was vexed!!! How can the only gay newspaper in town not cover such a large event? Why would they participate in the invisibility of positive stories of Black folks that the mainstream press is so good at ignoring? The PGN is known for being a very White oriented paper, rarely covering stories that are relevant to the lives of people of color. But I plan to turn my anger into action, which I'll reveal at a later time. In all actuality, because the PGN doesn't really cover stories relevant to lives of POC, not many POC read it. And although it's readership is mostly White, I feel they still need to be responsible for covering the full spectrum of the LGBT experience and not just the experience of the White LGBT community.

Unemployment
I have been working with one of my clients in Germantown now for about 6 months and during that whole time, he has been looking for a job. A little background on this young man is that he is mildly Autistic, but very intelligent, African American, 18 years old and has never held a job before. He has applied to several places, but hasn't gotten a call back from any of them. He has been sheltered by his mother for most of his life, so he has limited social skills and has some limitations on his social skills due to the Autism as well.

In our last session, I decided that I would try to help him find a job, because he's been trying so hard and I think he would make a good employee, if someone would give him the chance. I thought maybe if I went with him and could talk to a manager and advocate for him, that it might help to get him a job. Boy was I naive! We went to 2 places in the neighborhood where he lives, one a grocery store and the other a CVS. I was amazed at how hard it is to talk to a real person these days about your employment inquiries at low level jobs such as a grocery store or retail. Everyone has you fill out an application online or on a computer in the store, no more paper. You can't event get a manager to come and talk to you about potential job opportunities either. What stunned me even more was the process CVS has you go through to apply for a job. Before you even get called for an interview you have to fill out a very extensive questionnaire, which is really more of a psychological test than an application. They asked my client all kinds of questions about his personality and even asked if he received food stamps. I was thinking, what the hell does that have to do with getting a job at CVS? Or anywhere for that matter! Does that weigh for you or against you? That just seems so inappropriate to ask of a potential employee.

I picked up immediately that these questions are used to build a psychological profile of potential applicants so they can easily weed through people who don't score well on the test, which are people, per the test, that wouldn't make a good employee. Whatever happened to filling out an application on paper and being able to interview with a real person before being judged on whether or not you might be a good employee? It's hard to get even a basic job these days. No wonder so many young people find it hard to get a job, because there are constant barriers in their path they have to try to navigate and you have to have patience, which is a virtue that doesn't exist a great deal in modern society any more it seems. I tried to coach him on how to answer the questions as I figured I knew what would be the answers they are looking for in someone they would be willing to hire. It will be interesting to see if he gets called for an interview.

India Arie
Last Wednesday, India Arie was in Philly promoting her new album, that's coming out at the end of June. I was able to get invited to her listening party at this fabulous cafe' in the Old City section of Philly. I got there madd early and was able to get a seat really close to the stage. The place was packed and she was good. I've never really been a big fan of hers, though I really like her new song "I Am Not My Hair", the version with Akon in it. She performed well live. Here are a few pics of her performance here in Philly:

2006-04-26T22:39:00.000-05:00

Philadelphia Black Gay Pride 2006 (4/27-4/30)

It's time to celebrate your pride. Philly kicks off the official Black Pride season and you are cordially invited to our city to party and enjoy what we have to offer. I'm a litte late putting this up since Pride is this weekend, but better late than never.

Here is a couple of events that you should definitely try to attend if you're in the area (Sorry the pic is so small, but I don't know how to make it bigger):

Philly's Pride has a whole host of events that are going on, so check the Official Pride Website for more details. Happy Pride!

2006-04-25T21:57:00.000-05:00

On The Move

The past month has been a blur for the most part. Since the middle of last month I have been madd busy at the full time job because we applied for a new CDC research grant. The grant took a lot of time and research to put together and unfortunately we only had 4 weeks from the time the grant was released to submit it. So a brotha was hustlin' e'ry day at work with the small team of people that were putting the grant together. We won't know whether or not we got it until June or July, so I'm putting it out of my mind so that I don't get worked up about it. The one thing that was funny though is that we were putting the pieces of the proposal together up the last minute literally. We had to get the package to Fed Ex by 8pm or else the package wouldn't get to it's destination in time. So here we are at 7:45 still putting things together and I'm about ready to give up, because I'm thinking it's just not possible. Somehow we did it. So at 7:55 we have the copies needed, but the boxes weren't even packed up properly, but me and my co-worker hustled to get to the Fed Ex on Broad Street before 8pm. We hit the street runnin'. Well I'm a little out of shape these days, so I couldn't run more than a block in a half of the 4 blocks needed to get to the Fed Ex (LOL), so I had to, lets say, walk fast the rest of the way. We get there and the lady wouldn't take the package! We pleaded with her and she denied us, but said we had 'til 8:15 to get to the 15th and Market store. So we hauled ass over there only to not know exactly where it was. Unfortunately it wasn't an external store, but none the less we eventually found it and ran in, just in time to get the package in before they closed. I mean if we were 3 more minutes later, we wouldn't have made it and all that work would have been for nothing.

In other news, a brotha has landed a new part time gig. As I have shared before I have been doing fee for service mental health therapy in the Germantown section of the city for a year now. Recently I found out that the Mazzoni Center, a GLBT health clinic in Philly was looking for a therapist for their mental health program. I immediately applied as I was interested in mental health work with the GLBT community. I interviewed last week and she hired me on the spot and I went through my orientation yesterday. I am planning to take on my first clients next week. I think Mazzoni will help me develop my clinical skills a little more than the other place I've been at has. Initially, I was planning to leave NHS once I started at Mazzoni, but after going to that conference last week, I feel a need to continue doing work within the general Black community, particularly with young Black men. So to that end, I decided to remain at NHS only one day a week. Two major pluses with Mazzoni are that it's only around the corner from my full time job and they pay more. Closer AND pay more.......you can’t ask for more!

Lastly, Black Pride in Philly is coming up this weekend and The Black Gay Men's Leadership Council has been busy planning a couple of events we have coming up. On Friday afternoon we are hosting a Civil Rights panel to discuss some of the unfair harassment and discrimination that young Black gay and trans persons have been experiencing on Philadelphia's notorious13th street. The panel will go beyond that though and will also discuss ways that people can keep themselves safe from police brutality among other things. We will also be debuting a police safety palm card that we will widely distribute in the community. I developed a press release that went out on Monday to alert local media of the event and we hope to get some press coverage from at least a couple of places. If I can get a jpg version of the palm card, I will put it up on my blog. We're also hosting a professional Black Gay and Lesbian networking event at the Walnut Room in Philly on Saturday. I think we'll get a good turn out there as well.

Also me and the man celebrated our 1 year anniversary yesterday. I can't believe how time flies. We actually met during Black Pride here in Philly last year, so this weekend will be a little reminiscent of what took place just over a year ago. We decided to go to the restaurant in South Philly where we had our first date. The best part of the meal was the shrimp appetizer we ordered. It was absolutely heavenly. The main dish wasn't bad either and the desert I chose was divine too. One year down and hopefully many more to come.

Those are pretty much the highlights of the past month. I hope to be a little more regular with the blogging because I don't want people to only check on me once a month, because I post so rarely. I'm planning to post something else before the end of the week, so stay tuned.

2006-04-23T09:17:00.000-05:00

Poor, Young, Black & Male

I attended a 2-day conference at the University of Pennsylvania, here in Philadelphia about the state of young Black men in America. The actual title was "Poor, Young, Black & Male: A case for national action?" The conference pulled together several excellent panels of experts who have done research and direct service work with young Black men in America. They had two lunch sessions, with powerful keynote speakers for each. On Thursday they had Cornel West, whose talk was titled "Strong men Keep Coming" and on Friday Michael Eric Dyson spoke on "Brother's gonna work it out?". Overall the two days were a mix of sadness, grief, inspiration and motivation. One thing that was left out, as usually is in Black male spaces was the conversation on how Black gay men fit into the picture. I think we all know that anything young Black men experience, young Black AND gay men experience even deeper, having to deal with an extra level of oppression and discrimination.

One of the panels was about the disproportionately high incidence of suicide among young Black men. I can’t recall the figures, and there were no handouts at the conference, but young Black men have a much higher suicide rate than young women do. The man presenting on this data also noted in his research that Caribbean young men who lived in the US had an even higher rate of suicide attempts than American born Black men. I think this speaks to the need to improve and give greater access to mental services for young Black men. I think these services ideally need to be provided by Black folk. I think it also speaks to the need beyond that to really work on building the self-esteem, self worth and resiliency of our young people, both boys and girls. I work with a few young men in my mental health work and these are the very things I work on with them. A few of them don't have a father figure who is consistent in their lives. I am currently working on mending the relationships of two of my male clients’ relationships with their fathers. I think this is important work, because both parents (mother and father) if possible need to be involved in their children's lives. This conference lit the fire under me to continue doing this work, but it also challenged me to figure out how I can be involved on a more macro level, because individual work doesn't necessarily create the larger change that's needed to more qualitatively improve the state of young Black men.

Michael Eric Dyson, talked about the failure of our Black public figures to effectively deal with uplifting Black folks. He talked about Bill Cosby's verbal assault on poor Black folks needing to pick themselves up and stop blaming the White man for their situations. Dr. Dyson made a very good point, which is simply that it's very easy to blame the victim, which is what has been done for many years, but it's another thing entirely to fight against the White system of oppression and other larger systems that don't provide the resources necessary to help the poor and marginalized truly improve their circumstances. Welfare, while it helps people meet their basic needs, does not in itself help to improve the state of Black folks. To me it's like taking medicine for a cold, you may treat the symptoms (immediate basic needs, such as food and shelter), but you're not doing anything to the virus that's causing the cold (i.e.: lack of access to resources, substandard education, institutional discriminations, etc).

Dr. Dyson also talked about some of the powerful sociological prose in hip hop and cited some lyrics from Tupac Shakur and The Notorious B.I.G. to exemplify how hip hop has the insight and power to transform young Black men, but most hip hop figures fall short of moving lyrics into action. Following are my thoughts and not those espoused by Dr. Dyson, but I often feel that many rappers also glorify detrimental values to young Black men, via violent and misogynistic lyrics. Another short coming of the hip hop community is a lack of collective efforts to develop structures and systems in urban cities across the country to promote education, economic development and to fight discrimination that plagues decimated urban communities around the country. Imagine if all the rappers who make millions of dollars off of urban youth (and lots of money from white suburban youth and youth in countries outside the US), gave a minimum of $500,000 from each of their album sales, which often makes them multi-millions. If they took that money and put it into a national coalition that was dedicated to helping rebuild neighborhoods that suffer from poverty, urban decay and lack of economic resources, we would see massive changes. Add to that, if other Black entertainers and sports figures did the same thing, imagine what these communities and the state of Black folk would look like. I think for far too long we have depended on the government to help solve this issue and we now see that it will never happen if that's our sole source of hope. They have found billions of dollars to pump into the war in Iraq over a relatively short period of time, but have not chosen to attack poverty and urban decay with the same hate and viciousness. I do believe that many Black entertainers and public figures are doing this kind of work, but if their efforts were more centralized, the impact would be much greater.

There was so much more to this conference, all of which I couldn't even begin to encapsulate in one post. I am hoping they will provide all the presentations and discussions from the conference on their website as the information shared is too valuable not to be documented. The conference has inspired me to do my part in helping to improve the lives of young Black men. While I also have a focus on Black gay men, we are all part of a collective community and I hope that eventually our Black heterosexual brothers will see that gay and straight, we are one and need to stick together as neither of our lives are expendable and sexual orientation is but one part of what makes us who we are.

2006-04-02T00:23:00.000-05:00

Pro-Creation/Gay Marriage Debate

Over the past couple of days, I've gotten wrapped up in a debate on pro-creation and gay marriage and homosexuality. Below I am posting some of the replies of folks on the site and then my reply to them. I think that I put forth a lot of good points to refute the logic of these pro-creation and anti-gay marraige zealots. Click here to access the actual post on the site the debate is taking place. FYI, the block quotes point out where the site author quoted me or on occassion someone else who posted a comment, so that he could respond to specific things we said. All of my comments are bolded. What are your thoughts on the debate or on the topic itself? I'd love to hear comments for or against.

The Debate
“Makes me wanna holler, the way the do my life.” That sums it up. Two people of the same sex should not be afforded the same rights as my husband and I. Being gay is a CHOICE. I don’t choose to be black it is what I was born with. You don’t have to go around telling people that you are gay. When people look at me it is evident that I am black. There is absolutely no comparison in the civil rights movement and the behavior of being GAY!!!!

Comment by Saudia

"And it’s stuff like what I read here that usually drives us away from our communities and families — taking our gifts and our strengths with us."

What exactly?

"As for reproduction, I can reproduce. No, not with my partner, but there’s nothing to stop me from being a biological father thanks to modern science."

From day one, man did not need “modern science” to reproduce. A male’s body is not designed to carry a child–so don’t fool yourself.

Take away all the toys, condoms, and other tools that man has invented and sex is all about reproduction. Is the usage of such “devices” wrong? I’ll leave that up to the individual. But if we want to know the original intent of such an important part of love between a man and a woman, one should take away all these added man-made features for the answer.

If you were to read anything I have said on this issue in the past, I acknowledge the fact that:

a) The black community must do a much better job in addressing this issue–especially the church.Absorbing the skills of gays while expecting them to keep quiet is wrong.

b)Gays were a part of the civil rights movement.

On (b), while gays were a part of the civil rights movement–THE MOVEMENT WAS ABOUT BLACK EQUALITY–not the gay agenda.

What really gets me about this whole issue is while numbers of gay individuals will play down the fact that both a mother (female) and father (male) is needed to raise a child, many gay couples will still have one partner play the role of “husband” and the other will be the lesser dominate figure.

"Marriage isn’t for reproducing, but all that comes after reproduction, as it can create an environment of love, support and stability in which a child can grow."

So why bring children into your equation if it isn’t about reproduction?

Comment by Duane

I agree with many of the points Terrance made. I personally don’t think that gays are saying or I’ll speak for myself, that the gay Civil Rights movement is equal to the Black Civil Rights movement. However, injustice and discrimination are just that whether it’s based on race, sexual ORIENTATION or disability and as human beings we shouldn’t stand for injustice for any group of people.

Heterosexuals and religous zealouts always talk about marriage being for pro-creation, so does that mean 2 people are sinning if they get married and have no children? You mean they don’t deserve to be married? Does that mean that once a woman is past her procreation years she should divorce her husband? The answers to these questions point to one simple fact. Marriage is not solely about pro-creation, but about a much deeper bond, which includes love and companionship. This is the very SAME love and companionship that same sex couples have for one another. And Duane, please don’t be as ignorant to believe that just because Terrance referred to his “husband” that that means he thinks of himself as the “wife”. You have to move outside of a heterosexist mind set that many people hold. Two men in a relationship are just that, two men. Some may see themselves as more effiminate than their partner, but that doesn’t mean that all same sex couples operate that way.

In relation to marriage and heterosexuals, there are many who make a mockery of the institution. The divorce rate continues to rise and some heterosexuals make an even bigger mockery when they marry someone on live TV after knowing them for 3 months and competing against 20 other women to marry him for his money. You can’t expect same gender loving couples who have built strong, healthy relationships over years to sit back and not feel slighted over the lack of seriousness that many heterosexuals have made over marriage.

Bottom line is, marriage is about love, companionship and growing old with the person you love. That should not be limited only to a man and a woman. Homosexuality is not only about sex. Some gay men have mulitple sex partners as do heterosexual men. You have plenty of str8 men who have sex with as many women as they can, it’s more a “man thing” than a “gay man thing”.

I commend Terrance and his husband for stepping up and taking care of chldren that are left behind by damaged heterosexual relationships. It’s a fundamental injustice as Terrance pointed out to not be allowed to have the same legal rights that married couples have, especially if you’ve been with your partner for 5, 10, 15 years. Yes there are same sex couples who have been together for more than a decade and deserve the same rights as a legally married couple.

Saudia- get a life, you are stuck in the stone ages and need to open up your mind so that you can see the beauty in all human beings, not just the heterosexual ones.

Comment by Absolutelee

Absolutelee,

"I personally don’t think that gays are saying or I’ll speak for myself, that the gay Civil Rights movement is equal to the Black Civil Rights movement."

Then you have not read the article or kept up with their campaigns in the black communtiy. These groups do not represent all gays no more than the NAACP represents all blacks, but they do regularly take such leaps to make their point.

"And Duane, please don’t be as ignorant to believe that just because Terrance referred to his “husband” that that means he thinks of himself as the “wife”. You have to move outside of a heterosexist mind set that many people hold. Two men in a relationship are just that, two men. Some may see themselves as more effiminate than their partner, but that doesn’t mean that all same sex couples operate that way."

I have met and know many gays for years now and I can tell you that my observation of these roles have been pretty consistant. I’m not speaking about Terrance’ situation because I have not met him or know him. I am just asking the question because those roles do exist in the homosexual community.

"Bottom line is, marriage is about love, companionship and growing old with the person you love."

And it is about having children (for those who are able to do so). This has been one of the most important parts of the institution of marriage since day one. Hey, we can beat around the bush all we want with this, but anatomy does not lie. Remember, it was a heterosexual relationship that brought you into the world.

Might I ask what are “rising” numbers of committed homosexual relationships?

Peg,

I am not understanding your point here. Should we talk about the outrageous comparisons to the holocaust, or is that different?

Again, treating ANYBODY regardless of race, religion, class, or sexual preference in any way except as a human being is wrong. Let’s not forget that a bulk of this issue has nothing to do with the right to marry–it has everything to do with this ideology that suggests that if you do not personally condone or agree with the homosexual lifestyle, then you are a bigot.

Comment by Duane

Duane, you are corrrect on the point that it is a heterosexual relationship that bought this beautiful human being into this world and I don’t suggest that heterosexual relationships are not valid and that procreation isn’t a needed things, of course it is. What I am saying is that I don’t believe that pro-creation alone makes the basis of a valid relationship.

When you tell a group of people (gays and lesbians) who have history, historical significance and contribute in every way to this society (just as Black’s have and still do), they deserve the rights that everyone else has.

I think heterosexuals just don’t understand how much freedom and power you have that gays don’t. If I were to die and have tons of assets that I want to leave to my partner, and some of this depends on state law, but my partners family can come and take all that or legally contest it more easily than if I were married. If you’re married and you put that in your will, law will respect that and family can’t do anything. There have been cases where gay couples have been together for years, and family has disowned them. One dies and plans to leave his assets to his partner, but then here comes the family trying to get compensated from a life they chose to deem insiginificant to them prior. How do you think that would make you feel if you put 10 years into a commited loving relationship to have this happen to you and you have no REAL legal protection? I have no legal protection stating that if my partner were in the hospital in the emergency room to see him if the hospital staff sticks to a “family only” policy. I can’t legally deem my partner family if we can’t marry.

And don’t think that heterosexuals who are in committed relationships and choose not to marry don’t get shafted by the Right Wing Homophobic biggots. All these laws about sodomy and banning second parent adoptions has impacted heterosexuals too.

What’s more disturbing is that much of the propeganda that so called religous moralists espouse they themselves don’t live up to! This has been seen time and time again in the anti-gay preacher who gets caught dating or having sex with men secretly. This happens with preachers who steal money for their own gains from their hard working congregation who THOUGHT they were giving to the church programming fund. This happens when a presidential administration gives lip service to improving the lives of the poor, but then allows many of them to be washed away with a hurricane and have their lives utterly destroyed because they chose not to act on information they had that told them that was going to happen in enought time to have made a huge difference in the mortalilty rate of Hurricane Katrina.

THESE are things we need to worry about. We need to stop focusing so much money and attention on banning same sex marriages and civil Rights, when the real fight needs to be about decreasing poverty, dealing with the very real problems of violence in our communities, the decline of young Black males in America and the list goes on. Preachers in Black churches should be focusing more on these REAL social epidemics rather than kissing the presidents ass to get money, favors or whatever else they feel they are gaining. While they attack gays, Blacks continue to suffer. Don’t get me wrong, I realize that Black preachers ARE doing something about these social epidemics, but they could do more if their attention wasn’t diverted.

The real sin that is created by homophobic bigots has to do with the after effects of homophobia and bigotry which can be seen in the lives of some Black Gay men every day. This is in part what is fueling the HIV epidemic among us and contributing to men not feeling they can be open about their same sex attractions.

(Duane, I haven’t read your site, so I don’t know what your previous posts say about your feelings on gays in general, so I’ll say to you “If it doesn’t apply, let it fly”. But I do know from what I’ve read of other comments on this post that there are people who can benefit from my soapbox speech.)

Bottom line is, I don’t need anyone to tell me that I am going to meet Lucifer because I love a man. Don’t judge me based on my sexual ORIENTATION, and worry about the sins you may be committing and rectify those!

Comment by Absolutelee

"What I am saying is that I don’t believe that pro-creation alone makes the basis of a valid relationship."
Okay, that is what you choose to believe. But pro-creation has always been a part of the cornerstone of marriages in general. What many (not all) the the gay movement do on a regular basis is to minimize this part of marriage by doing things like seeking to remove “father” from a child’s birth certificate (see one of the articles that I refered to earlier).

"I think heterosexuals just don’t understand how much freedom and power you have that gays don’t."
Again, homosexuals enjoy just as many freedoms as anybody else in this country. Like one of the commentors said earlier, he has knowingly “…employed both homosexuals, and transgendered people…” because they were right for the job, not sexual preference. If a person is right for the job, MANY (including me) in this country do not care. Only the media and gay activist groups focus on the few that do.

I have lived in communites where gay couples owned homes. There were no signs of protest. Like most developments, everybody kept to their own business. A very dear friend of mine lived next door to what I believe were two homosexual couples. He would always try to be friendly with them, but unfortunately they were not the same to him. Should I generalize and say ALL homosexuals are like that? Of course not. But I’m not buying the victim card here either.

Just like I am not generalizing with the homosexual community on bad encounters, please don’t do the same with groups that do not agree with you when you talk about the religious community. I can point to MANY in that community that will wholeheartedly love and embrace homosexuals without “soapboxing” them to death. I myself have had friends that I knew were homosexual. They knew where I stood, but we still had respect for each other.

"The real sin that is created by homophobic bigots has to do with the after effects of homophobia and bigotry which can be seen in the lives of some Black Gay men every day. This is in part what is fueling the HIV epidemic among us and contributing to men not feeling they can be open about their same sex attractions."
No, what fueling the HIV epidemic is a society that says you can have any kind of risky sexual behavior you choose because its all about “me”. But when diseases emerge, its all about “society” paying for the cleanup. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for the necessary reseach to eraticate sexually-transmited diseases, just let it be non-government funded. And yes, this applies to both homosexual and heterosexual communities.

And lastly, on your example of legally having the ability to leave your assets to anyone you wish, I agree with you. But again, this barely make up a fifth of this ongoing issue.

Eugene- What the hell are you saying? I don’t understand!

The one part I do understand I’ll reply to: The reason heterosexuals don’t need to go around saying they’re hetero is because this hetersexist society assumes everyone IS or SHOULD be heterosexual. Most marginalized groups of people make their causes overt, because they need to educate and let the majority know that “we’re not takin’ your oppressive ways without a fight”. What do you think the Black Power movement was all about?

Saudia- You need to remove the hate from your heart. If you are a Christian and believe in morality, then you should also believe the old saying “live and let live”. You don’t have to agree with homosexuality and you don’t have to understand it, all you need to do is mind your own business and you won’t have to worry about seeing two men kiss. I’m sure you have more valuable things to do with your time. What you should worry about with your 2 year old son is that he grow up to be a productive citizen and not get caught up in the negativity and path of destruction that so many young Black men today seem to fall victim to.

Oh and one last thing, have you ever heard of Anita Bryant? If not here’s my point: She was vehemently opposed to homosexuality and went across the country on her crusade to demonize homosexuals. Well guess what the spokeswoman for homophobia had to deal with? A GAY son! God has a way of teaching people lessons who don’t have unconditional love in their heart.

Brian- What are you talking about?? You and Eugene must hang out 2gether.

Just so you know, mental instability is a human trait, many heterosexuals suffer from it to, so what’s your point? Another thing, homosexuality exists in nature among animals, and as much as we want to think we’re not animals, we are, just higher level and with greater intelligence. Do you mean to tell me that you believe that humans taught two male monkeys how to engage in same sex behavior? I don’t think so!

For all you pro-creation zealots- have you ever thought that maybe God thought that there would be an overpopulation problem on the planet and that same sex couples who choose not to have children not only help with population control, but also adopt the children that have been abondoned by heterosexual creations? After all, s/he created sterility too!

Comment by Absolutelee

What are your thoughts on this topic for or against?

2006-04-01T22:06:00.000-05:00

Meeting Marz

I have been meaning to write this post for a week now, but better late than never. I finally met the infamous other Philly Blogger, Marz. I ran into him at Cosi on 12th and Walnut in Center City and we ended up having a delightful conversation for an hour or so. He is a really talented and well spoken young man and it was nice to meet him in person. I am always happy to see young people who are motivated to do big things with their life and Marz is certainly on that path.

You should check out his Blog because he will definitely keep you intruiged with his life adventures. It's funny because whenever I'm reading his Blog, I always forget that he's only 16! The boy has skillz, go on wit' your bad self!

Check out Marz if you haven't already, he's worth the read!

2006-03-19T23:06:00.000-05:00

The Global Warming Cover Up

I was watching 60 Minutes tonight and one of NASA's top staff, James Hansen who has studied the Earth's ecology and global warming problem for several years openly talked in an interview tonight about the Bush administrations attempt to cover up the severity of the problem. Yet another secret our government is keeping from us; one that was disastrous consequences if it's not dealt with.

Hansen believes that if we don't decrease the amount of Carbon Dioxide and other gases that are being released into the atmosphere, within the next 10 years, we will not be able to reverse the rapid effects that global warming is having on the Earth. But you won't find this theory in any report that comes out of the White House, because to quote Hansen "In my more than three decades in the government I've never witnessed such restrictions on the ability of scientists to communicate with the public,". Hansen states that several reports he's written have been altered to downplay the impact Global Warming is having on the Earth. These changes have been made before the report even makes it to Congress, which makes the covering up even more malicious.

This process of covering up the truth is deeply disturbing, because if we don't face the reality of what we as humans are doing today and how our behavior is having a negative impact on the Earth, we won't be able to save future generations from paying for our mistakes. As I understand it, there are things that can be done to decrease the amount of Carbon Dioxide and other gases in the air. One of the major causes of pollution comes from cars and fuel emissions. If we put more money into technology to create better fuel burning methods or better yet, cars that don't need to run on fuel at all or only on limited amounts, we'd be better off. Hybrid cars are the future, but I think the Bush Administration has too much invested in the fuel industry to think about the possibility of eliminating or decreasing fuel usage in the United States. His selfishness WILL cost the world a great deal, but his old ass probably won't be around to see the impact his poor decisions will have on the world’s future.

I'm not exactly sure what will happen if the polar caps continue to melt as quickly as they are, but I would imagine in 40 or 50 years it could cause major flooding and climate shifts that would become increasingly disastrous to human life. Look at how warm the winters have become in the North and how hot the summers are and how disastrous the hurricane seasons are becoming. I can only pray that we won't have a hurricane season this year like we did last year, because we can only take so much.

I hope that George Dubya and his White House cronies will take heed to science and stop the secrecy, because it's future generations of human life that will pay the price. At some point, this man has to serve the best interest of the people of our country, which he has yet to do. We don't know the half of what's going on in America and we are continually being fed small, manipulated, censored pieces of information while there are all kinds of shady things going on behind the scenes in our government. Will we ever have honest leadership again in this country? A president who cares about the people and not their own agenda(s)? Given the current landscape, it's hard to believe the American people will be able to really trust our Commander in Chief, because our trust has been so deeply damaged. Let’s hope that our next president will invest in our global ecology.

2006-03-19T01:38:00.000-05:00

What I've Been Up To

Hey everyone, I hope all have been well. I have been pretty busy that past couple of weeks and had some interesting experiences. It has been madd cold here in Philadelphia the past few days, but happenings here in Philly have been hot. I'll get to some of what's going down throughout this post.

Many Men, Many Voices Retreat
The first weekend in March I was away in the Catskill Mountains area in New York State at a Many Men, Many Voices Retreat. As I have mentioned on here before, I'm one of the facilitators that's been hired to facilitate for the evaluation portion of the project. We had another successful turnout and it was good to meet all the new people I did at the retreat, both in the group I facilitated and the one I didn't. But I had a few issues with the retreat site. We ended up at a different place than the prior time, because of a last minute issue that happened with the place we were supposed to be at.

So we pull up to the resort and I wasn't too impressed and then we went inside, and I saw that my initial impression was reinforced. It was a medieval theme to the place and parts of it were dark and old looking. That wasn't the worse though. During the same weekend, there was a straight Black ski weekend party going on, with some people from the DC, VA, Maryland area. When I say GHETTO, I mean that shit. They were loud at all times of the night, no regard at all for others that were in the space with them. One morning I was walking through the main lobby and when I got to the other side I thought I was high! The stench of weed was so strong I could have swore they were smoking right in the main lobby! One of the more disturbing parts though, was the homophobia that came from them. They arrived the same night we did, and a few of the “children” in our contingent were fem and of course the "str8" boyz picked up on this and started making homophobic comments. You know the usual, "there's some faggots up in here", that kind of thing. Some of the participants in our contingent were scared to come into the dining area, which was a large open space shared by everyone, though we had our own tables. Luckily no one was physically attacked, but I could definitely feel some of the tension in the air. Not just from the homophobia, but also the ig’nant assed attitudes that the people had.

In relation to homophobia, I definitely feel that Black people and White people express homophobia differently. I think that Black folks, especially men are much more verbally assaultive, which sometimes leads to physical attacks. Some of that has to do with them trying to assert their "manhood" and in many cases trying to draw attention away from their own homosexual feelings or less than masculine ways. I have always felt that if you're truly comfortable with your heterosexuality, then you don't need to say overtly discriminatory things against gays and try to make us out to be less than a man. I can tell you now, that I may be gay, but I am just as much a man as any heterosexual, because to me being a man is more about having a sense of responsibility, being able to support yourself and having the ability to think outside the box and be your own person, versus blindly following an unwritten code of behavior that many Black men feel they need to ascribe to. Aiiight, I'm stepping off the soap box now....LOL.

Trip To California
So I get back from the retreat and then 3 days later I'm off to Guernville, California for a Gay Men's Leadership retreat. I had never been to the West coast so I was excited, but was in a bit of a shock when I got out of the car once we finally arrived at the retreat site. Now mind you, I'm a city boy and have NEVER been camping, nor have I really had any interest in camping, even in a lodge. Well...........there's a first time for everything I suppose. We weren't really told about the site where we were going and now I know why, because they knew that most of us city dwellers probably wouldn't have went. When we got off the main road it was like a 5 mile ride up a mountain, where most of it had room for only one car at a time. Thank God that one of the Philly contingent members, Angel had no problems driving. So we get to the retreat site and the parking lot is all dirt and it's starting to rain. Mind you I'm trying to be cute in my NEW suede Timberlands, and am already having to walk though this muddy assed parking lot and more mud to get to our very small cabin, yes cabin! I'm thinking we're gonna be in a building that has a heating system etc....NOT! So we get in the room and there are 3 beds (one queen and a bunk bed......yes bunk bed! I haven’t slept in a bunk bed since I was 10) and there was 4 of us. Luckily two people volunteered to share a bed, so that was settled and I took the bottom bunk. Of course as we were trying to figure who was going to take which bunk there were all kinds of sexual references made, so I will just clarify for inquiring minds that the bunk I chose doesn't mean anything :-)

Like a true gay man, I had brought 4 pairs of footwear for a 4 day trip, so those Timbs were put away because it rained every day there, so it was pretty much always muddy. There were a total of about 30 gay men at the retreat from various cities, both urban and rural. Overall the retreat was really good and I think we all bonded and learned from each other. I got to learn a little more about the challenges that gay men face in rural communities among other things. It was great to get to connect with gay men that I wouldn't have had the chance to connect with otherwise. There were four of us that came together from Philly and we all bonded really well in what will hopefully be long lasting connections. The retreat also served as a refresher for the need to really start looking at gay men's health here in Philadelphia. We may be the site of the next national LGBT Summit which is taking place in March of 2007.

Overall I'm glad that I went to the retreat and after a day or two I got over the shock of the communal showers, having no cell phone reception, limited Internet service, lack of good food (at least until that last 24 hours) and rural living. The scenery was really pretty though and that, along with the connections I made, was worth going. Here are a few scenic and people pics from the retreat.

This is a picture I took from the back of the main Lodge area

Julie Andrews Point, just up the road from the retreat center

A different view of Julie Andrews Point

Me chilled out and casual at Julie Andrews Point

The Philadelphia contingent representin' in Cali

L to R: Chris, Kevin, J & Me

Other Happenings
There have been some exciting things going on with the Black Gay Men's Leadership Council (BGMLC), which is the name of the grass roots group I've been a part of the past several months. We hosted our first Black Gay professional men's networking event. It was quite successful and we had a good turnout and a demand for us to hold it regularly. The BGMLC is also sponsoring a panel discussion on Civil Rights and the LGBT community during Black Pride here in Philly next month. We are also in the works of planning a structure for the group and identifying our priority areas.

I mentioned in my New Years resolutions that I would like to teach a class at a local university. Well that hasn't happened yet, but I am one step closer. I was able to land the role of being an evaluator for 2 master's level thesis projects by students who attend Lincoln University's Philadelphia campus. I have to read their written thesis projects and then sit in and rate their oral presentations. I have finished reviewing one of the projects and I found it an enjoyable experience and I hope I get to do it more. I really took the time to look at it and make constructive comments as well as give kudos to areas I felt were well thought out and written. It will be interesting to see how the orals go, which are this coming Thursday. The one thing I found odd and a little offensive about one of the projects is that he kept referring to African American's as Africans in his paper as well as in the demographic sections of his survey instruments. I'm going to ask him about that during his oral presentation.

Lastly, there have been some exciting things going on at work that I'm hoping will pan out into future projects. The CDC recently released several research grant opportunities and we are applying for a couple of them. This will be my first time working on a proposal from the beginning stages. At the same time, we are in the process of starting up a new grant we were awarded for looking at episodic substance use and risk for HIV among Young Black and White Men who have Sex with Men in Philadelphia. We are planning our initial focus groups in Philly as well as our comparison community which is Baltimore. On top of that, I've been assigned to a small project for the city of Chester, which is about 20 miles South of Philly to help develop some questionnaires and survey instruments for a physician there who is doing a needs assessment for Barriers to healthcare for LGBT adolescents. I'm not sure how I’m going to get all this done, but I'm sure I'll work it out. A big plus regarding work too is that I recently got my annual review and t was REALLY good, so I got a raise, but I was also pleased with what my supervisor wrote about my work habits.

With all this going on, I have had difficulty balancing other priorities in my life, which is mainly my personal relationships. I feel like I haven't spent as much time as I'd like with my partner and we are quickly coming up on our 1 year anniversary. I can't believe how fast time flies. I've got to get better with giving "us" more time, which has been hard since I've been out of town a bit the past few weeks and he has been working his part time job quite a bit, though he did make me a nice dinner the past two nights, so it's my turn to reciprocate.

Well I know that no one is probably going to read this whole thing, because it’s so dayum long….LOL. I guess I had a lot to say, which is why I need to Blog more often so I can have smaller more manageable posts, but once I started writing, I couldn't stop. Well thanks for stopping by Lee's Space once again, stay posted for more.

2006-02-28T23:12:00.000-05:00

The Flavor of Love Update

Alright who watched Flavor of Love Sunday night? Yeah I have still been following it, because it is my bufoonery entertainment on Sunday nights. After the hype up of the clip where they showed New York bum rushin' Pumpkin at the elimination ceremony, I had to tune in and see the drama unfold. So there are only 3 girls left on Flavor of Love and he decided to meet their parents. So here are my thoughts on the girls and their dates with Flav and their mothers:

Pumpkin
I think Pumpkin' is only out to make a name for herself by being on as many TV reality shows as possible. Damn, the girl has been on like 4 or 5 already, which she wasn't up front with Flav about so she got da BOOT and went out with dramatic flair, which I'll get to later. Pumpkin looks just like her mother, only younger. When her mother saw Flav, I know she was like what the hell is my daughter doing? And when Flav had his crusty assed feet out, having them sanded off during a pedicure I thought I was gonna throw up! I already don't really like feet, so looking at those nasty beat up feet didn't help! He could turn someone with a foot fetish off from feet altogether.

Pumpkin herself is whack tho. I don't really like her and didn't think she would be picked anyway, unless he was trying to fulfill his Bridgette Nielsen fantasy over again. She killed me in that episode where she had her Bo Derrick braids in. She is nobody's Bo Derrick nor anybodies "10"(if you get the pun). But what she did at elimination was foul and she didn't get what she REALLY deserved, which was a real ass whippin'. The other disgusting thing was when Flav was mad at her for not telling him about all the TV shows she's been on and he was telling her to get off him because "I need to go drop my kids off at the pool". EEEEEWWWWWWWWWWWWW, TMI infinity!

Hoopz
I like her the most out of the 3, because she's the least crazy and phony. I don't think her intentions are pure, because why would someone as pretty and young as her get involved with Flav's old, crusty ass? He revealed he's 46, I was like dayum, and he is actin' like this! He continues to take bufoonery to a new level, especially when he came down the stairs in that outfit for the date with Hoopz and her mother, all I have to say is A MESS! So on the date they went to some medieval times type of event and he's flirting with Hoopz mother and she's flirting back! To make it worse Hoopz said that her mother has taken interest and dated someone Hoopz dated in the past. And you wonder why our kids have no morals, it's 'cuz some of the parents don't have any! Actin' like a teenager when they're not. I had to laugh tho, when New York made the art analogy to Hoopz mother, 'cuz it was so true. When they first showed her mother (from afar), I was like wow, she looks young and hot, then they showed her close up and it was like ooooohhhhhh hell to the naw, she was haggard close up. She had the audacity to say that she would date Flav if he didn't pick Hoopz....what!? But then again, they are probably about the same age.........

New York
Now I know why she is the way she is. Dayum, her mother is RAW and she let Flav have it from jump. She was letting her daughter have it too, which I thought was foul. She told New York str8 up, "honey you're fat!" Now watch her end up with an eating disorder, way to go mom! The father was mousy and you can tell the mother runs shit up in there. So New York gets on my nerves, 'cuz she is soooooo dramatic and messy. Every episode I think, "this woman can't be serious!", especially when she was talking about how delicious Flav is. I think she meant more like crunchy, crispy, ummmmm.........burnt, something along those lines would be more accurate.
But when her and Pumkin started to argue, I was sittin' on the edge of my seat to get a good view of that battle unfold. It was sooooo foul for Pumkin to spit in her face like that, and New York should have beat her ass all the way out the door and then some. But I have to say it was funny as hell when she pushed Pumkin so hard that she crashed head first into the camera. I was rollin'!

Well there is only one episode left, so it'll be interesting to see how it unfolds. I want Hoopz to win, though I have a feeling that he is gonna pick New York. For you Flavor of Love fans, who do you think is gonna win? Why?

2006-02-22T10:49:00.000-05:00

A Champion In More Ways Than One

Americas true colors have been put on blast on an international stage, with a media fueled feud between two American competitors, Shani Davis and Chad Hedrick. I have to admit that I am angry as hell at the bad rap Shani Davis is getting from the press and from narrow minded, ignorant, racist Americans who are trying to steal the glory and the major achievement attained by Shani Davis. Davis will always be known for being the first Black to ever win a gold medal in an individual event in the winter Olympics. This achievement will long outlast the controversy and the attempts to assassinate Davis's character by racist bigots.

I had never heard of Shani Davis until Sunday evening when I was watching the news and I began catching wind of his major accomplishment and then the controversy surrounding his decision not to participate in the team pursuit. Most of the animosity for Davis' decision to not participate in the team pursuit seemed to come from Chad Hedrick who went complaining to the media that Davis isn't a team player because he chose to compete only in individual events and refused to participate in the team pursuit. The media played the discord between these two up and the media frenzy began and along with that frenzy came the racists, the bigots and the haters.

There are a few things that upset me about how Davis's accomplishments have been handled. First, this controversy seems to have overshadowed the real accomplishment of Davis being the first Black to win gold in an individual competition AND the simple fact that an AMERICAN won an event for AMERICA. Though some White people may not see this as a big deal, Blacks won't allow racism and small mindedness to diminish this achievement in our eyes.

Second, it seems that the American coaches should have handled this situation better and not allowed the tension between two American's in the same events to be put on public display like that. From what I've seen, Hedrick was the one who spewed the most animosity throughout this controversy and he should have handled himself more professionally.

Third, this controversy provided yet another example of the racial tensions that still exist in our country. If you take a visit to Shani Davis's website (if you can get on it, because it is sometimes too busy to access), you'll see hate messages toward Shani, name calling and even folks who hoped that he would fall or have some kind of mishap during his 1500 meter competition, because God forbid he beat out a White man in a sport that up until now, as far as Americans go, was dominated by Whites in the Olympics. There are folks on his website saying how unamerican Davis is and how selfish he is to not help out the "team" and saying how he didn't look grateful to win the gold medal, bla, bla, bla. My thought is "so what he doesn't want to compete in a team competition, he's still competing for America" (AKA: Amerikkka, depending on how you view this country).

For me, Davis is a true champion, because a man's success goes beyond what he does as a profession, whether he be a sports figure, a politician or a garbage man. To me it's about what you give back to society and living your life with humility and integrity. From what I have read and seen, Davis exemplifies this. He has a passion for youth development and spends a lot of time talking at highschools, and helping kids to identify and reach their potential. To me this is a true champion. It burned me a little to see how much credit was given to that one American Gold Medalist who donated the money he won to charity, but yet similar credit has not been given to Davis for the amount of ongoing work he has done with young people long before this Olympic competition started and I'm sure his work will last long beyond this Olympic competition in Torino. If the best that haters can do is pick him apart for simply not wanting to participate in a team pursuit, then to hell with them, because what Davis has to offer goes well beyond an Olympic competition.

Last night after NBC showed the 1500 meter race, they showed a small clip of the post-race press conference where Davis and Hedrick spoke. They were seated at the opposite ends of the table and didn't really look at each other while the clip played. At one point they were asked if they had any last words and Davis spoke up and said something to the effect of how he wished that Hedrick would have congratulated him on winning the gold in the 1000 meter, like Davis did to Hedrick when Hedrick beat him out for the 5000 meter. Hedrick obviously felt put on the spot and after several awkward seconds with him drinking water profusely, like he hadn't drank any in days, then standing up awkwardly, drinking more water, then he finally sat back down and stumbled out a few words. You could tell he was nervous as hell as he repeated the same tired defense of still being upset with Davis for not participating in the team pursuit and how Davis wouldn't talk with him about this decision. What I really think is that Hedrick is still pissed that one, his ego was bruised because he at best will only be able to walk away with 2 gold medals, instead of the 5 that people hyped him up to be the contender for; two, that Davis beat him in two of the events Hedrick was favored to win; and three that he got beat out by a Black man in a sport that HAD been dominated by Whites.

I have to admit I was happy when Davis beat Hedrick out to take the silver in the 1500 meter. It's sad that racism continues to be an issue in America, especially when we have achieved a great milestone in history. I really doubt that if a White teammate would have opted out of participating in the team pursuit event that he would have been put on blast like Davis was and have his individual accomplishments demeaned and picked apart like Davis has had to endure. But Davis has had to deal with adversity all his life, being a young Black man growing up in Chicago who had a passion for speedskating, a predominately White sport. As a result he has learned how to deal with criticism and ostracism all his life. To me Shani Davis is a hero in more ways than one, and many can learn lessons from him, because he has chosen to take the road less traveled and in my book that gets much respect, even more so than winning a gold and silver medal!

2006-02-19T09:56:00.000-05:00

Are You For Real?

How the hell can you be the victim of buckshot, even if accidental, get out of the hospital, mind you, after suffering a mild heart attack as a direct result of being impaled by buckshot and apologize to the person who landed you in this situation? Well if your name is Harry Whittington you have no problem doing so.

I couldn't believe the video footage I was watching today as Whittington all bruised up, with a black and blue face, kissed Dick Cheney's ass on national TV. He apologized for what Dick Cheney has had to go through the past week while he was in the hospital full of buckshot. Maybe he won't feel so sorry for Cheney when he has to explain his situation everytime the metal detector goes off when he's traveling at the airport or if more shrapnel travels into his heart or other vital body organs. Oh, but wait, he's a wealthy, old White guy, so he probably has his own airplane. Maybe the government gave him enough money as a result of this accident for him to buy his own plane if he doesn't already have one. But the more likely scenario is that he got something worth more than a simple monitary pay off, I think it would be more likely he got something like shares of stock in some billion dollar company. He's a lawyer, so maybe he was promised some kind of powerful political position in the state of Texas or beyond. Ok, my imagination is going wild now, maybe he didn't receive anything, but why else would he kiss Cheney's ass on TV?

Sorry, but if it were me, I'd be pretty pissed off, even if it was an accident and even if we were friends, which is how Whittington played it up for the public. He basically said, shit happens and you have to understand the sport of hunting to know what I'm talking about. Well I have never been hunting and have never even touched a real gun/rifle, but I know when something sounds sketchy and this sounds well, SKETCHY! Whittington is no doubt a part of an "Old Boys Club", just like Cheney is, so he's just honoring a code of the club and not hanging Cheney out to dry because he's the Vice President of these here United States. Another shady part to how this event unfolded was the inconsistency in the initial reporting. At first, Whittington took all the blame for the accident when the ranch owner, Kathy Armstrong who was apparently also a witness, said that Whittington didn't follow Quail hunting protocol by informing Cheney he was close by. Later, when Cheney finally spoke, he said that he himself was the one responsible for what happened on that day. Well to me it sounds like someone told Cheney, "This is a very charged event and the press is running wild with it. You can't blame the old guy who's still in the hospital for this incident, the American public won't go for that. I think you better tell them that it was your fault." (OK, I have been watching a little too much Commander In Chief.....LOL) I think it was just face and that Cheney ultimately still feels that he wasn't really to blame. Everything these days is about being politically correct and I think Cheney blaming himself is an example of this. What do others think?

I also have a suspicion that Cheney and the Ol' boys may have been drinking, while or prior to going out to hunt. There are rumors of this, which could certainly explain why he didn't want to deal with the press himself. Of course there could be multiple reasons, but this is in the realm of possibility. Maybe Cheney was drunk, he looks like a Whisky kind of guy. Maybe he had a little Southern Comfort before going out on the range. None the less, it was a bad situation made worse by the (mis)handling of informing his boss and the American public.

It was also interesting that Cheney didn't even have the proper permit to be hunting at that time. After this little fact was leaked to the media, he sent in a $7 check for the permit. Hmmmm.....so that means he broke the law, even if it was a minor breaking of the law, he still did it. This is the Vice President of the United States here, not just some hick in Texas. This is the very man who, next to President Bush is held on a pedestal for being an example of greatness, which includes honesty, integrity and abiding by laws, even the small, simple ones. I don't mean to nit pick, but this is an administration who pushes a conservative Christian, morality -based agenda, where honesty and integrity are important values, though with every passing day, they seem to counter these values with their poor leadership. I have never seen a leadership style that used a "do as I say, not as I do" philosophy be effective and I don't think this administration will be the exception.

The bottom line for me is, I just don't get why a victim would apologize to the perpetrator, especially if they suffered adverse health consequences as a direct result of the incident. But I'm guessing Whittington got something real nice from Cheney for his pain and suffering or else he wouldn't be so cordial about it publicly. Friendship and camaraderie only goes so far. I'm sure though, that even if Whittington would have kicked the bucket, Cheney would have gotten off with no real consequences, because of who he is and that must be a damn good feeling!

2006-02-16T00:55:00.000-05:00

Back From A Blogger Break

I haven't posted anything in almost a month, so I hope people will still check in on me. I haven't been in a motivated to post anything on my Blog recently, so instead of posting mindless junk, I decided that I'd wait until I had something to post or to at least check in with my readers. So I'm breaking the silence....LOL (as if it's that serious).

The past month has been pretty good for me, aside from a brief period where I was feeling a little out of sorts and not really motivated to do as much as I usually do, but I have gotten beyond that now. I've been pretty busy at work working on this new research project we're starting and I've been doing a lot of reading and writing for that project and the other project we're doing the data analysis for, so I haven't felt much like doing personal writing. I tend to put a lot into the things I write on here and my posts tend to be time consuming for me, case in point, this post, along with another one I'll be posting later took me 3 hours. I write and then edit and then re-edit, like I'm writing for a real publication! But I do take this seriously and value representing myself well. The problem is, it takes too long....LOL. I was supposed to be in bed by 12 and I haven't evern showered yet or got my clothes ready for tomorrow.

There are a couple of things coming up for me that I'm looking forward to. First off, I recently was selected to attend a Gay Men's Leadership training the second week of March in Cali. I've never been out West, so this is a welcomed experience and it makes it even better that I get to go and don't have to pay anything for it. I was one of four people given a scholarship from Philadelphia. Second, I have another Many Men, Many Voices facilitation coming up in the first weekend of March. I always enjoy the retreats and meeting new people. At the last retreat, I met No4real4real, who was a catalyst for me to start Blogging, and a few other people who I had a good time with. Another thing I'm excited about is that the Black Gay Men's planning group I'm a part of here in Philly, which was just beginning to form toward the end of last year has been making some good progress as far as becoming more organized. We're workin' it out and have developed a mission and a name and we're starting the process of prioritizing issues we will be addressing over the next few months. I've also started back working out again and have managed to make it to the gym 4 times a week that past couple of weeks and have modified my eating habits slightly for the better. Time to get in shape for the summer and beyond. I've gained that "relationship weight" that I've never been able to get off while still in a relationship, but I'm gonna try my best this time around.

So that's what I've been up to the past month or so. I haven't been keeping up with the Blogosphere like I had been either, so I'm planning to get back into checking in on my favorite Bloggers. Alas, there are a few things current events related that have been on my mind. Some are more serious that others. I may write about the serious ones in more depth later, but here are some quick thoughts on them.

Coretta Scott King
What a deep loss to not only social justice for Blacks in the United States, but also to the fight for civil rights for GLBT folks. I am ashamed to say that I am learning more about the work she did after her death that I knew while she was alive. She seemed to have a beautiful spirit and her body was laid to rest before it's time. She had much more work to do, but I am grateful she was able to do as much as she did while she was with us. It's amazing how she picked up and continued the work of her husband after his assassination. She was a strong woman and it's ironic that she died on the eve of Black History Month. She will be missed!

Philadelphia's Violence Problem
I have been wanting to write about this for a while now, but haven't gotten around to it. I plan to write a larger post on it at some point, but Philly is about to replace Camden as the most violent city in America. Last year we had 380 homicides, most of which were victims of gun violence. That means on average that at least one person a day died to homicide in Philly and on some days more than one person died. This year is on track to be the same. In the first 18 days of the year, there were 18 homicides. I'm not sure what the latest statistic is, but I'm almost sure that we are still on track with an average of one homicide per day. A couple of weeks ago, there was 3 murders in a 5 hour period here. It's crazy! The mayor has a 4 step plan he's trying to implement along with the police commissioner to decrease the violence in the city. I went to a rally, in South Philly where I live, where they talked about their plan and were trying to get community buy in. One of the things they want is for people to step forward and give information about crimes they see. I can honestly say that at least 50 of those murders last year were of people who talked to the police about what they saw. That's a statistic that most people don't want to be a part of, so a lot of people don't report what they see. There are no real witness protection programs for everyday folk.

This is an issue that seems to really be a problem here and there seems to be no effective solution implemented yet. I hope the Mayor's plan will prove to be effective. They have even put the guardian Angels back on the streets here, though I haven't seen any of them since I saw the news broadcast. It's becoming a scary place to live, no matter where you are in this world. One can only hope that some sense of civility will come about soon.

Bow Wow Disses Ron Isley
Now I'm kinda going out on a limb on this one, because I only heard about it on the radio this morning and haven't read anything myself. Apparently Bow Wow, who used to be called Lil' Bow Wow (as if his ass has grown that much) dissed Ron Isley by saying that he (Bow Wow) is a hot artist who has went platinum and challenged Isley as a no body in today's music scene. or something to that effect. If this is the case, Bow Weezy needs hid ass whipped. Kids don't talk to grown folks like that and when they do they get a back hand. I think Bow Wow is coming down with a case of egomania along with Kanye West. I don't think that Bow Wow's career has much more staying power anyway. I admit I liked all the songs he's released off this album, though I didn't buy it, but he needs to learn how to be humble. Humility seems to be a virtue that just about every hip hop artist lacks, because they all think they're better than every other rapper. I did hear Bow Wow's interview on Wendy Williams last week I think it was and he had the nerve to say that besides Jay Z and one or two other people, there is no good rappers in the game. Is he kidding me? His music is on the pop side of rap in my opinion and he's samplin' from oldies like all the others. For me, that "I'm the best" attitude is gettin' old. If Bow Wow was so hot, why the hell did he wear beads in his hair in that "Let Me Hold You Tight" video? I thought that went out with little Black girls in the 80's! Am I wrong? Anyway, I hope his mother, who probably got pregnant with Bow Wow to an Isley Brothers album, puts his little arrogant azz in check.

Tom Cruise and Katey Holmes
What the hell is going on there? One day he's on top of Oprah's sofa screaming about how in love he is with Katey Holmes, then he knocks her up and then a few months later, they're headed for splitsville! I was watching the news tonight and the reporter said they are breaking up, but keeping up public appearances or some such mess until the baby is born. I tell you these stars are a mess. I think she was just a rebound relationship for him anyway and I'm sure Nicole is saying "I could have told you that was coming". I haven' heard why they're breaking up or who is the one breaking it off, but my guess is it's Tommy. Katey strikes me as young and dumb and was smitten by this sex symbol superstar who expressed interest in her. If it's true that they're breaking up, it's a shame their relationship will be over before the baby's even born. Heterosexual relationships are just as, if not more fragile than same sex ones, but yet they get the right to marry. And heteros have the nerve to think that gays would make a mockery of marriage. Please!

2006-01-18T21:02:00.000-05:00

Continuing With the Humor Theme.......

here are some prank calls that this comedian Roy Wood Jr. does. I put a few on here, but you can go to his website to hear more and learn more about him. I figured I'd put a few good humored posts, since I've had some more intense posts. As I said I have a good sense of humor, though I don't think it comes across that way on the posts I have put up here so far. These are funny though. Black folks I tell you!

Emmits Uncle

Barbara's Check

I found these on another website out of NYC called KTU. They have these phone pranks they call Balt Busters. Click here to see all the different ones they have on their site. The heterosexual one had me crackin' up when I heard it.

My Sons A Heterosexual!

Mommy's Toy

Do you think these are funny? Which was your favorite one? I think the funniest one to me is Barbara's Check, miss girl was a mess!

2006-01-17T13:02:00.000-05:00

A Few Humorous Pictures

I got an email from a friend of mine with these pictures and I thought they were funny, so I decided to put them up here. Have a good laugh.

2006-01-16T22:12:00.000-05:00

Sexual Safety Series- Entry #2

What's Mucosal Health Got To Do With It?

In my first post in this series I shared some safer sex tips to help prevent HIV transmission. In this post I will talk about how transmission happens, so that you can understand why certain things are more or less risky. One of the things that I didn't put in the 1st post, but should have, are the four body fluids HIV is found in, which are blood, semen, vaginal secretions and breast milk. For male, male sex, the main body fluid risk factors are blood and semen (cum).

Mucosal health refers to how healthy your mucous membranes are. You can think of the mucous membranes as the "pink parts" of your body, so that would be, the inside of your mouth, the lining of the anus, a man's urethra (the hole in the head of your penis) and a woman's vagina. All of these are likely points of entry for HIV via sex if the pink parts are compromised. So since having healthy mucosal membranes or "pink parts" help keep you HIV negative, it's imperative you make sure they're in tact prior to having sex.

HIV transmission occurs when there is damage to the pink parts. That damage triggers the body's immune system to send White Blood Cells to the area of inflammation or infection to fight off any foreign invaders (e.g.: bacteria, HIV, etc). These White Blood Cells are the very thing that HIV attaches itself to, which is how HIV infection occurs. So in other words, anything that causes inflammation or damage to your pink parts, will trigger White Blood Cells to help heal that inflammation. If the cells get to the site of inflammation and HIV is present, HIV infection occurs. If there is no HIV in the area where the White Blood Cells go, then HIV infection won't occur. So unprotected sex won't automatically put you at risk for HIV, but if there is HIV present in the body fluid the White Blood Cells come into contact with, then the likelihood of HIV transmission is very high.

What damages mucous membranes?
Mucous membranes can be damaged by many different things, but I'll talk about some of the most common ways.

In the mouth

Brushing teeth to the point where there's blood or you can feel some discomfort as a result of damaging the tissue.
Eating exrtemely spicy foods that cause some irritation to the tongue or inside of the mouth.
Recently having dental work done which almost always will cause some irritation to the gums. You might want to wait a day or two before engaging in unprotected oral sex until you feel that your gums are back in good shape.
Using mouthwash with a high alcohol or acidic content. That burning you feel when you use Listerine (or any other strong mouthwash) is the very thing that breaks down your mucous membranes and could put you at risk for HIV.
Any other activity that causes damage to the lining of the cheek (such as biting on it), gums (such as gingevitis) or tongue (such as biting it or a recent tongue piercing), among other things.

In the anus/vagina

Douching, because whatever chemical you use to clean out the anus can cause damage to the lining. That chemical could also dry the lining making it susceptible to tearing more easily during sex or it could cause inflammation, which will bring White Blood Cells to the area, which would lead to increased susceptibility for HIV infection.
Make sure you don't have an undiagnosed Sexually Transmitted Disease (STD), because having an STD directly breaks down the mucosal lining and puts you at increased risk for HIV. This is why it's important to not only test for HIV, but also STD's. I have been told by nurses that 2/3 of all STD's don't show any observable symptoms, so testing for them may be the only way you know you have one.
Rough sex could damage the lining of the anus as well. If you have rough sex or notice, blood coming from your anus after sex, then you may want to wait at minimum a day to a few days before engaging in any unprotected anal sex with a casual sex partner or someone who you're unsure of their HIV status. Protected sex of course is safer, but there is always the slight risk of the condom busting during orgasm.
Having hemorrhoids obviously causes damage to the anal lining and often times blood will be present if there is an active hemorrhoid. It may sound like common sense, but I'll say it anyway, if you have hemorrhoids, don't have insertive anal sex!

The Urethra

The primary risk here will be with STD's that get inside the urethra. An ideal situation for HIV transmission would be, having an STD that effects your urethra, and sticking your non-condomed dick inside someone who has a hemorrhoid, or blood present for whatever reason. Again that is why STD testing is important as well as using a condom. You can't see what's going on inside someones ass, so don't take that risk if you don't know for sure their HIV/STD status or your status for that matter.
As I stated in my previous post, for men who are uncut, it's important to make sure that you keep your foreskin clean, because if contaminated bacteria gets trapped in there, and if that bacteria gets into your urethra, you can contract HIV or an STD.

These are some of the common ways the pink parts can become compromised, which you should avoid so that you can stay healthy. For example in my previous post, one of the HIV risk reduction behaviors I listed was to avoid letting someone cum in your mouth. This is because cum is one of the four body fluids that HIV is found in. If there is any kind of damage to the pink parts in your mouth then there's a strong likelihood that White Blood Cells are present. If there's HIV in the cum, then that makes the ideal environment for HIV infection to occur.

The main point of this post was to share the importance of mucosal health. If you keep your pink parts healthy then you can greatly decrease your risk of HIV transmission. If anyone has additional questions you can email me or leave a comment and I'll answer it the best I can on here. If I don't know the answer, then I'll find out or direct you to a resource that can help.

I'm not suggesting in this post that if you do these behaviors you will be completely safe from HIV. These are merely things you can do to help decrease your risk. The only ways to truly prevent yourself from contracting HIV is to be sexually abstinant or to have a sexual partner where you are both sexually monogamous with each other and are both HIV-negative.

2006-01-13T16:12:00.000-05:00

Get Your MLK Day On!!!

Monday January 16th is the observance of Martin Luther King Day and a time that many of us reflect on the Civil Rights movement and how far we have come in the United States regarding race relations. The overt tactics of racism and discrimination may not be as pervasive as they were in King's time, but covert racism and discrimination continue to be present and pervasive. Martin Luther King, Jr. did a great deal for the advancement of Black's in this country and I'm honored to be a descendant of his legacy.

I often wonder what the state of Black folks would be if MLK, Jr and Malcolm X were still alive and in the struggle. I don't think we've had strong Black leaders since them and it seems the Black community has become increasingly more divisive and hyper-critical of the few leaders that do try to pull the community together. Long gone are the days of true, impactful, well attended, well organized political movements in America. I sometimes wish that I were part of those progressive movements like Malcolm X's and King's. The energy must have been crazy back then, because people fought for change like their lives depended on it and indeed their lives did.

What do people think of the state of Blacks in America and Black leadership in America?

2006-01-12T23:17:00.000-05:00

Sexual Safety Series- Entry#1

The Benefits of Sexual Harm Reduction

There has been much focus in the current Bush administration on pushing abstinence as the "golden standard" to follow and the promotion of no sex until marriage. What world is the Bush Administration living in? Since gay men and lesbians can't get legally married in this Country, do they think we should never have sex? A crazy thought, but one I'm sure conservatives believe should be the case. I was a late bloomer not having sex for the first time until I was 18 years old, but thank goodness I had a good head on my shoulders and learned about HIV early in my sexual experience. Since most of us don't see abstinence as an option and others of us aren't in committed, sexually monogamous relationships, we have to navigate sex with the ever present thought of HIV in the back of our minds. But there are ways we can help protect ourselves against HIV and still have a healthy sex life.

Have you ever tried to change a behavior that you knew put you at risk for adverse consequences, but you still did it anyway? Maybe you tried to do that behavior a little less, so you didn't feel so bad about doing it. I know I have and I'm sure that everyone else has at some point in their lives as well. This exhibits the concept of harm reduction, which is continuing to do a behavior that may be detrimental to your health, but moderating it so that the negative effects won't be so bad. Apply this concept to sexual behavior and you have sexual harm reduction practices.

Here are a few examples of Sexual Harm Reduction that people can put into practice if your not doing so already:

Get tested for HIV AND STD's every 3 to 6 months. If you are sexually active with more than 2-3 partners a month on average, then you should get tested for HIV AND STD's every 3 or 4 months.
Before having sex with a casual sex partner look for any sores or bumps in the genital area. Even if it's a quickie in the park or a back room, simply use the light from your cell phone or a small keychain flashlight to check things out before you go to town. Sometimes there's a reason why he wants to have sex in the dark!
When giving head, try not to let him ejaculate in your mouth as ejaculation increases your risk of HIV transmission. If he does cum in your mouth, spit it out ASAP and rinse your mouth out with water or a mild mouth wash to flush the mouth out.
If you give head to casual sex partners regularly try to be aware of any abrasions or inflammation of your tongue or gums. If there's any bleeding definitely reconsider giving head. It's not advisable to brush your teeth prior to giving head, as brushing teeth usually causes at least some minor irritation to the gums.
If your planning on bottoming, whether you plan on it being with a condom or not, don't douche before hand. I know people don't want to "paint" or whatever terminology you use, but douching can damage the lining of the anus and make an entry point for HIV if you come into contact with it. If you really feel the need to clean the anus out before anal sex, then try to do so several hours before the encounter and/or use a mild cleaner such as water or a glycerin suppository . Don't use anything acidic such as a vinegar based product.
If you bottom, and the top ejaculates inside of you, try to eliminate as soon as possible to flush any germ out. Don't douche after sex as there is likely some tearing or inflammation of the anal lining, which could become worse by douching. Simply try to eliminate after the encounter.
If you engage in sex while under the influence of drugs and/or alcohol, try to cut back. For example if you have sex an average of 6 times a week and 5 of those times you're under the influence, then try to work towards being under the influence 4 out of 6 times and then 3 times etc. If you can't cut back all at once, try to do so in increments, this is what harm reduction is about.
If you're uncut, make sure that you keep the foreskin clean and dry. To keep it dry it's recommended that you use corn starch. If you don't keep the foreskin clean and dry, bacteria will build up and could get trapped in the foreskin. If some of the bacteria in there are HIV/STD germs, you could be trapping them in there and providing an opportunity for the germ to enter your urethra (your pee hole) and infect you, not to mention it will smell and who wants that!?
Get screened for Hepatitis A & B because they are prevalent in some cities among Men who have Sex with Men (MSM). If you are negative for one or both of these diseases, then get vaccinated for them. Vaccination will protect you from contracting them if you come into contact with them. Vaccinations for Hepatitis A & B can often be obtained free of charge at public health clinics. If you have insurance, your carrier should cover the cost.
If you're dating someone and considering having unprotected anal sex and the two of you are sexually monogamous, try to wait at least three months to avoid the primary stages of HIV infection. An HIV antibody test can detect HIV within a three month period after infection. After the three month period of sexual monogamy, go together to get tested for HIV AND STD's. If your not sure your partner has been sexually monogamous, then reconsider having unprotected anal sex. The alternative is to have protected anal sex.

These are 10 tips to help reduce your risk of HIV infection. Are there others people practice that you want to share? This is by no means a complete list.

If there's a main point I want to leave you with, it's that harm reduction is a means to an end, meaning that the ultimate goal is to eliminate as much risk for HIV and STD transmission as possible and still enjoy sex. Another point I want to make is that sometimes we need to expand our sexual toybox and not view sex as primarily anal penetration. There are lots of things other than anal penetration you can do and are less risky, but still enjoyable. Until the next post play safe and try something new and adventurous and safe!

I'm not suggesting in this post that if you do these behaviors you will be completely safe from HIV. These are merely things you can do to help decrease your risk. The only ways to truly prevent yourself from contracting HIV is to be sexually abstinant or to have a sexual partner where you are both sexually monogamous with each other and are both HIV-negative.

2006-01-12T14:32:00.000-05:00

New Series Coming to Lee's Space

I was suddenly inspired to write about sexual safety as it relates to HIV/STD prevention for gay men, after engaging in a discussion on a GLBT People of Color listserve recently. The series will simply be called "Sexual Safety Series". I also plan to talk about some specific issues as they relate to Black gay men and sexual risk. I've been doing HIV work for over 5 years now and have acquired quite a bit of knowledge along the way. One of the things I have seen via my experience of working as an HIV prevention educator as well as being a facilitator for Many Men, Many Voices that men sometimes don't realize how some of the behaviors they do or don't engage in, may be putting them at risk for HIV and STD's. There are lots of things to cover under the umbrella of sexual safety, so I decided I would break them up into a series of posts, so they weren't too long and more manageable to read. This series will include substance use behaviors, secondary prevention, and the relationship to HIV and STD's among other things. I will also provide links to other reputable sources where you can get more information if you'd like. So check in with me every few days or so as I am going to try to post at least every other day or so.

2006-01-09T20:45:00.000-05:00

My 2006 Agenda

Well 2006 is here and I have not made any real New Years resolutions, but I do have goals and aspirations for 2006. Initially I was planning to recap my 2005, but at this point, I think I will talk more about my future than recap the past. A few notable things about 2005 for me were:

Meeting my partner
Being part of a successful research project that will add to HIV prevention programming for Black Men who have Sex with Men.
Landing a part time job doing mental health counseling, because I had been missing my direct service experience doing research.
The incredible experience I've had being a facilitator for Many Men, Many Voices. I've enjoyed meeting all kinds of different and inspiring people who have attended the retreats and its been an invaluable experience. (For all you New Yorker's and N. Jersey boyz, you need to get with People Of Color in Crisis and get to one of the retreats!)
I've been involved with an action group here in Philly, that's looking to improve the overall health and well being of Black gay men. This is an issue that's important to me, and though we've been on a little hiatus, I'm hoping that 2006 will be a progressive year for this planning body.
Last, but not least, I started Blogging! That has truly been one of the highlights, because I've been wanting to write for over a year now and I find this to be the perfect way to share my thoughts with a worldwide audience. It's also therapeutic. Keep supportin' a brutha in the '06.

In the mix for 2006:

One of the things I'd really like to do this year is teach a college level class. I have put in resume's with Temple University's Social Work program and with the Community College of Philadelphia, so I hope to hear something. Temple actually got back to me and said they might be looking for adjunct professors for the Spring semester. I'd love to teach a HIV related course, social work or a human sexuality class.
I want to continue writing and build the readership of my Blog. People have told me they find some of the stuff I write to be interesting and helpful, so I plan to continue writing about current events and adding to the richness of the blog community. I feel I've had a little bit of writer's block for the beginning of the year, but I hope to get over it soon.
I also want to make my Blog look more visually appealing and less like the template it is. I'm a little jealous of the new look of Clay Canes Blog and other's that I've visited. I'm trying to teach myself a little HTML so I can make this happen.
Decorate my apartment better. I have been in this place for over 8 months now and still have boxes (LOL). So I definitely need to get with decorating and making my place look a little more lived in. The problem is, I really don't get into decorating, so it's a challenge.
I hope to catch some good concerts this year. I would LOVE to see Lisa Stansfield, though it doesn't seem that she ever tours in the US. Others I would like to see in concert are: Jill Scott (Again, 'cuz she's amazing), Jaguar Wright, The Roots (just missed them in Atlantic City a couple of week ago), Mary J Blige & India (the house music singer with the beautiful voice). I know there are more, but those are who I can think of off the top of my head.
I also want to build my circle of friends here in Philly. I have plenty of associates, but not many close friends, which is something important to me.

I look forward to what 2006 has to offer me. I'm the type to go for what I want and I have been lucky enough to get most of those things. I live my life virtuously and put good energy out, which is why I think I've been blessed with such good Karma in life so far. So be sure to stay with me in 2006, I'll make it worth your while. And please continue to give me feedback on what I write, it helps keep me going and evolve as a writer.

Lee

2006-01-05T22:41:00.000-05:00

Good Times

The past week has been fun and it was topped off by a visit from one of my dear friends Garrod who came to visit me from Albany, NY. Me and Garrod have been friends for 11 years, which I hadn't realized it has been that long until we were talking about it. I knew him when he was just a teenager trying to get through his highschool years and he's all growed up now :-) I'm proud of how well he's doing for himself in spite of some of his life adversities over the past couple of years. He's one of the sweetest and most genuine people that I know, which is how we've managed to stay friends all these years. I've been here in Philadelphia for a year and 3 months and he is the first person to come and visit me. Several friends have said they plan to come, but none have until now, and I had a great time bar hopping last night and then showing him around Philadelphia today. We reminisced on the fun and good times we've had over the years, which I know my partner felt left out at times, so thank you for bearing with us baby. Here are a few pics from the night:

Me & Garrod @ Woody's

Me, Georgeo & Garrod @ Cosi

Us @ Bump (yeah I know I seem to always hang out there)

The Handsome Couple

So a good time was had by all and I realized how much I miss Garrod. He's looking to move at some point in the future and has his eye on Philly as a possibility, so you know I was trying to sell it to him.

Last weekend was New Years weekend so me, Georgeo and friends decided to do it up for the weekend. We went out to a couple of bars last Friday night and had a jolly old time. I didn't take any pictures on New Year's Eve, but I do have a picture from the night we all hung out at Key West (a Black gay bar in Philly, not the city- I wish though!) Here are a few pics from Key West:

L to R: Me, Georgeo, Chris, Vince & Freddie

Me, Georgeo @ Ervin

2006-01-04T22:16:00.000-05:00

Vexed about.........In The Last 2 Weeks of 2005

Happy New Year to all and I look forward to what the new year has in store for me and the entire blog community. But before I move into to 2006 I have some bones to pick with a few small events that took place in the last couple of weeks of 2005:

iPod Drama

So, me being the music lover that I am, was really looking forward to getting an iPod for Christmas. My partner told me he'd get me the new one that plays video and stores pics in addition to music, so I was too hype about the prospect of getting it. Well I call myself trying to find a good deal so that my man wouldn't have to pay $300+ for it (so maybe I could get a few other things too :-)) So I found a good deal on this corny assed website ( I didn't know how corny at the time unfortunately). So he orders it for me and we wait, and wait, and wait and they still hadn't sent it, meanwhile he's been charged for it. So it's a week before Christmas and I call and they say, "we've got some in and we'll be sending it out soon, so you should have it before Christmas". Well I can't just sit with that, I wanted to know exactly when they were going to send it out and exactly when it should be getting to me etc. So I called them 4 days before Christmas and they say, "it's been mailed and is on its way, but we can't give you a tracking number yet because that's done manually in a different department". So I'm truly hyped now, 'cuz they told me it was going to be there the Friday before Christmas. So me still pushing, called back the next day to get the tracking number so I could get the exact delivery date, 'cuz I didn't want it chillin on the front step for hours until someone came home to get it, in the meanwhile someone sees it and grabs it and ends up with my iPod! Oh hell to the naw, so I called them again to get the tracking number. The customer service rep tells me "we just got a notice today that we didn't get the iPod's in as expected and won't be able to fill the order before Christmas". What! I hit the roof and went off on her about how I was told it was on its way and I should have it before Christmas etc. I had my partner call that day and get his money back, 'cuz they're a crooked azzed establishment and I didn't appreciate being lied to. Luckily I was able to find an iPod locally and got it before Christmas and was quite happy until I found out how crooked Apple is..............

My beef with Apple

Let me start by saying that though I have this beef, overall I am hooked on the iPod. I'm just a little pissed off about how they get you coming and going spending money on things that should come with it for the price you pay................such as a charger! When I went to the store and got the iPod (the Black one, 'cuz it looks so hot!), I was surprised at how small the box was. I was like dayum, that's what I’m paying $300 for? So I get it back to my office at work, because I was like a little kid and had to check things out immediately, to find that the only way I can charge it is if I plug it into a computer. If I want an outlet charger, I have to pay an extra $40. What?! When the iPod first came out the dayum thing came with a wall charger and you could charge it on the computer as well while you were downloading songs. We are all victims of the profit driven world of today whose motto is.......give less and make the consumer pay more! So then my partner goes to buy me a wall plug, but when I open the box, it's not a wall plug, but a damn docking station that still needs to be connected to the computer to charge. The docking station didn't even come with any of its own cords!! What kind of bullshit is that? I have to use the cords that came with the iPod in order to use the dock. The only thing this particular dock does is allow you to hook the iPod up to the TV or to your home stereo system. So I was vexed because my partner asked for a wall charger and thought that's what he was getting, so that was another $40 on that! I'm heated that they have made the item more expensive and give you less accessories. Yeah I know it has a color display and the design is a little sleeker and it's an awesome system, but they screw you over.

The Flavor of Love

So I'm mad that I am into this show! (LOL) I think that Flavor Flave is one of the ugliest people I’ve ever seen, so ugly that he does a 180 and becomes almost cute in an odd way! (Well maybe it's more like a 250, because he's still more ugly than oddly cute). I was watching his new VH1 reality show, where 20 women are competing for his love and I was a bit intrigued. I watched the whole hour of the first episode and want to watch more. I have always found him to be a bit too buffoonish, especially being in a group like public enemy where they were about trying to raise the consciousness of the young Black hip hop community of the 80's and early 90's. His character didn't seem to fit what the group was supposed to represent.

Well do ya'll remember how he used to wear those big assed clocks around his neck? Well almost 20 years later and he's no different. He's still wearing oversized clocks and acting like a buffoon. He objectifies the women, touchin' all on their ass and breasts and they are loving it, all for a little piece of fame. As if any of those women would look twice at Flave if it wasn't for him having this reality TV show. But for some odd reason I still like the show and will probably watch it next week. Has anyone else seen it? Thoughts?

XXL Magazines The Shook One's 2005

I was vexed watching this show because there were a few things said on this show that pissed me off. The show aired a few times last week on MTV Jams on digital cable. They had about 5 or 6 people from the rap industry involved in a roundtable discussion on different events in hip hop in 2005. They talked about Karrin "Superhead" Stephens and how she blew up the male rap industry by disclosing several of her sexual affairs with rap artists; Mary J. Blige blasting Vibe for her unhappiness with her most recent magazine cover; 'Lil Kims trial and conviction and how rappers responded to the Hurricane Katrina disaster among other things.

The part that got me going was when they talked about Kanye West's accusations about homophobia in hip hop. All of the commentators on the show were male; except for Remy Ma (what the hell has she done lately?). The men included David Banner, Jim Jones and a couple of other people who's names I can't remember. Well when the host bought up Kanye's statements about homophobia in hip hop for the panelists to discuss, the Black male bravado came out and they (mostly David Banner and Jim Jones) refused to even talk about the topic. In a nutshell they feel there are more important issues to deal with in hip hop and how it relates to urban Black communities than to waste their breath on discussing homophobia in hip hop. Jim Jones even said that he doesn't even listen to Kanye's music because there is too much struggling going on in the urban Black ghettos that aren't reflected in Kanye's music (but apparently is reflected in his, I wouldn't know since I don't know one song by him). It's sooooooooo tired that rappers still want to talk about glorifying street life, violence and drug dealing, all while objectifying Black women in their videos and lyrics. At least Kanye talks on larger social and political issues and put his neck on the line at least once to make a statement, which could have cost him his endorsement wtih Pepsi (None of the rappers at this roundtable have this kind of major endorsement).

I think some hip hop heads are tired of listening to violent music, especially since they see this every day reflected on the news, in their neighborhoods and some are coming to the realization that enough is enough. This has become a staple of East and West coast rap music, which is why the South was represented so strongly in album sales in 2005. They talk about partying among other things and in general don't promote violence in their music, though it's still heavily misogynistic, instead of the violent, corrupt lyrics of many East and West coast rappers. For these two cowards to refuse to even talk about homophobia in rap music shows their ignorance and lack of ability to look outside of their short sited lyrics that objectify women, promote drug use, selling and violence and overall exhibit a lack of respect for the Black community, especially women. I don't think Jim Jones or David Banner could hold an intellectual conversation about the state of the Black community and what we need to do to advance as a people; this includes those Blacks that don't live in urban ghettos, but still have to deal with the impact of racism and prejudice among other social plagues.

Ignant asses like them is why I don't really get into rap anymore. The consciousness raising of 80's rap with groups like X-Clan, Public Enemy and KRS1 are long gone and just about dead. Destructive, homophobic and misogynist lyrics have taken over and all those that promote these kind of lyrics, including Jim Jones and David Banner need to wake up and realize that we are all interconnected: gay and straight; masculine and feminine; Black and White and when we begin to think that one is better than the other, then we become part of the problems that keep this country in a state of social, economic and political regression.

2005-12-29T11:31:00.000-05:00

Another Year Down: Time to Celebrate

Well, the '05 is just about over and anyone who reads this has made it through another year in this crazy world. There have been many a trial and tribulation this year and I'm sure that 2006 will be no different. I just want to thank everyone who has visited this Blog the past couple of months. It has been a great experience and cathartic for me to express my views to an audience outside of my internal conversations and those I have with friends. I appreciate those who have commented on my posts, whether you agree or disagree with me, and for those who don't comment, but still stop by and read what I have to say. The comments I get from people really do inspire me to write more and keep my Blog up to date so folks know they can catch something new when they visit.

I scoured google and Yahoo Images to try and find some hot pics to illustrate celebrating the end of the year, but didn't find much that I liked, so I'm stuck with what I have here :-)

I'm not sure what I'm doing for New Year's yet, but I'm sure my partner and I will find something to do. I prefer the house party scene rather than being in a bar/club. What do others have planned for their celebrations this year?

I hope that each and everyone who reads this post has a Happy New Year that's fun, but safe and that we all survive to see the next year. I wish for prosperity, good health and achievement for you all in the year to come.

My first post of '06 will likely be a recap of my year and the directions I'm going in for next year, so check me out!

Here's to another year down!

Sincerely,

Lee

2005-12-28T15:05:00.000-05:00

Corey Maye Update- 12/28/05

I visited The Agitator website this morning to see if there were any updates on this case and there were a few. The most interesting are the actual court transcriptions that have been put up by the sites author Radley Balko. On his site you can see all kinds of court documents in PDF form. I haven't really gotten a chance to read them yet, but if your interested click here to view these documents. You'll have to scroll down to the section that says The Maye Trial Transcripts. There you'll find links to several trial documents related to the Corey Maye case.

I have tried my part to bring this case into the consciousness of more people via my Blog, but also emailing the Steve Harvey Morning Show (I know, after all the shit I talk about that show), mostly because Ms. Reid is a respectable journalist with clout in the journalism community. My hope is that she might express some interest in this case. Unfortunately that show has been on break the past 2 weeks and they are only doing "Best of shows" (as if he's been on that long to have 2 weeks worth). I'm planning to email a couple of other nationally syndicated Black shows as well. Please pass the word of this case and these documents on to others you know. The more people who know about this case, the greater the chance that it will reach someone who can bring it to a national audience.

2005-12-27T16:53:00.000-05:00

The Violence Among Us

I was speaking with a friend of mine from my hometown, Rochester, NY one night last week and he shared something with me that has disturbed me ever since that conversation. He was getting me up to speed on some things going on there when he told me about a young gay man who was violently attacked by another gay person. There are several reasons why this disturbed me so deeply:

I knew the young man who was attacked because he used to frequent the youth program I used to run at the MOCHA Project in Rochester.
I also know the attacker who is a FTM transgender and someone who I've always been cool with, but had heard stories about how violent she can be, though I've never been witness to it.
She chose to attack him with a hammer!
He had to spend several days in the hospital because he was so badly beaten
Both the attacker and the victim were Black.

When my friend told me what happened, my heart immediately went out to the victim because I know him and I also know that he's rather effeminate, small framed and his natural disposition isn't that of a fighter. Even if she didn't attack him with a hammer, he didn't have much of a chance against her because of her build and street sense.

I felt a deep sadness that not only did this occur between two Black people, but two Black people "in the life". I'm not sure how the attacker identifies herself in relation to the GLBT community, but I know I've seen her at gay establishments and she has gay male friends. I have heard her on more than one occasion mouth derogatory statements about "faggots this...........and faggots that", "I can't stand faggot assed, punk assed niggas" etc. To me when people say things like this, it speaks to the profound hurt they are going through in their identification with a community they consider themselves to be a part of, but at the same time have been hurt by. No Black person can divorce their Blackness no matter how bad they want to and I feel the same about a GLBT orientation (though some claim to have changed their life after asking the Lawd to deliver them).

What can be going through someone's mind as they run up on you, pull out a hammer and beat the shit out of you? I hope to never have that kind of hate in my heart, because that's the kind of hate that's self destructive and often ends up destroying others in the process. As Black GLBT folks, we have a hard enough time being accepted by our communities, by our families and by our peers. We DON'T need the negativity that comes from our own Black GLBT brother's and sister's. All the shade, back biting, violence and disrespect has to be diminished if we have any chances of developing a sense of community or at minimum a collective well being and relationships with other Black GLBT people. We do more damage to each other than any non-Black GLBT person or heterosexual person of any race could do. Notice I said these things need to diminish and not cease altogether. I'm a realist and know that there will always be shade, cattiness etc, but I think it's detrimental to our individual and collective health and well being with the pervasiveness that it exists now.

I've talked with several Black gay men who talk about how their attitude and shade comes from a sense of not wanting to be hurt by peers, so they adopt an attitude of "the best offense is a good defense" (meaning I'll get you before you get me). If we are so busy being un-trusting of our brothers and sisters, how do ever get to a point where we see them as our supports in a racist, heterosexist, homophobic society? If we're busy beating each other up how do we form loving bonds and relationships with each other? How do we pull each other up from the throws of substance abuse and addiction, which disproportionately impacts GLBT persons?

I don't have the answers to these questions, but what I do know is that we have to figure out solutions soon because this violence isn't only destroying us, but it's destroying our communities, families and our children and threatens to destroy our children's children. We don't have to like everyone, but that doesn't mean we have to violate each other physically and verbally when we don't get along. My sympathies go out to JB (the victim) and I hope he recovers and will be able to move on with his life. I also have some sympathy for the attacker because she has a lot of hate in her heart, which means she's in a lot of pain. My hope is that one day she's able to get to the root of that pain and is able to heal the anger that has festered inside and led her to an adult life of violence, illegal activity and prison. This can't be the life of a person who's happy with themselves, because if you are, then you don't need to destroy someone else as she did to JB.

Spread the love in '06, because our collective health and well being depends on it.

2005-12-20T18:59:00.000-05:00

The Death Row Case of Corey Maye

I learned of this young Black man's situation when I visited Keith Boykin's website the other night. I was both amazed and angered by what I read and how this man's life has been ruined and could possibly ended by execution if pressure isn't put on the state of Mississippi to overturn the death row ruling made against Corey Maye.

The Background
Corey Maye, a young Black man was convicted of capitol murder when he shot a White police officer in what appears to be self defense, during an improperly executed police sting operation in December of 2001. They had obtained information that drugs were being sold out of the duplex where Maye lived. The police had a warrant for someone else who lived in the duplex (but not with Maye) and they also had another one to search his apartment as well, though they didn't have Maye's name on the other warrant as he wasn't a suspect. Apparently they failed to realize the apartment they chose to break into first wasn't the intended suspect, but was Maye's residence. The time of the sting was around midnight and Maye was reported to have been sleeping when they busted into his apartment without warning. In an attempt to protect himself from harm, since he was sleeping and only knew that someone had broken into his apartment, he grabbed his gun and shot at one of the people coming through his door. Unfortunately these were police officers and the one he shot, died from his injuries. To make matters worse, the cop he shot, happened to be the son of the towns police chief at that time. And the tragic life of Corey Maye begins......

Some information on the case:

Maye had no prior criminal record.
The police originally said they found no drugs in his apartment. This statement was later changed to say that they found a trace of marijuana in the apartment.
When he went to trial the jury was made up of 10 White's and 2 Black's. The jury came back with the decision that he was guilty and should be punished by death.
To this day Corey Maye sits on death row awaiting execution.
According to Maye's former lawyer,who states she interviewed a couple of the jurors after the trial, his conviction by the jury didn't come from concrete evidence of the case, but rather on their judgments that he had been spoiled by his mother and grandmother and their belief that he was disrespectful of elders. They were also upset by a remark that was made by his attorney at the time. According to Maye's former lawyer, these things are the basis for their decision to sentence him to capitol punishment.

The Movement
Obviously this is a HUGE injustice and the life of this Black man in Mississippi has been deemed expendable by a majority White jury who apparently didn't even convict him on evidence from the case. Had they done this, it seems pretty clear cut that it was a case of self defense and not murder. Would the case have turned out different if the cop killed were not the police chief's son? If the "victim" was not White? If Maye was White and not Black? We'll never have these answers, but we do have options to help correct this situation.

A man by the name of Radley Balko has taken up the cause of undoing the injustice done to Corey Maye. He has dedicated a section of his website called The Agitator to an investigation into the case of Maye. He has tons of interesting information on there including links to actual police documents filed against Maye. He also has a 30 minute interview he did with a radio program where he details the history of the case and the findings so far.

This case has been making its way around the Blog circuit, but hasn't made it much outside of it. Balko and others are trying to get major media to grab ahold of this story to bring attention to it and hopefully pressure on the state of Mississippi to overturn this ruling. In an effort to help get the word out, I am planning to send an email to a few of the nationally syndicated Black radio shows to see if they will take up this cause. I encourage anyone who reads about this case and feels this man has been unjustly treated to do your part to bring some media attention to this issue. I hope that through our collective efforts, we can tap into the larger mass media and in turn help to save this innocent man's life.

For More information Visit:
The Agitator
Keith Boykin's Article
News Article

2005-12-19T21:30:00.000-05:00

Privacy Denied: Were You Violated?

Well the Bush administration is in the news again for another scandal. News dropped over the weekend that since shortly after the 9/11 attacks, the National Security Agency (NSA), under the direction of President Bush has been tapping phone lines and monitoring the emails of thousands of Americans. The war on terror is infringing more and more into the daily lives of Americans and it's not only because of terrorists. We are all potential suspects to the United States government, especially if you have any kind of affiliations with people outside of the United States. I bet they probably pulled a list of every Arab-American and anyone else from that part of the world that now lives in America and has been monitoring their communications. Of course I don't think it stops there. Have you called to anyone outside the United States? Emailed anyone from another country, especially one that the United States government considers to be a potential threat for terrorist activity? If you have, regardless of your race, it's likely that some of your communications have been monitored at some point without your knowledge.

The biggest problem is that this isn't legal! There is much debate now that this has been exposed about the legitimacy and need for Bush to go this far to collect anti-terrorism data. From all the shows I watched the past few days, where they have interviewed members of congress, lawyers and politicians, they all say that he has overstepped his authority as a president once again. He has abused his power and we are the victims not only of potential terrorist activity, but we are being victimized by our own government. Bush has also made it clear that he is going to continue this illegal activity, until an act of law forbids it. Does this man have an ego or what? When does he play by the rules? Can you imagine being able to do whatever you want and not be held accountable for it? Now we all know dayum well, if a Black president (if there ever will be such a thing in Amerikkka) were to do anything out of line or illegal in his presidency he'd be impeached before he could finish spelling the word. White privilege is undeniable and President Bush exhibits this frequently. How else could you explain someone becoming president of the US who is inarticulate, lacks intelligce and on top of that has a history of DWI's? Two words WHITE PRIVILEGE!

So how far will this eavesdropping go? For years they have been doing this kind of surveillance on groups considered to be radical in the US, especially Black led groups such as the Black Panthers and the Nation Of Islam as well as more peaceful movements such as that of Martin Luther King Jr. If we as Black gay folks become more radical against our oppressive mistreatment by governmental and social institutions, will we be the next to be under surveillance? Will they be tapping our phone lines and monitoring emails to make sure we don't get out of hand? It's hard to know where this kind of thing will stop, especially if it's being done illegally. Our president talks about values and virtues, but where is the virtue in breaking the law? I was reading the New York Times transcript of the radio address that President Bush gave on December 16th and he is quoted as saying "The American people expect me to do everything in my power under our laws and Constitution to protect them and their civil liberties. And that is what I will continue to do so long as I'm the president of the United States". I wonder what he considers to be under our laws and Constitution, because he broke the law when he had the NSA monitoring our communications without obtaining a warrant, which is the law. Had he followed the procedures properly this issue would not be coming up to haunt him. Our president is a criminal and this isn't the first of his criminal exploits and sadly, this probably isn't the last. We still have 3 years of his nonsense to deal with and I hope this country will be able to recover from the profound damage that's been done.

In the meantime realize that Big Brother is watching. This incident reminds me of the Jill Scott song off her first album called Watching Me, where she talked about the infringement of the government into our personal lives. I love the line when she says "Am I watching the TV or is it watching me, man I don't know". This could be a reality. Hopefully Congress will hold President Bush accountable for breaking the law. Could he be impeached for this? Who knows, but at some point his arrogance, disregard for abiding by the law and lack of honesty has to be stopped.

2005-12-19T18:39:00.000-05:00

The Boodocks, Stereotypical or Reality?

Have you all seen The Boondocks, a new cartoon that airs Sunday's @ 11pm on The Cartoon Network's Adult Swim? If not, you are missing something and it's worth watching at least one episode. Click here to view a clip of the cartoon. For those that haven't seen it, a quick synopsis of the plot is that two young Black brothers (10 & 8) move to a boondock suburb of Chicago (hence the name of the show) when their grandfather gets custody of them. Prior to moving to the boondocks, the boys lived on the South Side of Chicago. The younger brother Riley is a self proclaimed 8 year old gangsta' who has a foul mouth and bad temper to match. On the other hand is Huey, Riley's 10 year old brother who is a socially conscious intellectual revolutionary who is all for the advancement of Black people.

So here's my take on the show. I have only seen two of the episodes, so my thoughts are based on these two shows. Last night, though I was needing to get ready for bed, I found myself captivated by this show and at the same time thinking that I don't know if I should support it, because of some of it's content. Most of my problem with the show lies with the younger brother, Riley, who uses the "N" word frequently, has a violent disposition that seems to be a bit excessive, especially for an 8 year old. On last night's show, Riley was pissed with Santa Claus for not bringing him presents when he was living in the hood last year, so he decided to terrorize Santa Claus this year when he ran into him at the mall. Not only did he verbally harass Santa, but he physically attacked him, by beating him with a golf club during one incident and then came back another day for more revenge. The second time he terrorized Santa, he had a gun with a red beam on it which he aimed at Santa's head and attempted to shoot him. I can't recall, but I think it was a bebe gun he had. Now keep in mind, this is an 8 year old! Although it's a cartoon, that's a bit much, even for me as an adult to watch, especially when I know the reality of 8 year olds in real life bringing guns to school and children accidentally shooting their peers because they gained unauthorized access to a gun.

A stark contrast to this was the social consciousness of his older brother Huey, who wrote a school play about the true meaning of Christmas where he wasn't afraid to challenge the myth that Jesus had blonde hair and blue eyes and pale skin as is depicted by most Christian's. The things he was saying were really on point and I found myself wishing that most young Black 10 year olds were like that in real life. Wishing they could use their brains to create change instead of ignorance and violence. I loved how he spewed out facts on how Christmas used to be a pagan holiday and how he exposed some of the inconsistencies of commonly held truths.

This is where my conflict with the show comes in. I really have a hard time with the liberal use of the "N"word and the excessive violence displayed by the younger brother. In the first episode of the show I saw, I'm not kidding when I tell you that between the little brother and the grandfather, they used the "N" word more than 20 times in a 30 minutes episode! But, on the other hand I like how the older brother directs his anger at a racist society via intellectual opposition. It's easier to use violence as a means to get people to do what you want, but another thing entirely to use your brain as that weapon that creates change. The latter is what we need to teach our young people to do.

I know, I'm digging way too deep into a cartoon, but I think we have to be careful about how we represent ourselves in all forms of media. Our young Black boys are too violent as it is and we don't need shows to reinforce these negative aspects to the extreme that Boondocks does. None the less, I think I'll tune in next week to see what happens. Overall the show is decent and I have always found the humor of John Witherspoon, (who plays the grandfather) to be funny. I will never forget his roles on Friday and Boomerang.

What do others think of this show?

2005-12-16T19:20:00.000-05:00

A Jackson's Reality Show? Say It Ain't So!

Believe it or not, the Jackson family is planning to have a reality TV show based on some of the extended Jackson family members. From what I read in this article the show will be based on the comeback of 3T, which some of us may recall from a few years ago. Their career was very short lived Apparently there will be cameos of all the Jackson family who will be mentoring them as they try to make a name for themselves. Apparently The most infamous Jackson, Michael will make a cameo appearance in the pilot episode, but it's uncertain if he will be in it other than that. If the show gets picked up by network TV, the most featured family members will be LaToya and Jermain. That should be a trip. I wonder if LaToya has consulted her psychic friends to see that this show will flop.

I think people have grown tired of the Jackson family, I know I have. The only one I follow is Ms. Janet. If Michael didn't do such weird things and get caught up in so much negative controversy, I would love to see him make a comeback. He was so hot in the 80's. However I don't think he will ever be able to come back to the magnitude he was early in his adult solo career. As for the show, I don't think I'd watch it if it came on, would you?

2005-12-14T22:41:00.000-05:00

Noah's Arc Season One: My thoughts

I just watched the last episode of the first season of Noah's Arc and I have mixed feelings about the show. Most of all, I'm glad that there's something on TV that gives the presence of Black gays on TV and it doesn't portray us in a negative light. There has been much talk in the Black gay community about the series. This weekend when I was at the 3MV retreat, several of us got into a conversation about the series and our thoughts on it.

The things I don't necessarily like about the show are:

The story lines move way too fast. For example, Wade who was supposed to be heterosexual in the first episode, but ends up in a relationship with Noah in the second episode. It would have been better to build that story line up some before making them lovers.
The acting isn't the greatest. The ones who I think need the most work is Wade and Ricky. They are both nice to look at, but the acting is less than stellar.
They take on several social issues, but I think it may be more than the show is capable of handling at this point. It would be better if they took a couple of issues and went deeper with them, rather than cover the surface of several issues.
Noah's voice is a bit annoying. It seems that it's overly effimiate. I didn't see the initial run of the first episode that was making the gay film festival circuit last year, but I heard that his voice wasn't as high pitched then as it is now.
Some of the plots were whack. The one that stands out the most was the one when Chance was taking "homo thug" lessons from T-Money because his lover had a fetish for "homo thugs".

The things I like about the show are:

I like the camaraderie of the characters and how they help each other through hard times. It's especially endearing to see because we don't see many pictures of Black men having healthy friendships like that on TV.
On the same token, it's also nice to see images of Black men loving Black men, though tonight's episode was DRAMA!
Though they may try to tackle too many hot topic issues that the Black gay community is dealing with, (e.g.: homophobia in the Black church, masculinity in the Black gay community) at least they are broaching these issues.
I like Alex's character for some reason. I think because he's so witty and of all the character's he has his own little tag line, which is how he says the word "girl" when referring to his friends.

As for the season finale, I'm not sure how I feel about it. I think there was lots of DRAMA!!!! (almost too much for one episode). I was a bit disappointed in Noah for cheating on his boyfriend at a sex party. It was too much when the guy he cheated on Wade with sits next to him the next day at Chance and Eddie's commitment ceremony. Speaking of which, Wade's friends completely fucked up their ceremony! I felt for poor Alex for getting played as hard as he did in front of everyone when his proposal to marry Trey was declined and then to add salt to the wound, he found out Trey was planning to move out of the country for 6 months, putting their relationship on hold. The fight between Alex and Guy I think his name is, was corny. It didn't really seem realistic at all. But it sure does seem that Guy and Trey have somethin' goin' on.

Overall, I think that the show is okay, but could use some tweaking of the storylines and acting. I also think the story lines move much too fast which makes the show seem unrealistic at times. If nothing else, Noah's Arc has caused a lot of discussion within the Black gay community. One of the things I wish they might do for the future is to add more facets of the Black gay community such as lesbians and transgender's. Not doing so only feeds into the divisiveness of our community where it seems that lesbians and gay men rarely socialize in the same circles. I do think kudos should be given to Patrick Ian Polk for getting this show onto a weekly national spotlight, even if it's on a conservative station such as LOGO. I suppose that part of my support also comes from the fact that I support Black gay media as long as it doesn't portray us in a way that I feel is detrimental to us.

2005-12-13T23:08:00.000-05:00

The Life of Stan "Tookie" Williams

At 12:35 am today, December 13, 2005, 16 days before his 52nd birthday, Stanley "Tookie" Williams, the infamous co-founder of the Crips street gang died from lethal injection in the state of California, according to news reports. Him and his supporters' request for him to be granted clemency was denied by California Governor Arnold Schwarzenigger (I mean Schwarzenegger). If granted clemency, Williams would have been able to avoid the death penalty, but would have had to remain in prison the remainder of his life without the chance of parole, unless some kind of evidence surfaced that could prove his innocence. His death row sentence was given to him after he was convicted in 1981 for murdering 4 people in two separate incidents. Williams claimed his innocence to the day he died. This has been a hot topic not only in the news, but also on many Blogs that I came across today. The focus of this post is to share my thoughts on why I think he should have been granted clemency by the state of California.

I have been doing a little bit of research on Stanley "Tookie" Williams, so that I could get a better picture of who this man was. After finding out some of the work he's done since he's been in prison, I don't think he should have been executed. I say this with a little bit of reservation mainly because I don't know if I would be saying the same thing if it were my family members he was accused of murdering.

According to a fact sheet that appears to be endorsed by close associates of Williams, there was some shakiness in his conviction for the crimes. This document states that the physical evidence against Mr. Williams wasn't solid, nor was the credibility of the witnesses. The document goes on to state that several of the witnesses who supposedly heard him confess to the murders had their own serious brushes with the law they were dealing with at the time they testified against Mr. Williams. Remarkably each witness had their charges dropped or lessened as a result of testifying against Mr. Williams. Now I don't think it takes a rocket scientist to figure out that there was some corruption going on here. All this evidence was also based on what these witnesses supposedly heard and not that they actually saw him commit the crime. These witnesses certainly had a reason to make up a story so that they could save themselves from their own legal issues and I'm sure the government would have liked nothing more than to see him off the streets because of his gang affililation. I'm not saying I believe Mr. Williams didn't commit the crimes as I'm sure he was more than capable of doing so, but I trust the fairness of the judiciary process even less than an ex gang member. I suppose we we'll never know the real truth, and even if we did, it's too late for Mr. Williams at this point.

Suppose for a moment that he did commit these violent crimes; people can change and make good out of a bad situation, which is what this man was doing for the past several years of his life. He had been in prison for 24 years and seemed to have turned his life around and done a significant amount of good to combat violence in urban communities as best he could from a prison cell. He had written approximately 8 books for grade school kids, which includes some for highschool aged kids about the danger of gangs and the need to find other solutions for the frustrations many urban youth (particularly Black's and Hispanics) have to deal with as a result of racism, urban decay and poverty. He wrote a book called "Blue Rage, Black Redemption" which is a memoir of his life and how he became the kind of person that ended up being a co-founder of one of the largest gangs in American history and his words of wisdom for young urban kids to not follow in his footsteps. He made several Public Service Announcements to denounce the gang lifestyle. He developed an anti violence curriculum that was implemented with success in over 20 Chicago Public schools where there was a high incidence of violence. In addition to that, he has worked from inside his prison cell to build peace between long time rival street gangs and reportedly had some success with it.

I took the following text from his official website where he made an apology for all the suffering he caused America and beyond for the violence the Crips street gang has caused over the years:

The Apology

Twenty-five years ago when I created the Crips youth gang with Raymond Lee Washington in South Central Los Angeles, I never imagined Crips membership would one day spread throughout California, would spread to much of the rest of the nation and to cities in South Africa, where Crips copycat gangs have formed. I also didn't expect the Crips to end up ruining the lives of so many young people, especially young black men who have hurt other young black men.

Raymond was murdered in 1979. But if he were here, I believe he would be as troubled as I am by the Crips legacy.

So today I apologize to you all -- the children of America and South Africa -- who must cope every day with dangerous street gangs. I no longer participate in the so-called gangster lifestyle, and I deeply regret that I ever did.

As a contribution to the struggle to end child-on-child brutality and black-on-black brutality, I have written the Tookie Speaks Out Against Gang Violence children's book series. My goal is to reach as many young minds as possible to warn you about the perils of a gang lifestyle.
I am no longer "dys-educated" (disease educated). I am no longer part of the problem. Thanks to the Almighty, I am no longer sleepwalking through life.

I pray that one day my apology will be accepted. I also pray that your suffering, caused by gang violence, will soon come to an end as more gang members wake up and stop hurting themselves and others.

I vow to spend the rest of my life working toward solutions.

Amani (Peace),
Stanley "Tookie" Williams, Surviving Crips Co-Founder, April 13, 1997

This man clearly has done a lot of introspection while in prison and had turned his life around. The purpose of prison is to rehabilitate and though the prison systems in America aren't good at doing this, some men do change and Mr. Williams was an example of that. He has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize 4 times and even was acknowledged by the current president Bush whom Mr. Williams received a presidential award from for the anti violence work he was doing.

I think I've made a strong enough case, at least for myself, that Gov. Schwarzenigger (and I mean it this time) made the wrong decision to not grant this man clemency. I say Schwarzenigger because if he weren't so ignorant, he would have seen that this man did all he could to undo the harm he did while he was running the streets of Los Angeles as a gang member in the 70's. A man should be judged by what he's done to make a positive impact on this world and without a doubt Mr. Williams has done that. But I'm sure that Schwarzenigger isn't phased by the fact that he's made one of the biggest mistakes of his career. He probably doesn't care that he's executed an important figure in the gang anti-violence movement, because the kind of lives that Williams touched aren't ones that White society values. Schwarzenigger seemed to be caught up in the fact that Williams, though convicted, never confessed to the crimes and never apologized or showed remorse for them and therefore deserved to die. Well maybe, just maybe, he didn't commit those murders and his conviction for truth was so strong that even in the face of death, he wouldn't acknowledge something he didn't do. To me, that shows a man with character and integrity and one that was worthy of clemency based on the work he did to better urban communities from inside his prison cell.

I hope that Stanley "Tookie" Williams will rest in peace. At least he knows he died with his dignity in tact and made great strides in redeeming himself from the corrupt lifestyle he was living prior to his imprisonment. Schwarzenigger will have to be the one to answer for his sins for wrongly executing this man. Indeed Mr. Williams spent the rest of his life working toward solutions to urban violence and for that, he deserves much respect.

2005-12-13T17:13:00.000-05:00

Happy Birthday Chris!

Last night a few friends got together to celebrated our friend Chris's birthday. He started his b-day weekend off with a party on Sunday at his place. Unfortunately I missed most of it because I didn't get back in town to Philly until around 10:30pm. But none the less I was able to stop by for a few minutes. Last night several of his friends took him out for drinks at one of our favorite bars in Philly called Bump and then we went to a restaraunt on 15th street called Roys. I had never been there, but that was one of his favorite places so we took him there. The meal was great and the company was very enjoyable. My partner and I met some of Chris's other friends that we hadn't met before. So i'd like to shout out to them. It was cool meeting you guys, Belmo and Curtis. Here are a few pictures from the night.

My partner Georgeo, Chris & Me @ Bump

Chris, Ervin & Me @ Bump

My partner & I @ Bump

Front to Back: Ervin, Curtis & Belmo; Georgeo, Chris, Me & Kevin @ Roys

2005-12-06T21:58:00.000-05:00

HIV Prevention And Black Gay Men In 2006:
Changing the focus

World AIDS Day has come and gone and 24 years into the game, we're still trying to figure out the million dollar question "How do we decrease HIV prevalence among Black gay men?" This is a question that researchers and HIV prevention workers have been grappling with for years. So what's the answer? I don't have the magic answer, but I have some thoughts on directions we need to go in if we have any chance of decreasing HIV prevalence among Black gay men. This post is about one area where I think greater attention should be paid as we progress into more effedctive HIV-prevention approaches.

I think that any effective HIV prevention approach must target improving the emotional health and well being of Black gay men. On a daily basis we have to cope with the impact of discrimination and marginilization, including: racism from the heterosexual and gay community; homophobia from the Black community; heterosexist ideologies of larger society, especially from our religious institutions; the violence that threatens to take our lives if we express who we are too flaboyantly and decide to do so outside of our "gayborhoods" to name a few. Dealing with any combination of these things has taken a toll on Black gay men which can be seen in the way we treat each other, the disproportionate amount of alcohol and illicit drug use that occurs among us and the sexual risk we engage in among other things.

I don't say these things as a blanket statement because I realize that there are lots of Black gay men who don't use illicit drugs, or engage in risky sex, but my statements are more about the need to address the mental health and well being of Black gay men. This approach is more easily attainable than trying to uproot racism, heterosexism and homophobia or eradicate economic disparities. They are too pervasive and deep rooted to realistically hope these things will be resolved and then we as Black gay men will automatically feel better about ourselves. A better strategy is to help people cope with these discriminations in a healthier way. Of course some people may like to engage in sexually risky ways or use drugs "just because", but for those who are engaging in these activities to cover pain are the ones we need to save. The needs of Black gay men are much more complex than simply using condoms or telling them that drugs are bad. Interventions need to be rooted in helping people figure out what's driving their unhealthy behaviors. In most instances sexual risk taking and drug abuse are symptoms of larger issues a person is dealing with and until those issues are discovered and dealt with, it's not likely that behavior is going to change.

One of the setbacks in HIV prevention has come with the Bush administration and their bullshit"golden standards" called the ABC's of prevention: A= Abstinence, B= Be faithful, C= use Condoms each and every time. Now those of us who have worked in HIV prevention for more than a day know that these are not the realities of most peoples lives. HIV prevention efforts have been forced into ineffectiveness by a government that won't allow organizations to do programming that will really engage Black gay men into services and if these organizations do things that the current conservative government disapproves of, they lose their funding. This has happened to several HIV service organizations since Bush has taken office. Maybe Kanye West was right when he blasted George Bush on the Katrina telethon when he said that "George Bush doesn't care about Black people". Indeed this country has a history of neglecting the needs of Black folks since it's infancy as a country.

I think the only way we will really be able to do the HIV prevention work that will make a difference for Black gay men is if we have our own source of economics that aren't tied to reliance on government funds. As long as government funds are being used, there will always be restrictions on the work we want to do because the lives of Black gay men are more complex than the scope of the ABC's. Unfortunately relying on government funds is a reality, so we have to at least hope for a less conservative political climate once Bush is out of office. In the meantime we have to figure out ways to save our community, because as Black folks, this isn't the first crisis we have had to deal with. We survived others and we will survive this one, but we have to make it happen and be unapologetic about how we do it.

2005-12-06T19:30:00.000-05:00

Did I already tell you.........

that I really don't like the Steve Harvey Morning Show? I have been trying to get into it, but I'm still having a hard time getting into it. part of the reason I listen to it in the morning is because I only get one other morning talk show program on my radio in the morning and that station has Star and Buckwild on it and I absolutely despise them. I'd take Steve Harvey over them any day!

Last Friday Steve Harvey did his show here in Philly, just a couple of blocks from where I work, so I went up there to see it live. He came with my girl Jacque Reid and his other host that he calls his nephew Tommy. It was my first time seeing Jacque in person and though I was kind of far from her, she looked quite beautiful in person. I did like how they interacted with the audience, but after about 15 minutes I was done with Steve's bufoonery (not sure I spelled that right). One of the things I don't like about his show is that he seems to make a big deal out of the fact that Jacque has a college education and apparently he doesn't. Several times I've heard him refer to her as "white lady". Black folks need to stop that nonsense of associating college educated Black folks with Whites. As if only Whites are educated. I think that Jacque should find a better gig. She's a classy lady, with a good reputation for her journalism skills. She doesn't belong on a show like Steve Harvey's.

Another bone I have to pick with him is that the past week or so he keeps referring to "The Down Low". Today he was talking with Anita Baker I think it was, and he said something about "Ain't nobody on the down low up in here, I'm all man". As far as I'm concerned, the hetero's can keep him, because he's nothing special to look at. It's interesting how Black comedians will often use homophobic jokes in their comedy routines and make money off of doing it, but be quick to distance themselves from any kind of real association with gay folks. Mr. Harvey is no exception, as one of the regular characters he features on his show called Eugene, who does birthday shoutouts talks in a stereotypically gay voice. But don't say anything that might challenge Mr. Harvey's manhood, 'cuz he'll make it clear that he's "all man".