PROJECT: MALE |
FIGHTING AIDS IN FRESNO COUNTY |
So 7 days later on January 20, 2006, PROJECT: MALE was born (Incorporated). I have to say that I feel too strongly about this issue to allow all the work I have put into fighting AIDS in our community to dissolve like that! Interesting enough, I had already been working on this project back in October 2005 but it was just supposed to be a men’s AIDS taskforce to address the fact that 85% of the AIDS cases in Fresno County are men. Since I had started preparing for the Fresno Extravaganza AIDS benefit fashion show, this taskforce had to be put onto the back burner. I guess you can say that the Lord had something else in mind and so PROJECT: MALE which was a back burner idea had came forth to keep the fight against AIDS going! The good thing about this is that it is locally owned and operated. We have a specific focus that will address the specific needs of our county in regards to HIV/AIDS issues. Our Mission is this: PROJECT: MALE (P:M) is a men’s AIDS organization designed to address the fact that 85% of all the AIDS cases in Fresno County are men. Through this network of men we hope to make a significant impact on the number of AIDS cases in Fresno County through education and prevention and thus cause a decrease in the number of men infected with HIV/AIDS. By increasing men’s knowledge and understanding of HIV/AIDS, they will be able to understand the role that men can play in the prevention of this male driven disease. While other organizations may look at HIV from a racial perspective or even a sexual orientation issue; I see it as a men’s health issue. It is true that Gay men comprised the majority of the AIDS cases but all 85% of the AIDS cases in our county are not Gay men. In actuality, HIV Surveillance data doesn’t really have a “Gay” category but uses the term Men Who Have Sex with Men (MSM) so that can be any male who has reported a sexual encounter with another male as their means of contracting HIV/AIDS if you really want to read into it but for the sake of argument we will consider this the “Gay” category. Even the idea that African Americans and Latinos make up the majority of AIDS cases is not entirely true. The issue with these two ethnic groups is that they make up together about 24% of the total U.S. population but make up over 50% the new AIDS cases. So the issue is that these racial groups make up such a small amount of the United States population but have a high disproportion of the AIDS cases in comparison to their white counterparts (CDC HIV/AIDS Surveillance Report Vol. 15). But even in this case, the majority of these cases are men! It is time that men (both Gay and Straight) are brought up to speed on this issue. To me 85% is a large disproportion that I think has been over looked for far too long! Even in the state of California as a whole, men make up 92% of the AIDS cases. So you tell me, does this sound like a men’s health issue or what? Well for PROJECT: MALE’s purpose, HIV/AIDS will be dealt with as a men’s health issue.
