News Release

Black men ‘on the down low’
topic of conference speech

By LYNNE K. DEGITZ
UNC Diversity and Multicultural Affairs

CHAPEL HILL – Dr. David Malebranche of Emory University will discuss black men’s health and concepts of masculinity in a speech Wednesday (Oct. 12) at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

A specialist in black men’s health, Malebranche will focus on how ideas of masculinity among black men who don’t identify themselves as gay but have sex with men – said to be "on the down low" – influence sexual behavior and risk for HIV.

The speech, at 1 p.m. in Room 3413 of the Frank Porter Graham Student Union on South Road, will be the keynote address for a free, public conference originated by the student group Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgendered-Straight Alliance.

The conference, "Standing at the Crossroads: Life at the Intersection of LGBT Culture," is part of Coming Out Week, an annual event inspired by a 1987 march on Washington for gay and lesbian equality. Other events during the week are listed at www.unc.edu/glbtsa.

"Our goal for this program is to offer an opportunity for learning and reflection about race, gender, sexuality and health," said Dr. Cookie Newsom, director for diversity education and assessment at UNC and one of the program organizers. "All members of the community are welcome to participate in this event."

The conference also will include four panel discussions at 2:30 p.m., repeated at 3:45 p.m.:

• HIV/AIDS health issues, with Dr. Lisa Hightow, Dr. Peter Leone and Justin Smith of the UNC School of Medicine’s Division of Infectious Diseases. Leone also is medical director of the HIV-STD Prevention and Care Branch of the N.C. Division of Public Health;
• The work of the North Carolina Men’s Health Initiative, a project of the N.C. Division of Public Health, led by Phyllis Gray of the HIV/STD Prevention and Care Branch of the division;
• Religion and lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans-gendered life, with Devetta Holman Nash of the UNC Center for Healthy Student Behaviors and Chimi Boyd of the Carolina Women’s Center; and
• Student dialogue on race, sexuality and color, facilitated by Dean Blackburn of the UNC Division of Student Affairs.

At UNC, Malebranche will focus on the implications of different concepts of masculinity for public health and HIV prevention strategies.

In 2003, he was awarded a three-year cooperative agreement with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to study the influence or racial, sexual and masculine identities on the HIV risk assessment, testing practices and sexual behaviors of black men who have sex with men.

An assistant professor of medicine at Emory, Malebranche also supervises health care providers-in-training at the Urgent Care Center at Grady Hospital in downtown Atlanta and sees patients at the Ponce Infectious Disease Center, an AIDS clinic in Atlanta.

His research has been published in The Annals of Internal Medicine, The American Journal of Public Health, Health Affairs and the Journal of the National Medical Association. His writing also has appeared in popular media including Arise Magazine, Code, Atlanta Magazine, HIV Plus, Rolling Out, The Southern Voice and The Village Voice.

"Dr. Malebranche has been at the forefront of research on black men and a leader in providing a more complex view of ‘men on the down low,’ " Newsom said. "He is a nationally known expert who specializes in HIV/AIDS prevention research and understanding connections between culture and behavior."

Recent books have fueled awareness of African-American men who have sex with men but do not identify themselves as gay or share their sexual history with their female partners. One result: the spread of HIV and AIDS not only among black men, but also to their female partners who don’t know about their secret lives.

J.L. King, the author of "On the Down Low: A Journey into the Lives of ‘Straight’ Black Men Who Sleep with Men," was a guest on "Oprah!", and "Law and Order" aired an episode that dealt with the topic. Keith Boykin addressed the subject in his book "Beyond the Down Low: Sex, Lies and Denial in Black America." Boykin, a former Clinton White House aide, is a lawyer, author, activist and syndicated columnist.

The UNC conference is sponsored by the Center for Healthy Student Behaviors, the Carolina Women’s Center, Diversity and Multicultural Affairs in the Office of the Provost, the Office of the Dean of Students, the School of Medicine’s Division of Infectious Diseases/Project Style and the School of Public Health.

For more information, see www.unc.edu/diversity or contact Diversity and Multicultural Affairs at (919) 843-5525.

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Contacts: Lynne Degitz, Diversity and Multicultural Affairs, (919) 843-6085, degitz@unc.edu; Julian E. Wooten, jewooten@email.unc.edu.