On Saturday, the predominantly black Christian Chapel CME Church in Far North Dallas hosted a daylong health fair that focused on HIV/AIDS awareness. The fair offered free HIV screening and activities for teens and children.

Keynote speaker Shelly Lindahl told attendees that although blacks represent just 13 percent of the U.S. population, black men were 41 percent of all men living with HIV/AIDS in 2005, according to a CDC report based on 33 states. Black women were 64 percent of HIV/AIDS cases.

“HIV does not care how old you are and does not care about the color of your skin,” said Lindahl, a physician’s assistant. “If you have had sex without a condom one time, you need to get tested.”

“Sex is not something that we talk about publicly,” but if that does not change people will continue dying, said Deneen Robinson, a Dallas-based HIV educator.

Robinson and Lindahl said too much emphasis is being placed on “the down-low,” or men in heterosexual relationships who secretly have sex with other men. Among black women with HIV, about 25 percent contracted it through IV drug use or sex with an IV drug user, said Lindahl.

“This isn’t about being on the down low,” Lindahl said. “This isn’t about the prison population. This isn’t about being downtrodden. It’s about how all these things are coming together to create the perfect storm.… The silence is what’s killing the community.”

“The church is in an amazing position to have an impact on HIV in the community,” said Lindahl. “The church is a cornerstone of the African-American community.”

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