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Gay Men of African Descent (GMAD) is the largest and oldest African American organization dedicated exclusively to the well being of Black gay men. GMAD was founded in 1986 in New York City by the Reverend Charles Angel. [1] The group worked to address the unique issues to Black gay men in America through educational, social, and political mobilization. [2]
As a social service organization, GMAD was created to provide community. Since the mid 1980s to present, an ongoing event includes their weekly "Friday Night Forums." [3] This event provides opportunity for community members to dialogue about a number of topics from relationships, aging, sex, HIV/AIDS, parenting, homophobia, and more. Early services also included providing primary prevention services through outreach to the Black gay community. Today the organization continues to provide outreach education, along with HIV testing, syphilis screening, and therapy. In 2011, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture held an event to mark the twenty-fifth anniversary of GMAD. [4] As of 2012, GMAD's Mission Statement "to empower gay men of African-Descent through education, advocacy, health and wellness promotion, and social support." [5]
The AIDS epidemic, caused by HIV, found its way to the United States between the 1970s and 1980s, but was first noticed after doctors discovered clusters of Kaposi's sarcoma and pneumocystis pneumonia in homosexual men in Los Angeles, New York City, and San Francisco in 1981. Treatment of HIV/AIDS is primarily via the use of multiple antiretroviral drugs, and education programs to help people avoid infection.
The GMHC is a New York City–based non-profit, volunteer-supported and community-based AIDS service organization whose mission statement is to "end the AIDS epidemic and uplift the lives of all affected." Founded in 1982, it is often billed as the "world's oldest AIDS service organization," as well as the "nation's oldest HIV/AIDS service organization."
AIDS service organizations are community-based organizations that provide support for people affected by HIV/AIDS. This article focuses on HIV/AIDS service organizations in the United States only. However, it is important to note that similar organizations in other countries, such as Canada, also played significant roles during the HIV/AIDS crisis and share many common experiences and challenges.
Phill Wilson is an American activist who founded the Black AIDS Institute in 1999, and served as its CEO, and is a prominent African-American HIV/AIDS activist.
Founded in 1983, AIDS Action Committee (AAC) of Massachusetts is a not-for-profit, community-based health organization whose mission is to stop the epidemic and related health inequities by eliminating new infections, maximizing healthier outcomes of those infected and at risk, and attacking the root causes of HIV/AIDS. Based in Boston, it is New England's oldest and largest AIDS service organization. Since 2013, it has been operating as part of Fenway Health. As of 2022, it has provided free, confidential services to 195,000 men, women and children living with HIV/AIDS as well as prevention services to many thousands of men, women and youth who are not living with HIV or do not know their status.
The Audre Lorde Project is a Brooklyn, New York–based organization for LGBTQ people of color. The organization concentrates on community organizing and radical nonviolent activism around progressive issues within New York City, especially relating to LGBTQ communities, AIDS and HIV activism, pro-immigrant activism, prison reform and organizing among youth of color. It is named for the lesbian-feminist poet and activist Audre Lorde and was founded in 1994.
Philadelphia FIGHT (FIGHT) is a Philadelphia AIDS service organization that provides primary care, consumer education, advocacy and research. FIGHT was formed as a partnership of individuals living with HIV & AIDS and clinicians.
APLA Health is a non-profit organization based in California, United States, focused on building healthcare capacity and promoting wellbeing for LGBT people and those living with HIV. It was founded as AIDS Project Los Angeles in 1983, and is now among the largest non-profit HIV service organizations in the United States.
The Mpowerment Project is a model community building and HIV prevention program designed specifically to address the needs of young adult gay/bisexual men ages 18 – 29. It is the first documented HIV prevention intervention for young gay/bisexual men to succeed in reducing sexual risk behavior. The program has been developed, evaluated, and continually refined by prominent behavioral scientists from the University of California, San Francisco's Center for AIDS Prevention Studies, the largest research center in the world dedicated to social, behavioral, and policy science approaches to HIV.
HIV/AIDS was first detected in Canada in 1982. In 2018, there were approximately 62,050 people living with HIV/AIDS in Canada. It was estimated that 8,300 people were living with undiagnosed HIV in 2018. Mortality has decreased due to medical advances against HIV/AIDS, especially highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART).
Pernessa C. Seele is an American immunologist and interfaith public health activist. Seele is the CEO and founder of Balm in Gilead, Inc., a religious-based organization that provides support to people with AIDS and their families, as well as working for prevention of HIV and AIDS. In 1989 she initiated the Harlem Week of Prayer, with 50 churches, synagogues and mosques participating. This became an annual event and organizing force for the religious community to respond to the AIDS crisis.
The Portal was a Baltimore LGBT community center for LGBT African Americans in the Baltimore, Maryland metropolitan area. It was owned and maintained by Empowering New Concepts, Inc. ENC, Inc. is a non-profit, 501(c)(3) community based organization established in 2001 by current CEO Rickie Green. Intended as a safe place for LGBT people of color, they offered health and safety information including AIDS awareness. The Portal "promotes stronger, more effective same gender loving communities of color through access to quality healthcare and economic and educational services." They served men who have sex with men as well as women who have sex with women.
Alliance for Positive Change - formerly known as AIDS Service Center NYC (ASCNYC) - is a community organization that helps New Yorkers living with HIV and other chronic illnesses. Founded in 1990 by CEO Sharen Duke, Alliance provides direct services to over 1,800 New Yorkers per year, while its peer education programs and community outreach initiatives reach an additional 18,000. In 2017, the organization formally changed its name to The Alliance for Positive Change. This change came as the nonprofit expanded to help more New Yorkers with substance use and mental health issues, and program participants with chronic illnesses such as hepatitis, diabetes, and heart disease.
Mazzoni Center is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit health care provider in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, that serves the LGBTQ community.
Aisha Diori is an Events Director, Community Mobiliser, HIV/AIDS Preventionist, educator, Talk Show Host, Event MC, Pan-Africanist, and has been named "Iconic Mother" in Ball culture. Her father is Abdoulaye Hamani Diori, a Nigerien political leader and business person, and her mother is Betty Graves, the first Ghanaian / Nigerian woman to own a travel agency in Nigeria.
Since reports of emergence and spread of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in the United States between the 1970s and 1980s, the HIV/AIDS epidemic has frequently been linked to gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men (MSM) by epidemiologists and medical professionals. It was first noticed after doctors discovered clusters of Kaposi's sarcoma and pneumocystis pneumonia in homosexual men in Los Angeles, New York City, and San Francisco in 1981. The first official report on the virus was published by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) on June 5, 1981, and detailed the cases of five young gay men who were hospitalized with serious infections. A month later, The New York Times reported that 41 homosexuals had been diagnosed with Kaposi's sarcoma, and eight had died less than 24 months after the diagnosis was made.
The Black AIDS Institute, formerly known as the African American AIDS Policy Training Institute, is a non-profit charitable organization founded in 1999 by Phill Wilson to promote awareness and prevent the spread of HIV and AIDS by targeting African American communities. Their motto is "Our People, Our Problem, Our Solution." The Institute is very active in educating African American communities through their programs, like the Black Treatment Advocates Network and the African American HIV University. These two projects work with the communities to educate the people about the science of HIV, medical advancements, and prevention methods. The Institute has been received well through many other organizations providing funding to it. Some top funders include the Elton John AIDS Foundation, the Magic Johnson Foundation, Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS and more.
Reggie Williams was an American AIDS activist, who fought for culturally relevant AIDS education and services for gay and bisexual men of color. Williams served as a board member for the National Association of Black and White Men Together and as the first executive director of the National Task Force on AIDS Prevention.
Kenyon Farrow is an American writer, activist, director, and educator focused on progressive racial and economic justice issues related to the LGBTQ community. He served as the executive director of Queers for Economic Justice, policy institute fellow with National LGBTQ Task Force, U.S. & Global Health Policy Director of Treatment Action Group, public education and communications coordinator for the New York State Black Gay Network, senior editor with TheBody.com and TheBodyPro.com, and co-executive director of Partners for Dignity and Rights. In 2021, Farrow joined PrEP4All as managing director of advocacy & organizing.
Socio-political activism to raise awareness about HIV/AIDS as well as to advance the effective treatment and care of people with AIDS (PWAs) has taken place in multiple locations since the 1980s. The evolution of the disease's progress into what's known as the HIV/AIDS pandemic has resulted in various social movements fighting to change both government policies and the broader popular culture inside of different areas. These groups have interacted in a complex fashion with others engaged in related forms of social justice campaigning, with this continuing on to this day.
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