Essex Hemphill—the openly gay, African-American poet and author—truly was a force of nature. Groundbreaking, Mr. Hemphill blazed the way for talents including James Earl Hardy, E. Lynn Harris…and myself. So, in celebration of Black History Month, I pay homage to this gifted artist—who certainly was before his time. And left us way too soon. Despite a relatively short literary career, Hemphill is [...]
A brand new—and perhaps controversial—study has uncovered that economic insecurity, housing instability and stigma largely shape the sexual relationships of many African-American men who have sex with men (MSM). According to this study, these structural inequalities influence the kinds of relationships and sexual behaviors that men have. It’s a fact that the bulk of HIV prevention interventions and studies focus [...]
Fenway Health, a Boston LGBT group, has just reported that although Black men who have sex with men (MSM) is a very small part of the population, they make up more than 20 percent of new HIV infections in the United States. Additionally, an analysis of data from a recent six-city study of African-American gay, bisexual and MSM reveals a [...]
Greetings! First, let me say that I'm so proud and honored by the overwhelmingly positive response I have received regarding my novel, NOTHING CAN TEAR US APART--UNCENSORED! I'm truly blessed. One of the pivotal reasons I wrote the novel was to demonstrate that there are actually Black and Latino gay men out there who are in loving, monogamous relationships. Unfortunately, according to [...]
