From: MShernoff@aol.com Date: Mon, 26 Apr 1999 21:02:43 EDT Subject: Fwd: Urgent: Gay Men's Health Summit Announcement Date: Mon, 26 Apr 1999 18:45:39 +0000 From: Eric Rofes 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: summit@bcap.org. 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 eerofes@aol.com. FOR PRESS INQUIRIES, contact Kirk Read at 415-487-9305 or KirkRead@aol.com. 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. [Deleted e-mail list. filemanager@qrd.org] List in formation: to sign onto the list, send an email to eerofes@aol.com