Not sure did you catch this interesting exchange on CNN's Reclaiming the Dream. During the panel discussion on HIV/AIDS in the black community, Judge Penny Brown Reynolds was asked by CNN's Roland Martin how to get the black church and community more involved.
Judge Brown Reynolds responds: "We need to remove the shame. And the self-worth issues surrounding HIV/AIDS. Because to say in the Black church, the foundation of our community, that somehow homosexuality, when all of our people who are musicians are homosexuals and even some of the pastors are homosexuals, that this is not an issue, that, we're just burying our head in the sand. The Black church should be at the forefront of this, just like we are with civil rights issues."
Later in the segment: Co-host Roland Martin, who has defended anti-gay Chicago mega-church preacher Rev. James Meeks and former Miss California Carrie Prejean, attempts to explain the "face" of HIV/AIDS in the black community: "From a public policy standpoint, for so many years, dollars have been going for white gay male organizations. We know there are virtually no new dollars. How do we from a public policy standpoint, shift the dollars now to the need where largely black women are the face of HIV/AIDS?"
WHEN YOU JUMP, watch both clips. Only two years ago and 25 years into the HIV/AIDS crisis, the National Baptist Convention USA, the nation's largest black religious organization, finally mentioned HIV/AIDS for the first time. Black media and many black churches continue to re-frame HIV/AIDS as impacting "women and children" the hardest, despite Centers for Disease Control data that continually says black gay men are the most likely to become infected with the virus. Many are unaware of their status. As always, thank you Roland Martin for your contributions to "public policy" and gays in the black community. SMH.
