Subject: Fwd: Urgent: Gay Men's Health Summit Announcement
From: [email-masked]
Date: Mon, 26 Apr 1999 21:02:43 EDT

Date: Mon, 26 Apr 1999 18:45:39 +0000
From: Eric Rofes <[email-masked]>
Subject: Urgent:  Gay Men's Health Summit Announcement

***Please post this important announcement to individuals (and list
serves) who might be interested in generating a new level of organizing
and activism around gay men's health.  Send it widely to organizational
lists, activist groups, research lists, medical providers, alternative
health providers, and groups of friends...Thanks much!!!

Join With Us to Launch a Multi-Issue, Multicultural Gay Men's Health
Movement

AN URGENT CALL TO THE BOULDER SUMMIT, JULY 29-AUGUST 1, 1999

We are a group of people eager to see the development of a strong,
visible, politicized gay men's health movement in the United States and
we invite you to join us from July 29 through August 1, 1999 in Boulder,
Colorado, to launch this ambitious effort.

Our motivations for calling on you to join in this effort are diverse.

Some of us have been working in AIDS or gay  men's health for several
decades and are interested in creating a  stronger, more visible
grassroots movement among gay men focused on a range of health
concerns.   While HIV/AIDS remains a central focus for our energies, we
maintain other central concerns such as substance use among gay men,
other sexually-transmitted diseases, and mental health issues.

Others of us are drawn to this summit because we hope to re-energize gay
men in our communities to be actively engaged in political activism,
volunteerism, community life,  and health promotion efforts.  We want to
spend a few days of intense focus on the health of our communities with
colleagues from all over the nation who confront similar challenges and
draw on similar community strengths.

We come from different locations, cultures, generations, and
professions, but  we share common concerns about improving gay men's
health and wellness, strengthening our local communities and
subcultures, and enlisting service providers, activists, health
professionals, researchers, writers and cultural workers in our
efforts.  And all of us are committed to ensuring that gay men under
35--many of whom have never participated in a broadly-defined gay men's
health movement--are central to our efforts in Boulder.

 The summit will include speakers, panels, workshops, and organizing
meetings on a range of topics including, though not limited to:

o  health promotion for gay men of color
o  substance use and abuse
o  the implications which gender and masculinity have for gay men's
health
o  health issues facing older men:  prostate cancer, heart disease, lung
cancer
o  the politics and health issues emerging from circuit parties
o  making young gay men into health advocates
o  model gay men's health projects
o  changes in gay cultures in response to the increasing centrality of
cyberspace
o  sex debates in gay male communities and community health implications

o  the politics and health issues emerging from barebacking
o  a new generation of HIV prevention for gay men
o  rural gay men's health needs
o  tensions between various gay generations
o  mental health issues facing gay men of all colors
o  activism focused on gay men's sexual health and access to
technologies

This is a humble, grassroots organizing effort with ambitious aims.  Our
summit has no big-money sponsors or large organizations leading the
effort.  It is being organized by concerned men and women in various
parts of the country who are handling logistics, program planning,
publicity, and housing.   We are already excited by the support and
interest which has been generated. The organizers of this conference
have chosen a narrow focus on gay men for this summit in order to give
concentrated attention to the special health issues faced by this
population.  We welcome all people motivated to improve the well-being
of gay male communities to participate and we invite programming ideas
focused on any population or subculture identifying as gay men.

Plan now to be an active participant in the Boulder summit.  We aim to
limit the summit to 250 registrants and expect to be at capacity by
June.  Please register now and avoid disappointment.  And make your
housing reservations very soon as we have been able to reserve only a
limited number of rooms and can expand our group reservation once we
have commitments from our core participants.

FOR REGISTRATION AND HOUSING INFORMATION, download materials from the
Boulder County AIDS Project web site at http://www.bcap.org or contact
Mark Beyer at 303-444-6121 or email: [email-masked].  The conference
site is the Regal Harvest House in Boulder and it is wheelchair
accessible.

FOR INFORMATION REGARDING PROGRAMMING AND WORKSHOPS for the summit,
contact Eric Rofes at 415-255-6210 or [email-masked].

FOR PRESS INQUIRIES, contact Kirk Read at 415-487-9305 or
[email-masked].

If you are interested in contributing funds to assist others in
attending this summit, please contact Mark Beyer (above).  If you are
connected to funding sources (foundations, government agencies, affluent
people…) which would like to be a part of igniting a multicultural,
multi-issue gay men's health movement, please put them in touch with
Eric Rofes (above).

Mostly, we want to come together with others who love gay men, see the
strengths and resilience in our subcultures, and also believe
reinvigorated health promotion and collective action on issues of
central concern will reduce a range of illnesses and problems facing our
communities.  We intend to be in Boulder at the end of July to tackle
the challenges facing gay men's communities.  We hope you will join us
there.

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