by Jim PickettI can’t begin discussing the gay men’s health movement without acknowledging the enormous contributions of the Movement’s “Daddy” – Eric Rofes, a longtime educator and activist who worked on a wide range of progressive social and politicaljustice issues. One of the key organizers of the gay men's and LGBTI health movements in the United States and abroad, Eric was, and is, widely regarded as one of the most inspirational writers and thinkers in these movements.
He died unexpectedly on June 26, 2006.
He challenged and inspired me and sometimes really pissed me off, forcing me to defend my positions when I thought they were very clear, thank you. He was and is a mentor to me and many others and a leader to so many more. He was, is, and will be a defining force that continues to shape gay men’s health broadly and more narrowly, my careerat the junction between HIV and gay men’s health. This piece is largely organized around principles and ideas put forth by Eric. More about him, his life, and his work can be found at ericrofes.com.
The gay men’s health movement started with the free clinic movement of the 1960’s, was strongly influenced by the feminist women’s health movement (think “Our Bodies Ourselves”), and continued with gay men addressing STD testing and treatment at a grassroots, community level in the 70’s.
In 1995 the Gay and Lesbian Medical Association formally identified the need for a new generation of gay men’s health work, and several years later, gay men and others working with gay male communities began organizing the gay men’s health summits; the first of which took place in Boulder, Colorado in 1999. The most recent gay men’s health summit happened in Salt Lake City in the fall of 2005; the next is scheduled for sometime late summer/early fall 2008 in Seattle. My first summit was in Raleigh 2003 and not to be too dramatic, it changed my life.
In between the gay men’s summits, there have been three LGBTI Health Summits encompassing all the beautiful letters that make up the “queer” community; the most recent was in Philadelphia this past spring. Look for the next LGBTI Health Summit in Chicago, 2009.
Eric named six foundational principles of the gay men’s health movement. They are as follows:
1. Replace the HIV-centric paradigm of health advocacy for gay men with holistic models that integrate (but do not default to) HIV.
2. Rethink the crisis paradigm of HIV work and embrace contemporary understandings, meanings, and implications of HIV for gay men of all colors & classes.
3. Challenge deficit-based models for work with gay men and replace them with asset-based approaches.
4. Strategically and politically confront structural forces challenging the well-being of gay & bi men.
5. Embrace a “big tent” vision of community, respecting diverse ways of organizing sex and relationships among gay men's shame and guilt are the health hazards, rather than specific sex practices and sex cultures.
6. Launch only efforts that are not overtly or covertly sanitizing, sanctimonious or moralistic.
Read the rest in the AIDS Institute's September 2007 ActionLink Journal (it is the cover story.)
The next summit could develop an online component for guys with the interest but cannot make the particular time and place. There is a lot that goes at summit events that could have related web links inviting participation in this medium. Instead of the old type of 20th century gathering a summit could be updated for the 21st century reaching out to the participants involved in this medium.
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