aids

The side of a building on 125th Street and Broadway has become a focal point of AIDS awareness in Harlem. Until March, two huge billboards on the building combined to declare, “We’re not taking it lying down!”— the tagline of an ad campaign by The Women’s Institute at Gay Men’s Health Crisis. The posters were replaced by twin ads for the “HIV stops with me” effort sponsored by the state and city health departments.

The messages and their prime Harlem placement come at a time when African-American women are the group with the highest rate of HIV infection in the city — and the nation.

It could be the most important 20 minutes of your life.

Doctors at Jacobi Medical Center want to get the word out about a program they’ve created that allows people to be tested for HIV – quickly and confidentially – while getting important lessons on AIDS prevention.

The idea behind Project BRIEF is to boost the number of people tested for the AIDS virus by offering the test in emergency rooms via individual, portable “HIV kiosks.”

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A sense of urgency pulsed through a large meeting room at Gay Men’s Health Crisis in Chelsea last Wednesday night. Dozens of men of color were seated in a semi-circle to face a table at which six panelists sat, discussing issues facing gay men of color who are HIV positive.

The event was part of a discussion series sponsored by GMHC called Lives at Stake. This installment focused on black gay men and HIV in New York and around the world, and it was held in conjunction with World AIDS Day 2007, which was commemorated on Saturday.

The panelists took turns broaching difficult topics with a candidness that seemed much appreciated among the fervent crowd, who listened attentively to every word spoken.

Robert Miller, a black HIV-positive man who is on the faculty at the University at Albany, talked about spirituality and what it means for gay men, and how it can help them cope with an HIV-positive status. He said that spirituality helps people reconnect.