Turning The Tide Against HIV: 2022 NAESM Leadership Conference To Unite Black, Gay And Bisexual Men To Address Epidemic
NAESM exists to serve Black, gay and bisexual men. Full stop. This tenet has been central to the organization’s mission in the fight to reduce new HIV infections and to provide care for those living with HIV, including Atlantans who do not exist within the targeted group for over 30 years. It’s with the same laser focus on Black, gay and bisexual men, one of the most heavily impacted groups by HIV, that NAESM’s African American MSM Leadership Conference on Health Disparities and Social Justice, the nation’s largest annual convening dedicated to exploring HIV prevention, care, treatment, policy, and research, will escape the cold of the Southeast in January for the warmth of sunny Los Angeles.
The annual conference is an opportunity for NAESM through advocacy, services, and education to provide local and national leadership on a plethora of health issues facing Black, gay and bisexual men. With dozens of similar conferences occurring throughout the year, Dr. Alvan Quamina, NAESM’s Executive Director, says there is one thing that attendees value that separates NAESM’s conference from all others.
“I, too, remember coming to NAESM conferences as the conference where it was us,” Quamina says. “You would find us in all the other conferences. We’d be there. We’d be present. But we’d be surrounded by lots of women and lots of straight men. You go to a NAESM conference and it was just us—a few allies—but Black gay [and bisexual] men. And that was very affirming for me.”
For the rest of the article you can read it on the Reckoning’s website
https://www.thereckoningmag.com/the-reckoning-blog/turning-the-tide-against-hiv-2022-naesm-leadership-conference-to-unite-black-gay-and-bisexual-men-to-address-epidemic
