On Aug. 17, the Black AIDS Institute issued an open letter in which 55 community leaders called for an "all-out mobilization" to fight the HIV/AIDS epidemic. The letter was prompted by a recent CDC study that found 46 percent of the black gay or bisexual men in five major cities were HIV-positive. Of those men who were infected but did not know, two-thirds were black. The study surveyed 1,767 gay and bisexual men in Baltimore, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, and San Francisco.

The letter's signers, community leaders from across the country, expressed frustration that the release of the statistics had not generated more alarm. "There wasn't even a call to action issued by a black gay and lesbian organization. What will it take? How many black gay men have to get infected, get sick and die before we -- not CDC, not the Congressional Black Caucus, not the large AIDS organizations, but us -- mobilize and take action?" the letter asked.

Signers of the letter included Phill Wilson of the Black AIDS Institute (BAI), activist Keith Boykin, producer/director Paris Barclay, and Keith Green of Test Positive Aware Network.

"I think it's going to take black gay men doing some real deep personal work. A lot of us don't identify as black gay men," said Green.

"It would be important if we could impress on younger black gay and bi men to be more aware about what actions they can take to protect themselves," said Justin Hill, also a signer and a University of Chicago student interning this summer at the Los Angeles-based BAI.

Green and Hill both endorsed the tone of the letter, which said in part, "We must be willing to hold ourselves accountable and responsible for our own survival."

Green noted that he has been talking with officials of the Chicago Department of Public Health about larger efforts to target the overall health needs of African-American men.

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