Obama, Bush and Clinton to Participate in World AIDS Day Forum

President Barack Obama and former Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton are among those who will participate in a World AIDS Day forum at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., later on Thursday, Dec. 1.

ONE and (RED) will host a forum that will focus on "the beginning of the end of AIDS." Tanzanian President Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete; CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta; Florida Sen. Marco Rubio; California Congresswoman Barbara Lee; Bono; Alicia Keys; Dr. Patricia Nkansah-Asamoah, director of the PMTCT Clinic at Tema Hospital in Accra, Ghana; Florence Ngobeni of the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation and Kay Warren are also slated to participate.

More than three decades after the first cases of what became known as AIDS were reported, more than 33 million people around the world currently live with the virus.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told federal health officials and HIV/AIDS service providers during a speech at the National Institutes of Health on Nov. 8 that a so-called AIDS-free generation is possible. A Centers for Disease Control report earlier this week indicates that only 28 percent of the 1.2 million Americans with HIV have viral counts that are considered under control.

Fire Island 2011, part 7

Started writing at 8:48 p.m. on Saturday, June 11, while waiting for a Babylon-bound train at the Bay Shore train station.

A fine mist has once again begun to fall. And while the weather on Fire Island was certainly less than ideal today, it was still good to be on the beach after a particularly tumultuous week.

Today's agenda included attending a memorial service in Fire Island Pines and interviewing two long-time Cherry Grove residents about the 30th anniversary of the first reported cases of what became known as AIDS. I went inside the Woodhull School in Corneille Estates for the first time. And I even became an Ocean Beach scofflaw by eating a handful of pistachios on a public walk outside the village's commercial district.

Here are three notes and observations from the previous day.
1) I had never interviewed anyone while wearing only my underwear until I sat down with two lesbians in the Grove earlier this afternoon. My jeans became wet after I walked to their house during a downpour, and they were in the dryer during our interview.
2) Perhaps Congressman Anthony Weiner will seek refuge on Fire Island during his leave of absence from the House.
3) Inside voices should apply to any place where other people are not interested in hearing about someone else's cocktail ring or quirky parents. The loud woman on the 8:05 p.m. ferry to Bay Shore should take particular note.





The Land of No means business!



A Fire Island school bus parked outside the Woodhull School.



Roses outside Cielo E Mar in Cherry Grove.

Fire Island 2011, part 6

Started writing at 1:47 p.m. while sitting poolside at the Grove Hotel in Cherry Grove.

It’s a beautiful Sunday afternoon here on Fire Island. I just had two “Margaritas from Hell” at a Fire Island Pines fundraiser for former Congressman Patrick Murphy [D-Pa.]’s Pennsylvania attorney general campaign, but it would be completely remiss of me not to acknowledge the 30th anniversary of a Centers for Disease Control report that detailed the first cases of what would later become known as AIDS.

I was born in Aug. 1981, and that makes me a member of the so-called AIDS generation. I have never lived in an era without AIDS. I have never lost a partner, a relative or a parent to the virus. I have never had to attend the funerals of dozens (or more) friends and acquaintances who succumbed to AIDS. As I write this blog by the pool on this beautiful Sunday afternoon, however, there are people on this beach and elsewhere who continue to live with and battle the virus. There are people on this beach and elsewhere who continue to mourn those who are no longer with us. And more ominously, there are people on this beach and elsewhere who continue to act as though AIDS never happened.

As a journalist who reports on the Grove and the Pines, I have become acutely aware of the epidemic’s devastating toll. The virus claimed an untold number of Fire Islanders whose names I may never know. We have a collective obligation, however, to remember them on this sad milestone. We have the same collective responsibility to acknowledge those on this beach and elsewhere who continue to mourn their loss.

Pope Benedict claims condom use spreads HIV/AIDS

As a former Roman Catholic who left the faith nearly a decade ago, it remains extremely difficult for me to take almost anything Pope Benedict XVI says seriously. And his assertion the use of condoms actually facilitates the spread of HIV and AIDS simply borders on the ridiculous.

Benedict made his assertion as he flew to Cameroon in West Africa. Bloggers and HIV/AIDS service organizations around the world almost immediately (and rather predictably) railed against the Pope's comments. One can easily conclude they are based upon dogmatic teachings that are increasingly out-of-touch with the challenges of the modern world. And this reality includes the continued need to use practical and scientifically-proven methods to combat an epidemic that continues to inflict a far too heavy toll.

The last line in today's New York Times' editorial that examines the impact of Benedict's comments is perhaps summarizes the situation best. It reads it "seems irresponsible to blame condoms for making the epidemic worse." Indeed.

Activists Celebrate Federal Funding of D.C.'s Anti-AIDS Needle Exchange

This development, as I reported in Gay.com, comes as Democratic candidates campaign against the ban on federal funding for needle exchange programs designed to reduce rates of HIV and AIDS in communities the epidemic has hit hard. Washington is one such city. And activists will certainly continue to use Congress' decision to allow the District to fund these programs to pressure Capitol Hill to lift the ban on federal funding of these initiatives.

As activists and public health officials continue to push Congress to lift the ban on federally funded syringe-exchange programs, a number of LGBT and HIV/AIDS organizations gathered on Capitol Hill to commemorate congressional funding of these initiatives in the District of Columbia.

Congress voted last year to allow only the district, which it supports and over which it has special oversight, to fund these programs as part of its efforts to combat the spread of HIV/AIDS.

Washington, D.C. has one of the country's highest rates of new infections. Channing Wickham, executive director of the Washington AIDS Partnership, contends syringe-exchange programs are an effective way to curb the epidemic.

"With the highest HIV/AIDS rates in the country, the Washington AIDS Partnership is pleased that the District of Columbia will at last be able to spend local tax dollars on this life-saving HIV prevention strategy," Wickham said. "After many years of effort by a broad coalition of advocates, it is encouraging to see that common sense and the unquestioned efficacy of syringe exchange to slow the rate of new HIV infections have prevailed."

Human Rights Campaign president Joe Solmonese agreed. "With HIV and AIDS threatening public health, the end of the ban on the district using its funds to operate syringe-exchange programs in Washington is long overdue," Solmonese said.

The U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services enacted the ban in 1988 with the stipulation that allowed the department's chief to determine if syringe exchange programs reduce the spread of HIV/AIDS without increasing rates of intravenous drug use.

Then-Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala issued a statement supporting these initiatives in 1998 while Surgeon General David Satcher concluded in 2000 that syringe-exchange programs are effective as part of a comprehensive HIV/AIDS strategy.

Numerous scientific studies, including a 2004 report published by the World Health Organization, further indicate syringe-exchange programs reduce HIV/AIDS rates without increased drug use. More than 200 programs now exist at locations across the country, including Positive Health Project in New York, the Free Medical Clinic of Greater Cleveland in Ohio, Access Works in Minneapolis, Prevention Point Philadelphia and Clean Needles Now in Los Angeles.

Activists contend Congress needs to allocate federal funds nationwide to further reduce HIV/AIDS rates.

"We call on Congress to follow its own lead and tremendous success in ending the D.C. ban by ending the federal ban as well," said Ronald Johnson, deputy executive director of AIDS Action.

Solmonese praised U.S. Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-Washington, D.C., and other lawmakers on Capitol Hill who back federal funding of these programs. He again reiterated his call to lift the ban.

"We salute congressional leaders for leading the effort to repeal this harmful policy and urge Congress to end the federal ban," Solmonese said.

AIDS Organizations Increase Outreach to People Over 50

Most people admittedly probably don't want to talk about the sex lives of people over 50 outside of dated chicken hawk and troll cliches used by many within the gay community. A coalition of HIV and AIDS organizations hope to change this stigma with a new campaign designed to raise awareness of how the epidemic affects older gay men as I reported in Gay.com earlier this week. It will appear across New York City but it remains a small part of an overall effort activists and service providers maintain is long overdue. Stay tuned...

With more and more Americans turning 50 each year, a growing number of people with HIV and AIDS are entering their golden years. HIV and AIDS service organizations are struggling to meet the needs of their aging clients.

The Gay Men's Health Crisis, Service & Advocacy for GLBT Elders (SAGE), the AIDS Community Research Initiative of America and the Brooklyn, N.Y., based-Griot Circle launched the Eldersexual Campaign in New York on Tuesday, December 11, 2007, as a way to raise awareness of HIV and AIDS among people over 50. The initiative features four separate advertisements that will run in 15 weekly and two monthly publications across the Five Boroughs. Thirty-nine telephone booths across Brooklyn and Manhattan will also display the ads.

GMHC Institute of Gay Men's Health director Dr. Bill Stackhouse told Gay.com he remains confident of the campaign's success. "It's really about raising awareness and facilitating dialogue in New York City that HIV and AIDS is an issue for people over 50," he said. "It's a fun campaign with a gay sensibility -- adjusted to the general public."

Stackhouse further estimated that one-third of GMHC's total clientele are over 50 while SAGE executive director Michael Adams added that his New York-based organization serves more than 2,000 LGBT elders each month. "People, thankfully, are living longer lives," Adams said. "It's only natural we would be developing programming around HIV issues."

Older people face concerns about possible interactions with HIV and AIDS drugs and medications specific to treating diabetes, high blood pressure and other chronic diseases and conditions often associated with aging. Social security, Medicare and Medicaid benefits are other concerns with which SAGE and other HIV and AIDS service organizations assist their clients. "There are a whole range of issues that older people face," Adams said. "Some [are issues that] all older people face and some [are] particular to LGBT seniors. HIV is becoming increasingly another issue older LGBT people [face] -- it's becoming an increasingly important part of the mix."

Akira Ohiso, programming coordinator for the Ryan White Over 50 Program at Housing Works, agreed. His organization maintains an outreach program in the East New York section of Brooklyn that provides housing and other basic services to people with HIV and AIDS over 50 in the crime-ridden neighborhood. Ohiso further pointed to poverty and long-held attitudes, such as that older people are not sexually active, which he contends remain serious barriers to those seeking treatment. "There are still a lot of myths and biases towards the aging community," he said.

Activists also pointed out HIV and AIDS symptoms often mirror those commonly associated with aging. Corey White, an outreach coordinator with the Griot Circle, said this concern ranks high among the older men of color who attend the support group he facilitates. "Many seniors go without being treated because of the similarities of HIV and aging," he said. "That's occurring across the board."

White added that many Griot Circle clients are simply unaware of how to talk about HIV and AIDS with their medical providers or possible symptoms of which they should be aware. He also works with group attendees on how to receive adequate medical care. "[These are] some of the conversations we have in our group," White said.

The Boston-based National Association on HIV Over Fifty estimates that up to 15 percent of all AIDS cases in the United States occur among people over 50. Rates of infection were more than twice as high among older people than young adults between 1991 and 1995.

New York City Councilmember Maria del Carmen Arroyo [D-Mott Haven] proposed $1 million last year to fund training to teach medical providers how to treat older New Yorkers with HIV and AIDS and education initiatives at senior centers across the city. But activists maintain government officials can do more to curb HIV and AIDS among people over 50. "There hasn't been a lot of programming and funding put in place for older people," Ohiso said. "This is a vulnerable community within a vulnerable community."

Adams agreed. "The success is people are living longer and that's great news," he said. "But now [that we] have achieved success, we have to recognize this population needs HIV programming and support."

Health Care Emerges As An Electoral Issue

All things apparently come up politics these days as the presidential campaign kicks into high gear. Health care is certainly no exception but the question among many LGBT activists remains: How does HIV and AIDS factor into this equation? Most quickly conclude the current administration's policy with regards to the epidemic in this country has failed as I detailed in this article for Gay.com yesterday. The candidates on both sides of the aisle have, for the most part, failed to address the epidemic in their stump speeches and various health care proposals. An estimated 1.2 million people live with the virus in this country while more than half lack access to basic health care. The math arguably speaks for itself.

As health care continues to emerge as a dominant domestic issue in the 2008 presidential campaign, a coalition of activists and organizations across the country has called upon the federal government to reform its overall AIDS policies.

More than 100 HIV-prevention and public health agencies released a statement Sept. 18 calling on Washington to implement a "successful national AIDS strategy."

The document urges the federal government to increase funding for programs specific to gay men, people of color and others disproportionately affected by the virus. It calls for "ambitious and credible" prevention and treatment goals in addition to the expansion of research initiatives.

The Gay Men's Health Crisis and AIDS Action spearheaded the creation of the coalition to coincide with the campaign. The coalition distributed copies of its recommendations to candidates on both sides of the aisle last month, but the content became public the same day U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., unveiled her long-anticipated health care plan during a campaign stop in Iowa.

Clinton's proposal does not include AIDS-specific proposals, but campaign spokesperson Jin Chon told Gay.com in an e-mail that the senator's plan reflects her commitment to fight the epidemic.

It "will be particularly important for people with HIV/AIDS," he wrote. "Hillary Clinton's plan will make sure that all Americans living with HIV and AIDS have access to the health insurance they need."

Not to be outdone by his Democratic rival, former U.S. Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina announced a number of specific recommendations earlier this week to fight the domestic AIDS epidemic. These include the expansion of Medicaid to cover people with HIV, the repeal on federally funded needle exchange programs and the creation of a Cabinet-level position to coordinate domestic efforts to reduce new infections among blacks and Latinos.

Robert Bank, chief operating officer for the Gay Men's Health Crisis, applauded these efforts. He added that the campaign provides an opportunity for his group and others to shine a renewed spotlight onto the epidemic.

"We saw this as a synergistic moment to catch the country's interest in AIDS once again, through demands to the presidential candidates to do for America what Congress requires of other countries," Bank told Gay.com. "It is critical to say to this new president that what we have is not good enough."

Nearly half the estimated 1.2 million people with HIV and AIDS in the United States lack access to health care. Bank added that a lack of mental health and other psycho-social services aggravate the problem.

"That's too high for a country that has absolute access to the best medication in the world to treat this disease," he said. "We are a country that has access to the best treatment for AIDS, and we have half a million people who are not getting it."

AIDS Action executive director Rebecca Haag, who is also a member of Clinton's LGBT advisory committee, echoed Bank. She applauded the Bush administration's efforts to combat the epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa and in other parts of the developing world. Haag quickly concluded, however, that the White House has largely failed to address the epidemic in the United States.

"We don't think we're doing a very good job in this country in addressing our own AIDS crisis," she said.

AIDS has remained a political hot potato since the Centers for Disease Control made the first diagnoses in New York and San Francisco in 1981. Clinton specifically addressed the epidemic's toll among young black women during a debate held at Howard University in Washington in June.

Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., opposes the Bush administration's abstinence-only approach to HIV and AIDS prevention. He has remained largely silent on how to specifically address the domestic AIDS epidemic.

A number of black LGBT activists remain critical of Obama's apparent overtures to the black church, the broader evangelical movement and other religious institutions. He raised more eyebrows in December with his appearance alongside GOP presidential candidate U.S. Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., at the annual Global Summit on AIDS and the Church in southern California.

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, on the other hand, continues to address the AIDS epidemic on the campaign trail. He attended the dedication of the Wall-Las Memorias AIDS memorial in Los Angeles this month. Richardson, who created New Mexico's first commission to review state HIV and AIDS policies during his governorship, has also indicated he would appoint his vice president to lead the Presidential Advisory Commission on HIV and AIDS.

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and other Republican candidates have remained all but silent on the issue.

Haag said the candidates will continue to promote their health care proposals as the first caucuses and primaries in Iowa and New Hampshire draw closer. She remained adamant that HIV and AIDS should be part of any comprehensive plan.

"We are asking them to commit that under their presidency they will lead the nation to solve this crisis," Haag said.

Bank agreed.

"At a minimum, any presidential candidate who would be seriously considered for leading this country should address -- publicly -- the crisis of AIDS in the United States," he said. "If that person who has the privilege of leading this country talks about AIDS, then AIDS becomes a serious issue."

Health Advocates Ponder How to Curb Rising HIV Rates Among Young Gay Men

The fight against AIDS continues to dominate my journalistic palette with this latest story for EDGE which chronicles reaction to the New York City Dept. of Health & Mental Hygiene report which indicates a spike in new HIV infections among young gay and bisexual men. Black and Latino men under 30 showed disproportionately high numbers of new infections in comparison to their white counterparts. The causes are arguably obvious: poverty, racism, homophobia, machismo and even the Spanish-to-English language barrier. The first cases of what became known as AIDS appeared in gay Meccas across the country in 1981. The epidemic has evolved, and more importantly, devastated countless lives and even communities over the last quarter of a century. Something certainly needs to be done to reduce new infections through new and innovative intervention, prevention programs and other initiatives. The stark reality remains, however, is that the epidemic continues to disproportionately impact young gay and bisexual men of color with little end in sight of significant changes to current policy don't take place. People's lives remain at stake. They will remain at stake as long as the status quo continues.


More than 25 years after the Center for Disease Control reported the first cases of a mysterious cancer and pneumonia appearing among gay men in New York and Los Angeles, HIV conversion rates are skyrocketing among young men who have sex with men (MSM).

On Sept. 11, the New York City Department of Health & Mental Hygiene released a report that found new HIV infections had risen 33 percent among MSMs under 30 years old. The report, which covered the years 2001 to 2006, indicated that twentysomethings and younger account for nearly half of all new diagnoses reported in the city.

Officials added that the epidemic continues disproportionately to affect young MSMs of color. More than 90 percent of MSM under age 20 diagnosed with HIV in 2006 in New York were either black or Latino. Black MSMs received twice as many diagnoses as their white counterparts, according to the report. Latino MSMs were 55 percent more likely to contract the virus than gay or bisexual white men.

New York City Health Commissioner Dr. Thomas Frieden said every neighborhood except suburban Staten Island experienced an increase in new HIV infections among MSMs under 30 since 2001. Perhaps not surprisingly, he reported that the most gay-friendly neighborhoods in Manhattan--Harlem, East Harlem, Chelsea and Hell’s Kitchen--saw the most significant increases there. In Queens, a semi-suburban area of the city, there was a 49 percent increase.

"We’re headed in the wrong direction," Frieden said in a statement.

Theories abound to explain the upsurge in new infections among young gay and bisexual men. These include so-called AIDS amnesia among those born before the epidemic broke in 1981, ineffective safer-sex curricula in public schools and the growing popularity of barebacking (sex without condoms) in the gay porn industry and in young MSMs.

Frieden did not acknowledge any of these possible causes. He did, however, urge MSM to reduce their number of sexual partners and to use more condoms. "We must ask all New Yorkers to accept some responsibility for helping our young people protect themselves," he urged. "We cannot drift backward."

Even as public health officials continued to sound the alarm, this report only confirmed a stark reality many HIV prevention activists and others continue to see on the ground. The Centers for Disease Control released the findings of a controversial--and some argue hyped--2005 study which concluded 46 percent of black MSMs in Baltimore, Los Angeles, Miami, New York and San Francisco were HIV positive. The report further said gay and bisexual men of color were twice as likely to contract the virus than other MSMs.

Michael Roberson, executive director of the Brooklyn-based People of Color in Crisis, bluntly scoffed at those who expressed surprise at these statistics. He added the lack of local, state and federal funding specific to black gay and bisexual men remains what he called "genocide by neglect."

"Those of us who do this work and those of us who are black and have sex with men are not surprised," he told EDGE. "I don’t know why it’s a shock."

Roberson might find support for his thesis in inner cities like Detroit, where blacks are a large majority. The Motor City, long mired in decline, suffers from Michigan’s highest HIV and AIDS rates. Hank Millbourne, deputy executive director of AIDS Partnership Michigan, blamed poverty, a lack of health care and even low literacy rates for enhancing the epidemic’s spread in Detroit.

Milbourne further singled out the Bush administration’s abstinence-based HIV prevention initiatives as an additional and glaring failure to reduce new infection rates among young gay and bisexual men in his city. "There’s a whole political climate that works against us," Millbourne said.

Lorenzo Herrera y Lozano, of the national LGBT advocacy organization Unid@s, agreed. The Austin, Texas, activist added immigration status and even the Spanish language barrier pose additional hurdles to many gay and bisexual Latino men who seek access to health care, prevention programs and other services.

Victoria Arellano’s death in a Southern California federal detention center in July highlighted the plight many immigrants with HIV and AIDS face. Immigration & Customs Enforcement officials allegedly denied the transgendered Mexican national an antibiotic necessary to curb the virus’ many side effects.

Her family plans to file a wrongful death lawsuit against ICE in the coming weeks. Many activists point to Arellano’s death, the hundreds of Puerto Rican men with AIDS who languished for months on waiting lists in the American territory earlier this year to receive medications and other cases they feel highlight bureaucratic neglect that only enhances the epidemic’s devastating effects.

Roberson further singled out homophobia within the Black church and other social institutions. "It’s amazing that the neglect that continues to happen with black gay men," he concluded. "When this data is released it’s like ’Oh my God its crazy. What are we going to do.’"

The United Fellowship Church remains the largest denomination within the black church to minister to the LGBT faithful. Many congregations operate HIV and AIDS ministries and other related outreach across the country. Millbourne said other churches outside the UFC have begun to follow suit but he remained somewhat skeptical.

"They can’t come as saviors because they’ve talked about these people," Millbourne said. "They need to come with bowed heads and an apology on their lips."

As the chief executive officer of New York’s Gay Men’s Health Crisis, Dr. Marjorie Hill heads the nation’s largest private AIDS service organization. She sees the elimination of homophobia within the Black church as a key component of what her organization and others need to do in order to curb the epidemic among young gay and bisexual men of color. Traditional prevention and outreach initiatives must continue in addition to efforts to eliminate societal and especially cultural stigmas, she added.

Millbourne would only add that the Black church, HIV-prevention organizations and especially young MSM themselves all share a responsibility to reduce new infection rates. "Everybody’s got to own a piece of this," Millbourne said.

HIV Prevention and the Hillary Affect

Senator Hillary Clinton [D-N.Y.] finally released her long-awaited health care platform at a press conference in Iowa. The White House hopeful, who remains all too aware of the political debacle she led during her husband's first administration, appeared more nuanced as she again urged universal health care for all Americans. Her critics predictably criticized the plan as Hillary care, Part II, but a coalition of more than 100 organizations coincidentally used Clinton's announcement to urge her and other presidential candidates to address ending the epidemic in their health care platforms.

One can easily argue that continued bureaucratic wrangling -- and even neglect -- has enhanced the virus' impact in this country. People of Color in Crisis executive director Michael Roberson described this as 'genocide by neglect' in a recent interview to describe AIDS' devastating impact among communities of color in which he and his staff work. [Bushwick has one of New York City's highest rates of HIV and AIDS] The lack of local, state and federal funding for appropriate prevention and outreach efforts is another facet of this multidimensional problem while underlying poverty, racism, homophobia and even machismo add fuel to the fire. The epidemic is more than 26-years-old. It remains a devastating plague which continues to ravage entire communities and even countries around the world.

So-called special interests will obviously continue to seek to influence the policy agendas of those who seek to win the White House next November. It remains unclear as to rather this coalition of HIV prevention organizations will succeed in their mission. The problem of HIV and AIDS remains an issue which the candidates need to address much sooner than later because lives remain at stake. Let's hope Clinton and her counterparts shed light on this critically important issue.

Panel Dissects Racism, Poverty & AIDS in Post-Katrina Forum

The legacy of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans and along the Gulf Coast remains one of this country's most embarrassing failures more than two years after the storm made landfall. Large swaths of New Orleans remain uninhabitable. New Orleanians continue to suffer poverty, racism and overall bureaucratic neglect as they attempt to rebuilt their homes and their lives. Politicians continue to point fingers at each other for their collective failures before, during and after Katrina. Panelists discussed the impact of these realities last Thursday at the Gay Men's Health Crisis in New York as it relates to the spread of AIDS in the Big Easy and the Big Apple. I covered the forum for both EDGE [see story below] and the Blade but I left the forum shocked and angry. How could the United States fail an entire region? The panelists arguably answered that question loud and clear as they laid out possible solutions to this decades-long neglect of one of the country's most culturally rich regions.

Before August 2005, Jimmy Chase, like others in New Orleans, went to his job every day, in his case as a New Orleans AIDS Task Force peer support specialist. Then came Hurricane Katrina, and, like everyone else in the Big Easy, his life became much more complicated. But Chase’s attempts to return to normal in the wake of America’s greatest natural disaster was made even more difficult by the fact that he was living with AIDS.

Chase evacuated his apartment on the city’s West Bank just before Katrina barreled down upon the city in 2005. He returned to New Orleans nearly six months later. Chase has since moved into his own home and remains an outreach worker.

But he quickly points out he remains more lucky than other New Orleans residents. "I went back because I have a job and I have a house," he said. "I was fortunate to go back."

Chase has also lived with AIDS since 2002. He shared his experiences at a panel in New York City. Chase was one of four panelists who participated in the "Lives at Stake--Poverty, Race and HIV-from New Orleans to New York" forum at the Gay Men’s Health Crisis’ offices in Chelsea. The conference coincided with the second anniversary of Katrina’s landfall. The panelists sought to examine the intersection of a disaster like Katrina, AIDS, and poverty, racism and homophobia.

Katrina only exacerbated many problems that already existed in New Orleans, Chase said. Only 20 percent of New Orleanians remain uninsured, but rents--where people can find housing at all--have increased 45 percent since the storm. The lack of an extensive public transportation system and other basic infrastructure are continuing to plague his clients at the AIDS Task Force.

"Katrina really affected minority communities," he said. "When the news says New Orleans is back, that’s just in the tourist area."

Louisiana was already suffering disproportionately from the AIDS epidemic. The state has the third-highest rate of new HIV and AIDS infections in the country. The number of cases of gonorrhea, chlamydia, syphilis and other sexually transmitted diseases also ranks among the highest in the United States. Chase said his agency and others in New Orleans, meanwhile, are struggling to meet the needs of their clients because the federal government continues to slash their funding.

"We’re fighting an uphill battle on top of Katrina," he lamented. "The agencies are doing the work but their hands are tied because of the funding loss."

Break the Chains seeks to reform federal and state sentencing guidelines for drug-related offenses. Executive Director Deborah Peterson Smalls was more pointed in her assessment of the city’s problems. She believes lawmakers failed New Orleanians of color long before Katrina.

"What really happened is not because of a hurricane," she said. "We have to remember what happened there were levees breaking, the flooding of the city. The majority of disasters that affect our community are not natural but political."

Smalls further argued that what she described as the "racialization of poverty" continued to impact disproportionately people of color, not only in New Orleans, but also New York and other major metropolitan areas. "The ultimate goal of all racist policies is to produce premature death," Smalls argued. "These policies are designed to destroy us."

Dr. Mindy Fullilove, professor of clinical psychiatry at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health in New York, knows something about what AIDS has done to low-income communities. She began researching the impact AIDS has had on New York’s historically black and Latino neighborhoods way back in 1986. She also accused bureaucratic neglect, racism and more recently gentrification of enhancing the epidemic’s impact among people of color.

"Sept. 11 and Katrina help us understand it," Fullilove said. "What happens in New Orleans happens to us; what happens in New York happens to them."

New York City Dept. of Health & Mental Hygiene HIV Prevention Specialist Chris Jacques sees post-Katrina gentrification in New Orleans as mirroring Brooklyn, Harlem and Hell’s Kitchen in New York City. Over the last three decades, minorities in New York have been pushed aside for wealthier residents. The argument was buttressed by a just-released U.S. Census report that showed that, for the first time in decades, the influx of whites to New York City increased, as did the number of blacks leaving.

"Public health is personal," Jacques said. "The notion someone will come to save you is jive. It is accomplished through day-to-day and minute-to-minute decisions you make for yourselves and for your family." He advocated taking personal responsibility for health maintenance. But he hastened to add that community-based organizations, public health advocates and bureaucrats alike have a responsibility to advance the well-being of their various constituents.

"This business of organizing to maintain our communities is real," he said. "We need to organize and conduct our business in a way that tells people to put health on their agenda."

GMHC organized the forum after Chezia Carraway toured New Orleans’ lower Ninth Ward in May during the HIV Prevention Leadership Summit. The Women’s Institute associate director for HIV Prevention & Community Development told EDGE that her visit to the devastated neighborhood evoked memories of Sept. 11. The tour also brought home how much poverty contributes to the spread of AIDS. "It’s not enough to stop HIV and AIDS but to rebuild communities," she said.