The sheer number of people touched by HIV and AIDS over the course of San Francisco’s history has overwhelmingly been male, and in large part gay, bi and queer men. We’re re-authoring who we are in the world, and not just envisioning a future we’ve never had, but knowing and acting as if it’s possible.” Women, femmes, non-binary folx, and transgender communities They want to know, ‘How can I move beyond the wounds that have happened to me, and manifest or actualize more healing in the community?’ We’re still very aware of the wounds of the AIDS epidemic, racial injustice, and marginalization, but it’s no longer a block. “But as the world’s consciousness has been evolving to recognize the realities for Black folks, BBE participants have started making choices to move out of that wounding. “For so long, there was a really deep value in naming issues of race and oppression, because the world left them unnamed,” he said. Preston Vargas, PhD, the director of Black Health at SFAF, said he has seen a shift in the group in recent years as movements such as Black Lives Matter have pushed the world into a greater consciousness about race and equity. BBE Group Members gather in Yerba Buena Gardens, 2021 Current-day BBE members participate in book clubs, social support groups, game nights, and advocacy and community events. In the early 2000s, the group advocated San Francisco Pride for the first African American stage. They offered evidence-based HIV prevention programs to the group, added a “Leadership Institute,” and worked with SFAF’s HIV Advocacy Network to advocate for HIV funding at AIDS Watch in Washington D.C. Over the years, BBE members, volunteers, and staff “took the program to a new level,” said Bey. The HIV prevention director at the time really wanted a place where Black men could come together and really talk about risk, and other things that were important to them.” People were still talking about and worried about Magic Johnson’s HIV status. “It was right around the time when protease inhibitors came out, so people went from taking lots of pills to starting triple combination therapy. “BBE was founded at a pivotal time in the history of HIV,” said Bey. “You can’t tell the story of San Francisco AIDS Foundation without telling the story of BBE.” “We had programs prior to that for gay and bi men regardless of race, but BBE was the first to be created for gay, bisexual, and same gender-loving men who were Black,” said Jamal Bey, the first program manager of BBE. This shift, to prioritize Black gay and same gender-loving men in the HIV response, was significant, and critical in a city where for the first time, the rate of infections among Black men surpassed that of white men. Black Brothers Esteem, known as BBE, provided a safe space for the men and trans women who attended the group to get support around HIV, sex and dating, substance use issues, and more. One of San Francisco AIDS Foundation’s longest-lived and most well-loved programs was created more than 25 years ago in response to the lack of services for Black gay men in San Francisco’s Tenderloin and South of Market neighborhoods. As we move forward, we will keep our focus on racial justice, health equity, and the need to confront disparities in HIV wherever they appear. Although our current strategic plan clearly centers a number of intersectional communities, we look back at our history with humility. Questions about who SFAF prioritizes–and what communities are served by our institution–are not new. Now, SFAF serves around 25,000 clients from the Bay Area every year. But as the realization that HIV was rippling across other communities, SFAF responded–and continues to respond–by serving other communities in addition to gay men. And indeed, San Francisco AIDS Foundation’s founders and first volunteers came from this community of gay men and their supporters scared for their own lives and those of their loved ones. This article was produced in honor of San Francisco AIDS Foundation’s 40th anniversary, which we are commemorating in 2022.Īs HIV and AIDS first began to rock San Francisco and the nation, what the media disparagingly called the “gay plague” led communities of gay men and their allies to come together to support lovers, friends, and partners.
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