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Last November at the Common States Conference on AIDS (USCA), I was asked to sit on a panel that grew out of my venture, " Will This Generation's Magic Johnson Please Stand Up? " The objective was to have an in-depth conversation about how to get straight African-American men involved in HIV activism, restraint and testing.

To some extent, I knew that a conversation about sexuality, masculinity, gender discrepancy and HIV in black America would usher in a heated conversation. But given that the purpose of the burgh hall meeting was to come up with strategies on reaching heterosexual black men, I mentation it would be somewhat tempered. I was wrong: While ideas and strategies were discussed, the undertone of the parley reeked of divisive homophobia and anti-feminist buffoonery.

One man (who was gay) insinuated that gay men were not "verified" or "strong," therefore we needed straight men to be the leaders. A woman stood up and stated that she didn't thirst her husband and son getting HIV information from a gay man. There were serious complaints about why so much money and focus are effective to gay and bisexual men and not "black people" -- as though black men who have sex with men (MSM) and transgender folks aren't black people too. And when I stated to the faction that as a community we need to confront our own homophobia and correct it if we plan on getting more arrange black men involved in this fight, a woman loudly asked, "Why? What does that have to do with us?

Source: TheBody.com