Detroit LGBT plans winter pride event and anti-stigma campaign

LGBT Detroit, a nonprofit service and advocacy group, received the largest grant in its 27-year history this month.

The $ 294,000 gift from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services will be combined with a second Detroit Department of Health award of $ 36,344 to launch a marketing campaign aimed at reducing the stigma surrounding the world Fight HIV in black and Hispanic communities. The “Togethr” campaign, due to launch across southeast Michigan in 2022, will also promote positive queer sexuality, and will focus on black and Hispanic gay and bisexual men between the ages of 18 and 35. It will include a multi-tiered social media campaign, sex positive community mobilization events, and an anti-stigma tour targeting neighborhoods and university campuses.

LGBT Detroit project manager Tieanna Burton said LGBT people are disproportionately affected by the effects of HIV and stigma even four decades after the first AIDS cases were officially reported.

“If we go into 2022, we will be 40 years since the first case of HIV was recorded in 1981,” said Burton. “We look forward to continued input from the movement as we work to find solutions to neutralize stigma – and thus end the epidemic.”

The campaign also includes four programmed events:

• The Brother-to-Brother Lockdown, which airs on social media, will feature influencers from across the US who are known to involve people in discussions about issues affecting gay men of color.
• The Sex, Hooking Up and The Apps tour focuses on reducing HIV transmission among black gays and bi men and works to disseminate information in vulnerable communities and provides a range of health and support services for those infected with high levels of HIV Risk to individuals as well as those suffering from substance abuse.
• The LGBT Leadership Academy for Mentors and Protégés identifies and develops future LGBTQ leaders and provides professional development, identity support, career development and education on LGBTQ topics.
• Cold As Hell, a Winter Pride event, provides education about the kink culture and highlights men of color in the leather scene and educates people about HIV stigmatization. It will be shot in front of a live studio audience at LGBT Detroit’s Marvin Lee Building in late January 2022, then edited and published on the organization’s website and social media platforms.

“We need to address HIV, social and positive sexual identity issues from as many different angles as possible,” said Jerron Totten, LGBT Detroit social outreach coordinator and legal counsel who leads the campaign. “Our community is broad and diverse, and our messages and approaches must match its many truths in order to be effectively absorbed.”

Curtis Lipscomb, executive director of LGBT Detroit, said the grants represent recognition by state and city health authorities of the need for a comprehensive approach to awareness.

“We couldn’t be more excited,” said Lipscomb. “Our partners in both the Detroit Department of Health and the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services not only understood, but supported and supported our vision of moving our community towards positive, healthier sexuality, while also educating those who who harbor harmful myths against these. We will work closely with experienced people to ensure this campaign addresses the real problems, concerns, discrimination and even violence they face every day. “

More information about the programs and events of “Togethr”: lgbtdetroit.org/together and @lgbtdetroit on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok and LinkedIn.