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MAY 24.2003 • Q-NOTES
Activists ignite gay men's health movement
Raleigh Summit a rallying success
by Erik Li bey
Gay Men's Health Summit
RALEICM — Noon on May II marked the
official close of Gay Men’s Health Summit
2003 — five days of education, information
sharing, community-building and activism
centering around issues of health and well
ness for gay, bisexual, trans and queer, men.
This was the third national summit of its
kind over the past five years and brought over
300 participants from all over the country and
world, including countries such as New
Zealand, Canada, England, Ireland and
Switzerland, The Summit’s boldly stated mis
sion to “build a multi-cultural multi-issue
health movement for gay men’s health” drew
a broad range of participants including
activists, medical providers, community advo
cates and human service providers.
“We arc really excited to sec the exciting
work taking place on gay men’s health around
the nation and around the world,” said
Summit organizer Eric Rofes of San Francisco. -
“Cutting-edge work with men of color, start
up gay men’s health projects in Tucson, San
Francisco and Geneva, Switzerland, and the
increasing attention to aging and ageism, real
ly made this an exciting summit to me!”
Work at the Summit got a jump-start for
early arrivals in a collection of intensive pre
summit institutes addressing issues such as
bear health, racism, working with queer
youth, applying critical theory to health mod
els and creating a new model for gay men’s
health. As the bulk of participants arrived later
in the evening on May 7, they were greeted
with an opening reception and a keynote ple
nary session that generated a unique energy
that carried itself throughout the Summit and
fueled discussions around a myriad of issues
in the health movement.
Throughotit the Summit, over i 50 workshop
sessions and plenaries covered
the most diverse collection
of topics in the Summit’s
history. Amongst this wide
range of topics some key
issues — including sub
stance use, mental health,
HiV/AIDS, domestic vio
lence and prostate cancer
— were identified and
received special focus.
One such focus
included a programming
track — and funding to ^
provide specific scholar
ships for participation —
devoted to the Summit’s
first ever “Men of Color
Institute.” This Institute,
sponsored in large part
by the Ford Foundation,
addressed some of the unique
needs in populations of color and in discus
sions including how health needs in these
communities arc addressed, access to care and
the ways that homophobia and/or racism
interact to impact health for people of color.
Participants in the Institute also created and
distributed a draft document summarizing
“critical issues that were identified [to] serve as
a set of priorities for gay men of color that can
be considered for future organizing efforts.”
A second unique feature of the Summit was
the beginning of what will hopefully grow into an
ongoing discussion of gender amongst queer
men. Issues of gender identity and the trans
community were featured in a scries of work
shops and a well-attended keynote plena
ry entitled “Qticer Men, Qiiccr
Masculinities: Towards a
Broad Understanding of
Gender in the Gay Men’s
Health Movement.” This
plenary included trans
activists and FTM (fcmalc-
to-male) transgendcr indi
viduals addressing the
broad spectrum of gender
■’ cxfx'ricnce and why these
Issues fit within a gay
men's movement rather
than as a separate trans
movement. Plenary modera
tor Hugh McGowan of New
York City succinctly summa
rized this point saying “The
work of dismantling the gen
der machine is not for trans
people alone and the work of
changing the world does not
belong to someone else.”
A final critical component of the Summit
included a number of workshops and plenaries
on how a gayA)i/trans/queer men's health
movement might be framed and in what direc
tions its future might lie. In this vein issues
ranged from strategizing how to reach commu
nities to creating sex-positive health messages. A
focal point of the Summit’s inclusion of these
issues was a plenary session led by Eric Rofes. In
his plenary, Rofes stressed the need to make a
nationwide paradigm shift from a gay health
movement that focuses exclusively on issues of
HIV/AIDS to one that includes these issues as
one component in a more comprehensive and
holistic menu of needs.
Further enhancing the Summit experience
were a number of activities to provide a social
component for participants — including
receptions, an exciting pool party and collab
orations with local nightclubs for “nights out
on the town,” and a mini film festival screen
ing several queer titles donated by Frameline,
San Francisco’s LGBT film festival.
Audience response to the Summit was
overwhelmingly positive as they joined in a
process that both energized and educated. As
the week wrapped up, participants were
charged with bringing the energy and mes
sage of the Summit back to their communities
and organizations and with creating similar
summits at the state/regional level nation
wide. Additionally, discussions were already
underway for the next, in what will likely be
many, follow up national summits — tenta
tively scheduled to occur in 2005.
Additional sponsors included Gilead
Sciences and Glaxo Smith Kline.
info:
www.gmhs2003.org
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