just out ▼ novombor IS. 1996 ▼ 21
dangerous behaviors. Yet as common sense as that
may be, it is a notion that has largely been over­
looked by public health advocates.
In Oregon that’s beginning to change, thanks
to a program called Pathfinder Project, which pro­
motes prosocial activities for gay and bisexual
men throughout the state.
“What we’ve learned from [a series of] focus
groups is that while the vast majority of men know
the facts about HIV and AIDS, many continue to
embark on unsafe behaviors,” says David Lane,
Ph.D., coordinator of community-based programs
for the Oregon Health Division. “The piece that
appeared to be missing was a social support net­
work that can give men that critical sense of com­
munity and positive self-esteem which may in turn
help them sustain healthy behaviors.”
According to Lane, there are two basic tenets
of the Pathfinder Project: that gay and bisexual
men can and will make positive choices regarding
their health if they have the proper information and
psychological support; and that self-esteem and
connections to a positive support system are para­
mount to the psychological support that is neces­
sary for people to sustain healthy behaviors.
The project, now into its second
year, has supported the hiring of gay
outreach coordinators across the
state, the founding of a Gay
Resource telephone hot line,
and the production of a
■
compact disc entitled
how start up the growth process again.”
The trick is finding a way to do that. How does
one motivate gay and bisexual men to get involved
with their own health, each other and their com­
munities?
Dan Bueling, 36, who is living with HIV, says
HIV prevention can’t truly be effective unless the
myriad issues important to gay and bisexual men are
also addressed—from coming out to self-esteem to
family issues to economic and racial equity.
“Men have to have a reason to want to live,
and what we have to do is address their overall
place in society,” says Bueling, the HIV primary
prevention services manager for Cascade AIDS
Project.
“That’s what is so appealing about the Gay
City approach,” says Clay. “They talk about things
gay and bi men want to talk about—in the way
men talk about them—but that health and social
service professionals are often reluctant or fearful
of addressing.”
It’s called cultural competency: in a nutshell,
speaking to a community in its own language, with
its own nuances.
Beebe is the program coordinator for CAP’S
Speak to Your Brothers project.
Its mission
__________________
Peer
leaders include
representad ves from
Brother to Brother, a group
for African American gay and
bisexual men; Somos Orgullo
I Latino, a group for Chicano/a
I and ¡Mtino/a gay men, lesbians
I and bisexuals; the Northwest
1 Indian Health Board; and
1 Outside In, which provides an
I array of sendees primarily
i 1 to homeless and street youth.
Breaking the Silence
with Song by the vUU
Portland
Gay
Men’s MH
Chorus.
“We talked with gay
and bisexual men to learn
11^
directly from them what 11/
they needed and we’ve 11
tried to respond,” says IL
Lane.
So far much of the sue- il
cess of the Pathfinder 11
Project and Gay City is 11
gauged by anecdotal evi- ■
dence.
I
“We do surveys and I
questionnaires after all of our I
events,”
says
Leonard. '
“Seventy percent of gay and bi
men say they have walked
away with a greater sense of
community
following
our
events, and there has been a 35
percent reported decline in unprotected anal sex
among these men. While those numbers aren’t sci­
entific, I think they do indicate that we are having
a positive effect.”
ould the Gay City model work here in
Oregon? Perhaps not identically, because
all communities are different, but many
speculate that elements of the project could
tively be adapted and employed in the Portland
metropolitan area.
“But first I think we should ask: What are the
significant barriers to a healthy and prosperous gay
and bi male community here?” Clay says, adding,
“There are so many ways gay and bi males can
provide leadership, and yet we don’t see that in our
major institutions. Partly it’s a matter of attrition.
Men who had previously provided leadership are
no longer alive. Those who have survived are beat­
en down from the constant assault of this disease.
Also, the gay community can tear itself apart,
which may deter people from getting involved in
the first place.”
Clay says the problem is compounded by the
fact that the gay and bi male community is “disas­
sembled.”
Lane adds, “Beginning with Stonewall, it’s
fair to say the lesbian community was able to go
through the natural growth process, but gay men
got thwarted by AIDS. Now we know we have to
integrate AIDS as a part of gay male life and some­
C
model—one that promotes HIV prevention by
putting the power for designing and implementing
interventions directly into the hands of gay and bi
men—is viable.
Kegeles was involved with the MPowerment
Project, which began as an eight-month study in
1991 in Eugene. The project continues today. In
keeping with the empowerment philosophy, the
study, started thanks to a federal grant, relied heav­
ily on the input of young men (18 to 27 years old)
in designing the program activities.
A local core group of young gay and bisexual
men helped decide the project’s name, logo and
image, what social events would be created, and
how to conduct outreach and design outreach
materials, among other things. A community advi­
sory board made up of interested and influential
people within the local gay community and AIDS-
prevention organizations was assembled and
charged with providing ideas and advice to the
core group.
The goal of this community-level HlV-risk-
reduction intervention program was to create a
process by which young gay men communicated
with each other about—and encouraged each other
to practice—safer sex, so that safer sex became the
mutually accepted norm.
“Actively encour-
aging people to be
invoked
____________________F
is to provide "open
and honest HIV-preven-
tion information, options and sup-
port to gay and bisexual men of all communi­
ties, utilizing gay-affirming language and images.”
Its vision, in part, is to recognize and build a
“multicultural community and world where gay
and bisexual men have the self-esteem, compas­
sion and love of self to make the best choices for
effec
­
themselves
in sex and relationships. ”
The project attempts to do that via its
Neighborhood MenTalks, ongoing gatherings that
allow gay and bisexual men to find support and
build friendships with other gay and bi men.
The project also publishes a quarterly bulletin
called HARD (Homo Agenda Readers Digest).
The current bulletin tackles not just HIV preven­
tion per se, but issues surrounding relationships,
dating and same-sex marriage. It’s written in
everyday prose and features enticing graphics,
including a handsome shot of two young men kiss­
ing. That’s cultural competency.
peak in the language of your audience.
Highlight the reasons people should be
invested. Provide tools for further empower­
S
ment.
It can work, says Susan Kegeles, Ph.D., from
the Center for AIDS Prevention Studies at the
University of California at San Francisco.
She points to results from scientific studies
that indicate that utilizing a community-oiganizing
their own lives like
this seems like such common sense, but it’s still a
very cutting-edge concept,” says Kegeles. “It’s
scary for health professionals and others to give up
that power, and it doesn’t happen very much.”
After the intervention, the Center for AIDS
Prevention Studies says there were significant
reductions in the proportions of young men report­
ing unprotected anal intercourse during the two
months prior to evaluation, with men in general,
with boyfriends, and with secondary partners.
‘The MPowerment Project empowered the
young men to consider the program, and therefore
the HIV-prevention message, to be their own. As
they became more invested in the program, they
increasingly seemed to adopt the safer-sex mes­
sage as their own, and this may have led to greater
commitment to diffuse the safer-sex message
through their own community,” the center says.
“It’s about mobilizing folks to see they have a
common interest, of getting men to realize they
can play a vital and active role in their lives rather
than being passive. People don’t necessarily natu­
rally know how to come together like that,” says
Brian Hoop, who was involved in MPowerment
Project before joining Cascade AIDS Project’s
staff a little more than a year ago. And Hoop, 31,
firmly believes it is not only gay and bisexual men
w
f
preter
company,
says, “There really
hasn’t been anything out
there loi 1 .¡lino men In oui
culture there arc a lot of men
who have sex with men but don’t
identify as gay or bi. There are signifi­
cant cultural differences that service providers
haven’t dealt with. We have to have people in our
community who can speak to their own. This is an
opportunity for us to get the skills we need.”
Hoop, Arellano-Barrera and others are very
aware of the criticisms lodged against CAP for
being too white-gay-male-oriented.
“I think this program is a step in the right
direction. It’s only a start, but I think it can be
empowering in that those who are involved can
bring their expertise back to their organizations
and communities. It’s empowering as long as CAP
doesn’t come in and take control and take credit
for everything,” says Arellano-Barrera. “At this
point though. I’m very excited about this project
and it’s been wonderful working with these other
groups. That hasn’t really happened before.”
As for the more informal, yet-to-be-named
group pondering gay/bi men’s community, Clay
says: "What will it look like? Who can say at this
point. This is new for us, and I’m hoping lots of
men come forward to be a part of this. I personal­
ly don’t see obstacles to doing this. All we need are
vision and hope.”
Those interested in information about the fledg­
ling effort to mobilize a gay and bisexual men's
c ommunity in the Portland area may call
232-9338. Note that this number is provisional;
a permanent number will be set up soon.