 But what's even more striking is not just the disproportionate amount of gay bisexual men that are diagnosed, but the disparity among different ethnicities. Hey everyone, Raif Derrazy here, and today I want to talk about gay men and HIV AIDS. Why am I singling out just gay men? Because Sunday, September 27th, is National Gay Men's HIV AIDS Awareness Day. Hashtag NGMHAAD. So in 2008, the National Association of People with AIDS decided to create this awareness day to highlight the disproportionate impact that HIV AIDS has on gay men in the US. So in honor and light of this special day, I decided I wanted to do a little research and see what the statistics are for gay men in the US who are living with HIV AIDS. Okay, so all the statistics that are listed on the CDC website in relation to this day actually include both gay men and bisexual men. So I'm not sure what the thinking is on that. If they're like, well, it's basically the same thing, we'll lump them together. Or what's going on with that? We, I of course, acknowledge that gay men and bisexual men are in fact two very different things in the LGBTQ plus spectrum. But for some reason, the statistics that are provided to me by the CDC include gay men and bisexual men. So we'll roll with it. So the reality is in the US, a staggering amount of people that are newly diagnosed with HIV AIDS are in fact gay bisexual men. In fact, that number is 69% in 2018, which is more than two thirds. And that's crazy. I didn't know that it was that high. Yeah. But what's even more striking is not just the disproportionate amount of gay bisexual men that are diagnosed, but the disparity among different ethnicities. So that's even more striking to me. And by far, by far, the HIV AIDS epidemic impacts black African American men the most. So for example, the statistics are from 2018, 37% of gay bisexual men that were diagnosed were black folks in the US. That's a lot. That's a lot. Considering the next highest ethnic group were Latinos at 30%, whites at 27% and then Asians at 3% and lower there. So the top three are black, Latin X, and well, I shouldn't say Latin X, because the CDC lists that as Latino. So maybe they just haven't caught up with common terms, or maybe there is a distinction between what they're referencing as Latino and Latin X. Anyway, so I'm going to go with what they're saying, 37% black, 30% Latino, and 27% white. It's really interesting that once again, there is an epidemic that impacts minority groups disproportionately more than it does whites. And we can see that with COVID that, you know, I was just listening to NPR today and black men are disproportionately way more likely to die from COVID-19 than their Latin X and white counterparts. So that's a really striking difference. And I want to take this time to talk about that a little bit and kind of just, I don't know, ponder that issue because I don't think it's any one thing necessarily that's contributing to that. I do think that there's systemic racism. I definitely that plays a part. I think that there is community distrust in black and Latino communities towards healthcare, especially if it's connected to the government at all, especially with the Latino community, you could understand as it relates to immigration and being undocumented and the risks that may be there or not. They're just the perceived risks, I guess is what I'm trying to say. And then with the black community, just the distrust of the US government, also healthcare, you know, I recently found out actually about the Tuskegee experiments that were done on black men in this country, purposely infecting black men with syphilis and letting them go on live about their lives without knowing about it. And as a result, suffering a lot of damage to their health. And then, I mean, and that's that to me was something that was like insane, like experimenting on our own people and in such a racist way. So I get it, there are there are real threats like that that happen. And then there's the distrust of anything really related to the US government, because we don't have a great track record of ensuring that our black brothers and sisters are treated equally and protected from racism and discrimination. And that racism and discrimination appears even in the healthcare system. And people not getting equal treatment, whether that's unconscious bias, or it's outright direct racism, it's a problem. And also, when people are suspicious, they're not going to want to go to a doctor or a healthcare clinic to get taken care of, because they're suspicious. And so when people stay away, then that then that creates a huge problem when it comes to healthcare. And if there's an epidemic going on, not only that, but we all know, most of us, I hope we should all know in the US that our healthcare system is essentially broken. And prices are sky high, premiums are sky high, medication is unaffordable. It's just a giant flipping mess. When you take that into account, and then you understand that there are a lot of minorities that are making less money than the average white person, comparably, there's disparity there in income, income disparity is huge in the US. And it's only increasing, it's only growing, especially with this pandemic, that divide is only going to become more accentuated, not having financial stability equals not being proactive in seeking healthcare and taking care of ourselves. So it's partly coming from the side of the government and healthcare, and then it's also coming from black Latino communities, not having the means, not having the ability, the transportation to go there, the information, the financials to be able to afford healthcare, to get all coming together, creating this super shit storm of what we're seeing in our statistics, which is that so many more minorities are being diagnosed with HIV AIDS. And that's really sad for our HIV positive gay and bisexual men in the US. And so we need more representation, we need more visibility for these minority groups. Because we know that when we see visibility role models and media in literature, that that affects the psyche in a positive way to be able to see yourself to identify to understand that you are worthy and you are a valuable part of our community. And we need to address those communities, especially now and provide them with the resources and the help and the support. By the way, for those of you who supported me for AIDS Walk LA, thank you so much. That's exactly what I was trying to do with that. I had a fundraising goal of $1,000. We ended up bringing in over 1800, which is amazing. That was my first fundraising experience. It was awesome. Thank you so much for all of you who gave me your generosity. That was it was really touching and incredible. And I know that those resources are going to go right back into the to the underserved communities here in LA. So that's a way that we can really tangibly affect positive change in our own communities. So but this is something that we need to talk about more because it's a problem. It's not okay. It can't be the status quo and it needs to be changed. It's only going to get worse. So part of that is just shedding light on it and acknowledging it, realizing that it's there. And then next steps come after that what those are. Exactly. I don't know, but I'm going to be pondering this. I'm going to be thinking about it more, especially with Black Lives Matter really shed a light on a lot of these inequalities and disparities in our country that I just was kind of honestly ignorant about. And I'm embarrassed to say that, but it's the truth. So it's our imperative to educate ourselves and to stay linked in with everything that's going on around us as tough as that can be sometimes because the anxiety of it all can be overwhelming. It can be a burden. And so it's easy to fall into a rhythm where you just want to check out and go into escapism land and watch a good movie and TV and video games and all that jazz. But I think we can find a healthy balance where we stay tapped in, we do our due diligence, educate ourselves, affect positive change in our communities, vote, vote, vote, and also set time aside for our mental and emotional well-being. All right. That's all I have for you guys today. Please let me know in your comments what you think about these statistics and things. I'm going to include the links to that. And there's a lot more statistics. I just barely scraped the surface. I'll include that in the info box below. Like this video if you liked it. Subscribe if you haven't already. And I will see you guys soon. Cheers.