Copy of the slides from the closing plenary at the 2008 National Gay Men's Health Summit in Seattle. October 2008.

1. Thank You to All
Participants of the
2008 National Gay Men’s Health
Summit!

2. And of course…
A super special thank you to
Gay City!!!

3. We’ve come a long way…
ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE GAY MEN'S HEALTH MOVEMENT: 1999-2008
New organizations focusing on gay men's health- Safeguards (Philadelphia), Gay City (Seattle), Sexual
Health Exchange, Montana Gay Men's Task Force, Fenway, Palm Springs Gay Men's Health, Southern Gay
Men's Health Project, Gay Men's Health UK, National LGBT Tobacco Control Network, Gay Men's Health
Wiltshire and Swindon, England, Warning Paris, Gay Men's Health Initiative APLA, GMH Center Melbourne,
Xtra West Vancouver, GMH AIDS Council of South Australia, the Institute of Gay Men's Health (APLA AND
GMHC), dozens of Regional summits internationally (southeast regional summit nov. 7-9, 2008), San
Francisco Gay Men's Community initiative, Magnet Center in SF, numerous crystal meth task
forces.Growth of programs in existing orgs: Fenway, Mazzoni Center Phila., LA Center, Howard
Brown.Research and Books: Michael Scarce's Smearing the Queer, Daniel Wolfe's Men Like Us (GMHC
guide), Eric Rofes's numerous books and articles, Tony Valenzuela's writings on gay men's
health, Advocate guide to gay men's health and wellness, numerous guides and articles from GLBT Health
Access Project at JRI in Boston, articles in NEJM, JAMA and AJPH (Stewart Landers associate editor),
Mobilization around particular gmh issues: hepatitis vaccination, rectal microbicides, access to gay
friendly health care. Mobilization in response to poor media coverage of gay men's health issues: MRSA
scare, supervirus scare in NY, crystal meth.Outreach work to bisexual men, gay men of color, gay-
identified transmen, and a myriad of allies.Gay Men's Health Summits- Boulder, Raleigh, Salt Lake City,
Seattle—and sister LGBTI summits- Boulder, Cambridge, Philadelphia, (Chicago)and regional summits Gay
Men's Health Leadership Academy—over 200 gay men and allies have attended one of the programs in the
last five years.121,000 results for the query quot;gay men's healthquot; in google – and a powerful presence of
blogs—including Lifelube and its taking the lead on the development of a gay men's health agenda, Trevor
Hoppe's blog, and the leadership academy's blog.Government funding for gay men's health projects in
numerous states and internationally.The hundreds of thousands of gay men internationally who, in the last
decade, have benefited from a new focus on gay men's holistic health.

4. The 2009 Gay Men’s Health
Agenda

5. Here’s what we’re going to do
• The 2009 Gay Men’s Health Agenda
• How feedback was solicited, collected
• Who participated
• Ideas, themes, proposals put forth
• Group brainstorm - here
• Accountability - now
• Next steps – tomorrow, and the next
day, and the day after that…

6. CLICK
http://gaymenshealth.ning.com/

7. Mark it in lipstick
• Creating Change
– Denver, January 28- Feb. 1, 2009
• Lesbian Health Summit
– San Francisco, March 6-9, 2009
• Trans Health Conference
– Philadelphia, June 11-13, 2009
• LGBTI Health Summit
and Bisexual pre-Summit
– Chicago, August, 2009

8. And what about the next
GMHS?
No time like yesterday to
start planning…..

9. “The gays really kick ass”

10. The 2009 Gay Men’s Health Agenda
The M.O.
• Ask
• Listservs
• Ask
• Encourage
• Plead, pimp
• Ask
• Publish

11. Who has participated to date?
• Stewart Landers • Carl Schmid
• Rebecca Haag • Diana Skoll
• Michael Scarce • Michael Cook
• Tony Valenzuela • Kali Lindsey
• Jesse Pack • Charles Stephens
• Mark Ishaug • Fred Swanson
• Lee Carson • Kaijson Noilmar
• George Ayala • Southern AIDS
• Walt Senterfitt Coalition
• Lance Toma • Randall Ellis

12. comments
“I'd like to imagine for 2009 a gay men's health movement
where we create two lists: Healthy and Unhealthy, to discuss
all the ways we live our lives that fall under each category.
Then I'd like us, along with media, researchers and activists
to reflect in our conversations and work the substance of
those lists. We might be surprised by what we find.”

13. “I think it is very naive to think that the larger
society, even if we do have a major regime
change in the US over the next several
years, will be very sympathetic to our
demanding totally non-judgmental and free
healthcare for persons who want to
practice unsafe anal sex and consider it a
right to ignore what we now clearly know
about the health consequences of
unprotected anal sex and
methamphetamine use…”

14. You’re next

15. But first
Key themes, ideas, proposals
• HIV
– National AIDS Strategy
– Stop de-gaying HIV/AIDS
– Reverse HIV immigration ban
– No mo “No Promo Homo” [Section 2500 of the federal
Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. Section 300ee(b), (c), and (d))]
– Natl watchdog coalition – monitor, respond
to overly aggressive, inherently deceitful,
and increasingly desperate HIV prevention
efforts - stopwidespread tactics of racism,
misogyny, blame, shame, fear,
stigmatization

16. Key themes, ideas, proposals
• Policy
– Create Office of LGBT Health charged with
developing and implementing a holistic,
community-driven health agenda
– Federal anti-discrimination legislation similar
to EU which protects not just in employment
but also in provision of goods, services
– End military ban, gay marriage
– Structural issues (poverty, homelessness,
hunger, lack of access)

17. Key themes, ideas, proposals
• Research
– Standardized national bi-annual LGBT health
survey
– New prev tech
– Promote research for gay men, MSM not in
large urban gay-friendly centers
– Research for gay/MSM of color

18. Key themes, ideas, proposals
• Universal health care
– Equal access to healthcare, treatment for all
age, gender, sexual identity, immigration
status
– Cultural, linguistic competence of providers
– Eliminate disparities in health access and
stigma associated with AIDS, drug use, and
homosexuality

19. Key themes, ideas, proposals
• Sex Ed
– Stop funding abstinence-only education
– Nationwide comprehensive sex education
that includes info that affirms sexual
orientations and gender identities should be
available to all youth

20. Key themes, ideas, proposals
• Social marketing, communication
– Anti-homophobia campaign
– Anti-bullying
– Nurture, support art
– Safe, expressive place for community
dialogue
– Better utilization of internet, digital tech
• GMH website!
• wiki!
• Virtual GMH summit
• Market GMH snazzier!

22. CLICK
http://gaymenshealth.ning.com/

23. Didja mark it in lipstick?
• Creating Change
– Denver, Jan 28 – Feb 1, 2009
• Lesbian Health Summit
– San Francisco, Mar 6 – 9, 2009
• Trans Health Conference
– Philadelphia, June 11 – 13, 2009
• LGBTI Health Summit and
Bisexual pre-Summit
– Chicago, August, 2009

24. Your turn
• A webbadge about the gay men’s health
movement that could be put on myspace,
facebook, etc. And click to NING!
• Gay marriage-- support passing gay marriage
laws-- an access to health insurance.
• Mental health access
• Approach the entire gay men’s health agenda
from a place of love. Infuse love.

25. Your turn
• More of a mentorship of queer youth and
not just around disease.
• Healthy families. Create/Sustain
• Use referrals-- GLMA referral page, other
referral sites. Gayhealth.com
• Space for/ways to deal with spirituality.
Make room for many expressions of
spirituality.

26. Your turn
• Access and advocacy for finding funding
streams that promote holistic health efforts.
• Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence and Radical
Faeries taking on the agenda (through
leadership)
• Communication through men-- male-to-male
intimacy.
• Intergenerational mentorship multi-generational-
- access to a Summit-type community on the
local level.

27. Your turn
• Proactive public statements, activities-- proactive
agenda around issues. National press action.
Set our own agenda and push it forward.
• Work on older HIV positive guys- the health
issues faced.
• Retirement for older people
• Structure/broader leadership -- expand the
leadership circle .

28. Your turn
• Asset-based approach taken seriously? Take a
serious concrete inventory of our assets--
deliberate strategies for how we leverage our
assets to deal with the deficits.
• Creating foundation/endowment to support work
that others will not support.
• Encourage local planning councils or funding
bodies to create opportunities for innovation.

29. Your turn
• Technology comes from a place of privilege-
there are a lot of queer men who don’t have
access to the technologies-- and may never see
them. We need to reach them one-on-one.
• More dialogue on the role of nutrition.
• Buddy system between big, well-funded
organizations and rural organizations that are
less well funded. Important to hear ideas from
the whole nation (and internationally)
• Buy-in from gay media-- having to participate

30. Your turn
• Call for an anti-homophobia campaign-
homophobia affects different people in
different ways (class, race, ethnicity,
geography, bio gender, chosen gender)--
must be mindful that the various forums
that we articulate campaigns in that all of
those people are there at the table to
match response to unique needs.

31. Your turn
• Let’s identify the Q in LGBTQ-- what are the
needs of the Q
• Really being mindful of history prior to 1999--
learn from lessons and mistakes of prior
movements.
• Remember how to be poor in the movement
• Homelessness among LGBTQ people
• Push for more shelters that are welcoming to
LGBT people

32. Your turn
• What workshops drew people? Why?
Why not? Opportunities to talk about
things that can’t be talked about
elsewhere.
• Why don’t we use the structure that is
already there and create more influence in
that structure.

33. Your turn
• We need to accept, acknowledge, and
celebrate the messiness of our work.
• Written feedback to presenters- evals for
every session and feedback for overall
conference.
• If the Summit outlives its usefulness, it can
pass on.

34. Your turn
• None of us have universal experiences.

35. Next Steps
• No promo homo is a neo-Nazi type legislation--
perhaps organizing allies to get rid of this
horrible law.
• Technology-- a techno mentoring program--
each one teach one.
• Set up a phone call for about a month from now.
Announced on Ning site. Commit to bi-monthly
calls to move the work forward. Identify/Prioritize

36. Next Steps
• Task force of people who have been
involved to edit the agenda. A
combination of attributes/values and then
there are concrete legislative/policy
proposals. Task force should work
completely. We are at an urgent moment.
The work has started.

37. Next Steps
• Skepticism of organizations- some
warranted, some not. After preamble is
developed, that there be a meeting with
national LGBT leaders and that the
document be issued early in the year as a
platform with groups having signed on.
• Don’t have it be divided by class and race.
Must represent men of color.

38. Next Steps
• Sign on document
• We have until March when there will be a
new federal budget. We are at a very
serious place.
• We are individuals within the movement--
members of the community before
organizational members. If you want to
see something,make it happen.

39. Next Steps
• Own the word anarchic.
• Taking action with GLAAD-- phone
meeting before the end of the month.