THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, November 12, 1994 TAG: 9411120183
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: By MARIE JOYCE, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 63 lines
If African Americans are going to come to terms with AIDS in their community, they must acknowledge the presence of gays, said Madge Young.
Young, coordinator of the AIDS program for the Urban League of Hampton Roads, spoke Friday at the league's Strategy 2000 conference. The event, which started Wednesday and concludes today, looks at what blacks can do to help themselves in economic development, education, housing, health and crime.
Young runs an outreach program that provides AIDS education and services. She and her nine-person staff particularly target neighborhoods that have high rates of crime and drug use.
She said it's hard to get her clients to acknowledge that they have homosexual sex.
``Homosexuality in the African-American community is considered (a) cardinal sin,'' Young said in an interview. ``Folk would rather admit to us that they are drug users than that they have same-sex sex.''
Later, she told the audience of about 20 African Americans that they don't have to condone homosexuality if doing so runs counter to their religious beliefs.
But, she said, they must grapple with the fact that some people - even people they know - engage in behaviors that increase their risk of contracting HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.
``I'm talking about acknowledging that there are some folks out there who live lifestyles other than our own,'' Young said.
She also challenged listeners to take a good look at their own behavior and not assume that they are safe because they are middle-class.
``I would wager that for those of us who are not married . . . we are having sex with somebody,'' she said, eliciting laughter from the audience. How many of those people, she asked, use a condom or talk about AIDS risk with their partners?
And married people aren't necessarily safe, either.
``Just suppose we have a spouse that likes to venture out now and then,'' she said.
But people fool themselves into thinking it's just a disease for white gays or drug users, Young said.
``Because we're educated, that disease is going to pass us by. Because I live on Cobblestone Way in Virginia Beach . . .''
AIDS, she said, ``is a non-respecter of status.''
Young urged African Americans to contribute financially or in other ways to organizations like hers.
And she urged them to look beyond the statistics that are evoked when AIDS is talked about by policy-makers.
``Somewhere along the way, we have lost our sense of human-ness in this disease,'' she said.
The Strategy 2000 conference is part of a campaign to devise ways of solving problems that affect the black community. It brought together leaders from churches and civic groups and from diverse fields, including business, education, law enforcement, medicine and community development.
The conference, which organizers hope will become an annual event, addresses crime issues today. Joe Clark, a nationally known former high school principal, will be the keynote speaker at a banquet tonight. by CNB