My friend Stewart Landers has an excellent piece over at Lifelube calling for the development of a communal voice for gay / bi / trans men's health. He notes that:
Now that we are two years into the post-Eric Rofes period of the gay men’s health movement, it is a good time think about what we know, what we need to know and how we can continue the only grassroots movement dedicated to thinking about, working for and advancing our collective health.
The development of a clear, communal voice for the gay men’s health movement continues to be our single greatest challenge. There is no voice in this country speaking on behalf of gay men’s health. However, this is not the same thing as a lack of leadership. In fact, due to Eric’s work and the work of many movement activists, there are many leaders in gay men’s health around the country including researchers, activists, executive directors, public health practitioners, trainers, and writers working in this area. Yet, there isn’t a consistent voice or source for information when the media seek a response to the latest “gay men are spreading such-and-such now” report. I propose that the gay men’s health summit leadership bite the bullet and form the National Gay Men’s Health Collaborative, find some grant money, have a high-end designer create some snazzy letterhead and establish a formal national presence.
I couldn't agree more -- although I also think that we need to take heed to make sure that it is a "collective" organization, and not a corporatized, Executive Director-style organization. We -- we being several of my fellow gay men's health organizers -- have been talking about this for the past year. Chris Bartlett in particular, as well as others, have been asking around about the idea of creating a formal web presence, particularly as a gateway for the media to find smart / sex positive GMH advocates. As I told Chris last time he was in town, in the 21st century, if it doesn't have a website, it doesn't exist. The GMH movement desperately needs such a website, at minimum to declare our existence and our activities.
At the last mini-Gay Men's Health Leadership Academy a few weeks ago here in San Francisco, Michael Scarce was talking about building a wiki for GMH. This is a good idea, but I think it is a separate kind of project from what Stewart and others are calling for. Let's make a website. Let's develop a vision. The Gay Men's Health Summit is in October in Seattle. Working group, anyone?
Darling. I want to be a part of this, but I can't be at that meeting as I'll be about a month or so into school (RN before I get my MPH) at that point, and I can't yet take off. LOL :-)
Keep me updated.