In the early 1980s’ a three lettered acronym followed by a four character, one-syllable word entered the American vernacular and changed the course of history around the world. HIV/AIDS, formerly known as “gay cancer” was originally understood to be an immune disorder that primarily affected white, gay males who lived in large cities such as New York City and Los Angeles.
Larry Jimison, executive director of Brother’s United, a nonprofit agency that serves the African-American LGBTQI community in Indianapolis, said initially news of this virus did not hit home for him. He, like many others assumed the disease did not have any true point of relevance for him due to race and location. That attitude, in his opinion, served to be detrimental to many African-American homosexual males. “It (the attitude) made it to where we couldn’t receive appropriate HIV prevention messages,” said Jimison. “It created a false sense of security because (Black men) didn’t fit those original stereotypes of someone who could be at risk of infection.”
On Sept. 20, Jimison along with other community leaders and activists will host a panel discussion titled “A Community Disease.” The panel will be presented as a part of the Indianapolis Recorder’s Community Health & Wellness Fair. The fair, which is sponsored by Eskenazi Health, will be held on Ivy Tech’s Central Indianapolis campus located at 50 W. Fall Creek Parkway North Dr.
In 2003, the virus hit home for Jimison as his partner of 10 years discovered he was HIV positive. He died 90 days after learning of his diagnosis. “It brought the point home even more – to have a partner who was positive and for me to be negative it just instilled in me the need for prevention even more.”
Recently, a female family member of Jimison’s also learned she has the virus. “Without any of the typical risk factors, didn’t shoot drugs, wasn’t promiscuous – she became newly diagnosed with HIV,” said Jimison. “That new diagnosis for her was another eye opener for me.” Jimison said that cases such as this one are proof that monogamy alone is not an adequate method of prevention and education is still needed in the Black community.
In 2013, over 50 percent of new HIV diagnoses were Black women. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, unless the course of the epidemic changes, at some point in their lifetime, an estimated 1 in 16 Black men and 1 in 32 Black women will be diagnosed with HIV infection.
Rev. Michael Jones, Senior Pastor of Progressive Baptist Church who will also be a panelist at the event, shared that it is the responsibility of the entire community to keep the conversation on HIV/AIDS prevention going.
“People are not aware anymore, certainly now, of the risks – it has kind of diminished,” he said. “There are treatments but it’s still a permanent disease and some people aren’t nearly as afraid as they used to be – they don’t exercise the kind of precaution they should.”
Jones, who has used his platform to speak on the topic to the extent of participating in on-the-spot HIV testing during a Sunday morning worship service as well as inviting world-renown AIDS activist Rae-Lewis Thornton to speak to his congregation, shared that although he believes the faith community should do what they can to combat this issue, some do not share his views due to the fact that it is commonly believed in the Christian community that sex outside of marriage is not only taboo, but a sin.
“Some people have been very angry with me because I have said publicly, ‘If you’re going to have sex use a condom’ and haven’t condemned people to hell for the same reason – I won’t do that,” he said. “We (the church) have to talk about sex and sexuality just like we have to talk about money, education, violence, guns, the police – We ought to have a perspective and it can’t just be, ‘Stop having sex. The doors of the church are open, Amen!’”
Jimison said he hopes the upcoming panel will continue to shed a light on this important issue. “We are putting our resources together to impact the entire African-American community,” he said. “We want to combat this as a community wide effort.”
