World AIDS day lecture focuses on black bisexual men

Dr. David Malebranche, assistant professor at Emory University School of Medicine, studies black men on the “down low” – men who identify themselves as heterosexuals but have sex with men on the side and do not tell their female partners.\nIn his World AIDS Day lecture, “Black Bisexual Men and HIV: Time to Think Deeper,” Malebranche spoke about the HIV disparity that exists among black men who have sex with other men to an intrigued audience Thursday in the Indiana Memorial Union’s Dogwood Room. He explained that though they’re often misunderstood, there’s some evidence that these men are contributing to the spread of HIV in both men and women, which is something he’s investigating further in his own study.\nDr. Brian Dodge, associate director of the Center for Sexual Health Promotion at IU, explained why the topic of black bisexual men was chosen for the World AIDS Day lecture.\n“I think this is one of the least understood but most important groups of people who are affected by or infected with HIV,” Dodge said. “Study after study has shown that they’re at significantly higher risk than men who have sex exclusively with men or men who have sex exclusively with women, but very little research or intervention has been done with them.”\nMalebranche is one of the few researchers funded by the National Institutes of Health to study the sexual health of black bisexual men, a group that has recently received much attention in the media.\n“If you look at the media – books from E. Lynn Harris and James Earl Hardy, newspapers, television shows, ‘ER,’ ‘Oprah,’ ‘Law and Order,’ ‘Soul Food’ – all of these have focused on the ‘down low,’” he said.\nWhile black men on the “down low” have received much attention in the media, they have been underrepresented in scientific studies.\n“I worked on a review of three databases looking at articles about bisexual black men and HIV risk,” Malebranche said. “Over a span of 24 years, we found 24 articles and two conference abstracts that actually fit the criteria of what we were using, which is a little sad.” \nMalebranche is concerned about the HIV disparity among black men who have sex with men. The incidence of HIV among these men is up to four times higher than among white or hispanic men who have sex with other men. Black men have a higher rate of infection and are less aware of their condition. According to a Centers for Disease Control study, 67 percent of HIV-positive black men who have sex with men did not know they were infected.\nBlack men on the “down low” have been blamed for spreading HIV/AIDS to their female partners. The rate of infection passed to females from men on the “down low” is unknown, but nonetheless, they are held largely responsible for HIV among black women. For this, Malebranche said, these men have been stigmatized as well as marginalized.\n“No one really explains the story of what this man actually went through or what was going on in his world when he contracted HIV,” Malebranche said. “All the black man is, is a vector of disease. He’s treated like a mosquito that flies around and infects people.”\nMalebranche is challenging this perception of black men who have sex with men in his ongoing, two-year study. Past studies have reached conflicting conclusions about them. A study of these men in Chicago showed that men who don’t disclose their bisexuality are less likely to be HIV-positive and more likely to have protected anal sex with men. A Dallas study showed the opposite, while in Atlanta, research suggested that sexual identity has no bearing on risky sexual activity.\nElizabeth Mooney, adjunct lecturer of sociology at IU-South Bend, described some of the confusion that surrounds black men who have sex with men.\n“We’re seeing women in South Bend who are middle-aged, coming up with HIV and sometimes full-blown AIDS, and they’re getting it from their husbands who are on the ‘down low,’” she said. “And when some social services or physicians get into this, they make stupid statements like ‘Oh, your husband is gay,’ but then she looks at them and says, ‘No, I don’t think so. We have six kids.’”\nEric Dimperio, the facilitator of Bi-Chat, an IU bisexual support and discussion group, said Malebranche’s lecture was important because bisexual issues are often neglected.\n“In a bisexual support group, we often talk about being a minority within a minority group,” he said.