You are welcome to you opinion, but realize your claim (and the one by the public health official) is not able to be proven. If you read the whole article you will find this quote:

“Research has refuted the claim that black men living the down low lifestyle are driving the spread of HIV, Ford said, but the perception that this is the case remains, even in the epidemiology community.”

Even public health epidemiologists who are suppose to rely on facts and data before making claims like this have been guilty of falling into the old stereotypes of black and gay men.

This is the point of my post.

I have and do work in public health. I have seen the way this “myth” of the African-America down low bi-sexual man as being responsible for increased rates of HIV and AIDS in African-American women develop from the Oprah type talk shows and turn into official CDC policy and prevention strategies. With NO proof or data showing this was happening.

So, my point is that even our “professional public health” people fall into this trap. The trap is set with racist and homophobic “bait” of our society.

It is troubling that we still swallow this stuff hook, line and sinker with no critical thought.

keep up the good work and keep on educating the world.

Thanks for making us all think for ourselves.

Dr. Julie Louise Gerberding
Director
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
1600 Clifton Road
Atlanta, Georgia 30333

Re: “Down Low”(DL)- “Men on the Down Low”

Dear Dr. Gerberding:

I write this letter to inform you that I have been very concerned over the use of the term “down low” (DL) especially since it appears on the CDC’s website. As an openly gay black man who has worked in the HIV/AIDS arena over the past 25 years I must tell you that it appears that the CDC is engaging in pitting black gay men and black women against on another (Read your down low references). In consultation with my black straight woman friend in the city of Chicago who is an epidemiologist, it is important that we lift our collective voices and speak cogently on this issue. The term “down low” should have never been embraced by the CDC period.
Disposition of Two Community AIDS Activist
The “Down Low” is not a behavioral scientific terminology or nomenclature. The term will not enhance the capacity to implement an effective intervention at the state and local levels, to reduce the spread of HIV and STDs, and to promote healthy behaviors. The term does not have core competencies that a community will be able to use in any form to find the men that CDC is using the term to describe. How do you find someone that does not want to be found? The ongoing complexities and the never-ending classification have not helped to solve this continuum of the pandemic.
There are no epidemiological modes of transmission that fully capture the phenomenon of the term “Down Low”. The question is why is it being embraced by the CDC and used on its website as if is a mode of transmission or a structural intervention. It is clearly a slang term and has no place in science. African American gay males should be deeply concerned when the term on a CDC website states the following:
“The term has most often been associated with African American men. The term is often used to describe the behavior of men who have sex with other men as well as women and who do not identify as gay or bisexual. These men may refer to themselves as being “on the down low,” “on the DL,” or “on the low down.” What is the behavior that the term is being used to describe?
You go on to say. “Although the term originated in the African American community, the behaviors associated with the term are not new and not specific to black men who have sex with men.” Again, please describe the behaviors associated with the term?
Stigma and discrimination are frequently a point of discussion in the HIV community. Terms like the “Down Low” only gives credence to the already marginalized populations which means we are falling into the same “trick bag” that we have been fighting to avoid for so many years.
Based on CDC’s website you can get HIV:
• By having unprotected sex- sex without a condom- with someone who has HIV. The virus can be in an infected person’s blood, semen, or vaginal secretions and can enter your body through tiny cuts or sores in your skin, or in the lining of your vagina, penis, rectum, or mouth.
• By sharing a needle and syringe to inject drugs or sharing drug equipment used to prepare drugs for injection with someone who has HIV.
• From a blood transfusion or blood clotting factor that you got before 1985. (But today it is unlikely you could get infected that way because all blood in the United States has been tested for HIV since 1985.)
• Babies born to women with HIV also can become infected during pregnancy, birth, or breast-feeding.
There is no mentioned of the “Down Low” as a way to contract HIV? The term is offensive, not science based and should be removed from your website immediately with all of its references. CDC has now grown to become the nation’s lead public health agency, whose mission is to “promote health and quality of life by preventing and controlling disease, injury, and disability”. This slang term is not conducive in reference to the CDC’s mission. CDC’s research and prevention-based efforts should be about demographics, risk behaviors and healthy promotion for stopping the spread of HIV. Therefore, cease and desist the use and the reference of the phraseology “Down Low”- – “Men on the Down Low”!

Thanking you in advance for your attention to this matter. I look forward to your sincere understanding and cooperation.
Sincerely,

L. Lorenzo Williams
CEO/ President
CC: Members of the Congressional Black Caucus