National Task Force on AIDS Prevention

Last updated

The National Task Force on AIDS Prevention (NTFAP) was founded in 1985 as a "National Minority Organization dedicated to ending the HIV epidemic by advocating for and assisting in the development of HIV education and service programs by and for gay and bisexual men of color." [1] The NTFAP was created to provide support to gay men of color who did not identify with prevailing HIV/AIDS programs and education campaigns, which mainly targeted white gay men. The importance of the NTFAP began to emerge in the 1980s when the rate of infection in communities of color was rapidly increasing compared to white communities. The goals of the task force have been to guarantee the local gay men were targeted by HIV/AIDS preventive services. [1] The NTFAP aimed to create culturally relevant propaganda that would help slow the rate of infection in communities of color. While the work done by the NTFAP stayed in the local San Francisco area, the intent of the organization was to set an example for the nation to follow in creating preventive services that crossed ethnic and cultural lines. [2]

Contents

History

"If they're not going to do it [prevention for gay men of color], then goddamn it, we can do it ourselves. We're not crippled! We have power. That's why we created the National Task Force on AIDS Prevention – to do it for ourselves." -Reggie Williams [3]

The National Task Force on AIDS Prevention started as a project of the National Association of Black and White Men Together (NABWMT). In 1988 a group of NABWMT board members, including Reggie Williams, James Credle, Steve Feeback, Tom Horan, and John Teamer submitted a proposal to the National AIDS Information and Education Program of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. They were awarded $200,000 to start NTFAP which, among other activities, would coordinate the AIDS education efforts of local NABWMT around the country. [4] Reggie Williams served as the Executive Director of NTFAP from its birth until his retirement in February 1994. Randy Miller succeeded Williams, and was later replaced as head of the organization by Mario Solis-Marich, who served as CEO. [2] [4] In 1996, Angel Fabian co-organized the National Task Force on AIDS Prevention's first Gay/Bisexual Young Men of Color Summit at Gay Men of Color Conference, Miami, Florida. [5] It closed in June 1998. [2]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">HIV/AIDS in the United States</span> HIV/AIDS epidemic in the United States

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.

Lani Kaʻahumanu is a Native Hawaiian bisexual and feminist writer and activist. She is openly bisexual and writes and speaks on sexuality issues frequently. She serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Bisexuality. She is also working on the books My Grassroots Are Showing: Stories, Speeches, and Special Affections and Passing For Other: Primal Creams and Forbidden Dreams – Poetry, Prose, and Performance Pieces. In 1974, she divorced her husband and moved to San Francisco, where she originally came out as a lesbian. She was a student leader in the nascent San Francisco State Women Studies Department, and in 1979, she became the first person in her family to graduate from college. Kaʻahumanu realized she was bisexual and came out again in 1980.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">HIV/AIDS</span> Spectrum of conditions caused by HIV infection

The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a retrovirus that attacks the immune system. It can be managed with treatment. Without treatment it can lead to a spectrum of conditions including acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). Effective treatment for HIV-positive people involves a life-long regimen of medicine to suppress the virus, making the viral load undetectable. There is no vaccine or cure for HIV. An HIV-positive person on treatment can expect to live a normal life, and die with the virus, not of it.

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">APLA Health</span>

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Mpowerment Project</span>

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stop AIDS Project</span>

STOP AIDS Project (SAP) was a United States nonprofit organization which worked to prevent transmission of HIV among all gay, bisexual, and trans men in San Francisco, California, through multicultural, community based organising.

Honduras is the Central American country most adversely affected by the HIV/AIDS epidemic. It is estimated that the prevalence of HIV among Honduran adults is 1.5%.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">HIV/AIDS in Canada</span>

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).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">HIV-affected community</span> Medical condition

The affected community is composed of people who are living with HIV and AIDS, plus individuals whose lives are directly influenced by HIV infection. This originally was defined as young to middle aged adults who associate with being gay or bisexual men, and or injection drug users. HIV-affected community is a community that is affected directly or indirectly affected by HIV. These communities are usually influenced by HIV and undertake risky behaviours that lead to a higher chance of HIV infection. To date HIV infection is still one of the leading cause of deaths around the world with an estimate of 36.8 million people diagnosed with HIV by the end of 2017, but there can particular communities that are more vulnerable to HIV infection, these communities include certain races, gender, minorities, and disadvantaged communities. One of the most common communities at risk is the gay community as it is commonly transmitted through unsafe sex. The main factor that contributes to HIV infection within the gay/bisexual community is that gay men do not use protection when performing anal sex or other sexual activities which can lead to a higher risk of HIV infections. Another community will be people diagnosed with mental health issues, such as depression is one of the most common related mental illnesses associated with HIV infection. HIV testing is an essential role in reducing HIV infection within communities as it can lead to prevention and treatment of HIV infections but also helps with early diagnosis of HIV. Educating young people in a community with the knowledge of HIV prevention will be able to help decrease the prevalence within the community. As education is an important source for development in many areas. Research has shown that people more at risk for HIV are part of disenfranchised and inner city populations as drug use and sexually transmitted diseases(STDs) are more prevalent. People with mental illnesses that inhibit making decisions or overlook sexual tendencies are especially at risk for contracting HIV.

HIV prevention refers to practices that aim to prevent the spread of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). HIV prevention practices may be undertaken by individuals to protect their own health and the health of those in their community, or may be instituted by governments and community-based organizations as public health policies.

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Walt Odets</span> American clinical psychologist and author

Walt Whitman Odets is an American clinical psychologist and author. He has written about the early development, psychological and social experiences of gay men and their communities. Odets' earlier writing focused on the lives of men living in and surviving the early AIDS epidemic. The spring 1996 issue of Positive Impact Journal called him "an important voice in the AIDS education and prevention arena." Odets's 1995 study, In the Shadow of the Epidemic: Being HIV-Negative in the Age of AIDS, was listed by The New York Times as among the "Notable Books of the Year 1995." Additionally, In the Shadow of the Epidemic was the No. 1 bestselling book purchased by gay men in the late fall of 1995, according to The Advocate, and was confirmed as a "Gay Bestseller of 1995" by the Feminist Bookstore News.

galck+, formerly The Gay and Lesbian Coalition of Kenya (GALCK), is the national Sexual Orientation Gender Identity and Expression (SOGIE) umbrella body, representing LGBTQ+ voices across Kenya.

Proyecto ContraSIDA Por Vida was a non-profit HIV-prevention agency located in the Mission District of San Francisco that provided community-based healthcare for the Latino/a and LGBT communities. It was one of several community-based health organizations that emerged in response to the AIDS crisis. Proyecto ContraSIDA por Vida emerged from a variety of organizations that aimed at reducing the spread of HIV in communities of color. Some of the predecessor organizations of PCPV were the National Task Force on AIDS Prevention (NTFAP), the Gay Latino Alliance (GALA), and Community United in Responding to AIDS/SIDA (CURAS), among others. Some of the leaders who came together to create PCPV included Ricardo Bracho, Diane Felix, Jesse Johnson, Hector León, Reggie Williams, and Martín Ornellas-Quintero.

The National Association of Black and White Men Together, Inc.: A Gay Multiracial Organization for All People (NABWMT) is a network of chapters across the United States focused on LGBTQ and racial equality, founded in May, 1980 in San Francisco as a consciousness-raising, multicultural organization and support group for gay men forming multiracial relationships. To attain these ends, its local chapters organized social gatherings and engaged in educational, cultural, and political activities. It is a registered IRS 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. NABWMT's goals consist of two major themes: combating racism within the LGBT community and combating homophobia in general society.

The Boston Chapter of Black and White Men Together (BWMT-Boston), or Men of All Colors Together (MACT-Boston) as their chapter would come to be known, was founded on June 10, 1980, as part of The National Association of Black and White Men Together (NABWMT), making it the first interracial gay organization on the East Coast. The two major goals of the Boston chapter of MACT were to continue combating racism, particularly within the LGBT community, while simultaneously fighting to end homophobia in society as a whole. After NABWMT was founded in May 1980, Boston became one of the early adopter cities to create a chapter within the year along with New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington DC, Los Angeles, Memphis, Chicago, Detroit, Atlanta, and Milwaukee.

Homophobia in ethnic minority communities is any negative prejudice or form of discrimination in ethnic minority communities worldwide towards people who identify as–or are perceived as being–lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT), known as homophobia. This may be expressed as antipathy, contempt, prejudice, aversion, hatred, irrational fear, and is sometimes related to religious beliefs. A 2006 study by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation in the UK found that while religion can have a positive function in many LGB Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) communities, it can also play a role in supporting homophobia.

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Fair</span> American activist

David Fair is an American activist who has been a leader in the labor, LGBT, AIDS, homeless and child advocacy movements in Philadelphia, PA since the 1970s. He has founded or co-founded several advocacy and service organizations, including the Philadelphia Lesbian and Gay Task Force (1977), the Philadelphia Gay Cultural Festival (1978), Lavender Health (1979), the Philadelphia/Delaware Valley Union of the Homeless (1985), Philly Homes 4 Youth (2017), and the Philadelphia Coalition on Opioids and Children (2018), and led the creation of numerous local government health and human service initiatives, including the AIDS Activities Coordinating Office for the Philadelphia Department of Public Health (1987) and the Division of Community-Based Prevention Services (2001), the Parenting Collaborative (2003), and the Quality Parenting Initiative (2014) for the Philadelphia Department of Human Services.

References

  1. 1 2 "National Task Force on AIDS Prevention (NTFAP)" . Retrieved 17 April 2016.
  2. 1 2 3 "National Task Force on AIDS Prevention - Reggie Williams 1951 - 1999" . Retrieved 17 April 2016.
  3. Andriote, John-Manuel (1999-06-01). Victory Deferred: How AIDS Changed Gay Life in America (1 ed.). University of Chicago Press. ISBN   9780226020495.
  4. 1 2 Royles, Dan (2020). To make the wounded whole : the African American struggle against HIV/AIDS. Chapel Hill. ISBN   978-1-4696-5952-7. OCLC   1176467984.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  5. "BiNet USA". Archived from the original on 7 February 2019. Retrieved 17 April 2016.