The National Black Gay Men's Advocacy Coalition (NBGMAC) will hold its annual meeting in Washington Sept. 5-6 to create a legislative agenda advocating increased federal funding for HIV services, programs, and research targeting the US black gay male population. The coalition, which was officially formed in January, has also launched a drive to recruit new members.

"We want individual members as well as health departments. It's going to be a group effort," said Rudy Carn, coalition chairperson. Already signed up is the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, which is donating $10,000 to the effort.

NBGMAC's 14-member executive committee comprises representatives from HIV/AIDS services organizations, health departments and African-American gay groups from around the United States. The impetus for its founding, Carn said, was CDC's 2005 release of a report showing that 46 percent of black gay men studied in five cities - Baltimore, Los Angeles, Miami, New York and San Francisco -- were found to be HIV-positive. This news has not generated "the response that we would have like to have seen from anybody, and that's part of the reason the coalition came into existence," Carn said.

For more information, visit www.nbgmac.org.

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