Unity
With creativity and faith, I contribute to the unity of all humanity.
I celebrate unity in the many forms it appears in my life and in the world: the togetherness of family and community, the harmony of individuals working for one collective purpose, or the connectedness of all humanity regardless of language, beliefs, customs, or geography.
In God there is a unity of spirit. In prayer I contemplate this oneness and experience unity with all life. In these sacred moments, I remember my unity with all humanity.
My experience of knowing my oneness with all increases as I am divinely guided to new thoughts and interactions. Being gentle and open with purpose, creativity, and faith, I help generate unity in the world.
"Lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace."--Ephesians 4:1-3

Tender Moment
I affirm love, joy, and peace for all humankind.
This is a time of tender caring and thoughtfulness, a day to share love, joy, and peace. Kindness, stillness, and anticipation mingle in the air. This is a season of embracing wonderment--of beholding what is dear to the heart.
My mind may travel to memories of past holidays and dear ones who have shared those precious times. I bless them for being, and having been, in my life.
There are opportunities for openness and appreciation as I greet others, even strangers, with a "Merry Christmas." My prayer is for peace and goodwill for all humankind. I feel both a holy stillness and an energy of joyous anticipation. It is Christmas Eve.
"The time came for her to deliver her child. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn."--Luke 2:6-7

SCHOOL IS OVER AND LET THE GOOD TIMES ROLL. I GOT AN A IN ALL FOUR OF MY CLASSES FOLKS. I HAVE TWO MORE SEMESTERS TO GO B4 TRANSFERRING TO RUTGERS AND I REALLY WANT TO KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK SO A GURL CAN GET A SCHOLARSHIP OR TWO AND NOT HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT HOW TUITION AND BOOKS WILL BE PAID. NOW THAT SCHOOL IS OUT , I NEED TO CONCENTRATE ON THE LAST T-DANCE OF 2008, MY BDAY BASH 1/4/09 AND MY BDAY VACATION TO MEXICO CITY AND PUERTA VALLARTA. OF COURSE I WILL TAKE A BREATHER AND CELEBRATE MY CHRISTMAS THIS THURSDAY WITH MY FAMILY AND NEW YEARS EVE IN CHURCH WITH MY SIS AND NIECE. YEARS AGO I CAN RECALL WHEN I DID 3 OR 4 SHOWS ON NEW YEARS EVE AND MADE LOTS OF MONEY. FOR THE LAST 6 YEARS I BELIEVE, I STOPPED WORKING ON NEW YEARS EVE AND JUST WENT TO CHURCH AND CAME HOME. I SOON DISCOVERED THE BLESSINGS WERE EVEN MORE ABUNDANT FOR ME IN THE NEW YEAR WITHOUT EVEN WORKING ON THAT EVE. GOD IS GOOD! I WILL NOW TAKE THE TIME OUT TO WISH U A MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A BLESSED NEW YEAR.

HEY GUYS. YESTERDAY MORNING I JUST COMPLETED MY FOURTH AND FINAL EXAM FOR THIS SEMESTER. IT WAS MY ALGEBRA EXAM AND WITH MUCH ANXIETY AND UNCERTAINTY STARTING IN SEPTEMBER, I WAS ABLE TO FOCUS AND CONQUER MY FINAL WITH FLYING COLORS. THE OTHER EXAMS WENT JUST AS WELL AND NOW I CAN ENJOY SOME TIME OFF TO PLAN FOR THE HOLIDAYS WITH FAMILY AND MY UPCOMING BDAY BASH AT ESCUELITA 1/4/09. I DO HOPE YOU CAN ATTEND. I ALSO HAVE AN UPCOMING DOCTOR'S VISIT WHICH I WILL KEEP YOU INFORMED OF ANY NEW INFORMATION. I LOOK FORWARD TO A NEW SEMESTER AND THIS TIME NEXT YEAR FINISHING UP AT COMMUNITY COLLEGE AND HOPEFULLY TRANSFERRING TO RUGTERS NEWARK INTO THE NURSING PROGRAM. THANKS TO ALL OF YOU WHO HAVE SUPPORTED AND PRAYED FOR ME THROUGOUT THIS SEMESTER. I DO APPRECIATE IT. TAKE CARE,GOD BLESS AND I WILL BE WRITING MORE OFTEN DURING MY BREAK.

Prepared
I am ready to take on the day!
On the job or at home, I am prepared for whatever it is that I am to do. I have the intelligence to know how to go about doing things that bring about the best results. I have the energy to keep on keeping on.
I am not doing anything on my own. The very life and intelligence of God are my constant, unfailing resources. I have more than confidence; I have the assurance that God is my help in every need.
I balance times of planning and doing with times of prayer and meditation. Whatever information I collect in my mind, I also need to retrieve. The more relaxed and assured I am when retrieving information, the easier it is for me to bring it forward when needed. Being prepared, I am ready to take on the day.
"He answered, 'Let us go on to the neighboring towns, so that I may proclaim the message there also; for that is what I came out to do.' "--Mark 1:38

Im talking about my semester. Im sure some of you thought I had lost my mind or something. Anywho, that party I told you all about that was scheduled for 11/28 in which I never received a deposit to seal the deal, I guess it went on without a hitch. Oh well. Some people have to learn the hard way. No Deposit=NO Sunbeam. I am currently going crazy organizing a research paper due this coming Tuesday morning. It has been so hectic that I had to cancel a quick getaway trip to Key West this weekend because I was behind schedule in completing my schoolwork. Im sure there are some of you out there who would have just dashed and paid it but I can't do that. School comes first and all that other stuff comes later. I also have a birthday peformance (w/deposit) scheduled for this Sunday before my regular gig at Esco so it would have been sorta tight for me to come home and jump right into show mode. Everything happens for a reason and Im just glad to be home and taking care of business. I pray that you all have a good weekend and that I get to see you soon at Esco or The Cage in the near future.

Reconstruction

By: Charles Stephens and Craig Washington

Over 20 years ago, the writer Joseph Beam proclaimed that "black men loving black men is the revolutionary act." Writing in the midst of an historical catastrophe, Beam was able to articulate a phrase eerily beautiful and simple, yet potent. That was an era when black gay men were the invisible element in the AIDS epidemic, and arguably are still invisible. There was daring and urgency to his message that we must revisit to give us the inspiration and perspective necessary to move forward. As we think about how HIV/AIDS has impacted our communities, lives, and relationships with ourselves and each other, Beam's phrase has never been more appropriate, valuable or relevant. Moving forward we must consider the value of love. Black gay men, black lesbians, and black transgendered people loving themselves and each other. In that love, we must consider the following strategies to provide a paradigmatic and methodological shift, in an effort to energize and recharge our movement.

Re-emphasize the impact of HIV/AIDS on black gay men. The AIDS epidemic was first presented to the public as a white gay men’s health issue. Although GRID (Gay Related Immune Disorder) was quickly redefined as AIDS, non-gay Blacks, Latinos, and women of color were recognized as "the changing face of AIDS", and safer sex education became focused on behaviors. Even with that shift, many non-gay minorities continued to see their risk as determined by their identity. Instead of taking that opportunity to address stigmas attached to queer sexual orientations and sexuality in general, the HIV/AIDS industry dissociated AIDS from "gay" to encourage heterosexuals, especially black heterosexuals to give it priority. Two decades later, despite the irrefutable statistics confirming black gay men as the group most heavily HIV burdened, the campaign to de-gay AIDS rolls on. Black gay men are often missing or underrepresented in prevention marketing strategies, AIDS drug ads, and community mobilization efforts. We cannot effectively respond to the spread of HIV until we recognize that gay men matter.

Rethink home-based testing. The move toward HIV testing in nontraditional venues and outside of clinical settings should be applauded. These efforts can reach individuals who might not go to an AIDS service organization or ask their doctor for testing. Now we must not be afraid to move to the next step - home-based HIV testing. We cannot be afraid to empower our most at-risk populations with immediate access to their HIV status. Having access to one’s HIV status is one of the most effective forms of prevention. Though pre and post test counseling can be an effective tool in HIV prevention, its absence should not a barrier to our people knowing their HIV status.

Restore pleasure to safer sex. People like having sex without condoms because it feels good. But we tend to automatically label those who engaging in consensual sex without condoms as suicidal, self-hating, irresponsible, lacking in self esteem, or mentally unbalanced. When we do that, we underestimate the pleasure principle. Sex is one of our most primal drives and it facilitates pleasure, intimacy, power, comfort and love like no other form of engagement. By imposing a singular medical framework on these acts, we deny the profound spiritual, psychological and emotional value they provide. By deploying fear based incentives, we may briefly capture attention, but scare tactics do not motivate a sustained behavioral change. We instead need to open a broader dialogue with people regardless of their condom use, and help them negotiate harm reduction in ways that respect their sexual proclivities. Skills building workshops, discussions and counseling groups that focus on enhancing sexual pleasure and not merely making condom use "sexy" may reach more people and help them develop healthier, safer and more fulfilling sexual behaviors. Instead of mandating abstinence or consistent condom use as the only viable prevention methods, we can better serve our communities without judging or scaring them.

Re-imagine the range of Prevention options. Though the condom is a necessary and effective part of any HIV prevention strategy, it’s imperative that we develop, improve and sustain newer technologies and approaches to sexual health. As the rates of new HIV infections among black gay men, particularly young black gay men climbs to new heights, we must unshackle ourselves and our work from behavioral approaches exclusively. This means advocating for biomedical and structural methods in HIV prevention, while we continue to develop and innovate behavioral models. With regard to biomedical approaches to HIV prevention, we must insist on the development and distribution of pre and post-exposure prophylaxis, vaccines and rectal microbicides. For structural interventions, we must explore and address the litany of causes that facilitate risk among black gay men: socioeconomic disparities, the lack of a living wage, the lack of housing, and other societal factors that create fertile conditions for risk among our brothers. We must also ensure that those who are HIV positive have access to adequate healthcare and treatments that maintain low viral loads which can reduce their rate of infectiousness. We must be proactive, innovative and willing to think outside the box.

Reinforce our pride. Our struggles with gay identity are much more grounded in our reinforced repression of our inner feminine beings than any conflicts with historical white cultural oppression. We must help gay men work through self hatred and embrace the feminine being within themselves and each other. We also have to de-stigmatize gay identity throughout black communities. Most media images of sexual minorities tend to depict African Americans as irrevocably homophobic. Yet many of us have narratives of love and acceptance from within our community. These narratives are rarely broadcast as culturally normative. We should develop a campaign that conveys messages of acceptance and breakthroughs that occur among black families. Right wing organizers and black demagogues have been marketing homophobia in black communities for decades. It’s about time we started working our own positive campaigns to promote black love among black people. ??

Charles Stephens is the African-American Gay Outreach Coordinator for AID Atlanta. He is committed to art, social justice, and gay men’s health.

Craig Washington, MSW, is a Prevention Programs Manager at AID Atlanta. He is a writer, organizer, and consultant on HIV and social justice issues.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It's Time to Meaningfully Support Prevention by and for Black Communities

by Dr. Kevin Fenton.

A mobilization to end AIDS in Black communities has exploded in recent years. People from every corner of our community are getting involved—gay and straight, male and female, churches and civil rights groups, business people and celebrities, college students and community organizers. It is now crucial that policymakers at both the federal and local level finally join the fight.

Read the full article here.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

World AIDS Day 2008: Much accomplished, much to do

When we commemorated the first World AIDS Day on December 1, 1988, we had little to celebrate. The number of reported AIDS cases in the United States was nearing 80,000 and rising rapidly. Untold thousands more in this country were living with the human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV. Globally, AIDS cases already had been reported from more than 135 countries. An AIDS tsunami clearly was looming, but we had few defenses at our disposal.

For those of us caring for people with AIDS, it was a dark time. We had just one anti-HIV medicine in our pharmacies, AZT, a drug that the virus rapidly defeated by mutating and developing resistance. Lacking other medicines to slow the relentless replication of HIV and its destruction of a person's immune system, we did our best to help our patients by managing to the extent possible their AIDS-related infections and complications. But the life span of most of the patients was measured in months.

Two decades later, much has changed.