Our Work

The Chicago Black Gay Men’s Caucus’ (CBGMC) creative and collaborative programming promotes HIV testing, routine mental/physical health screenings and risk reduction practices. Each year we make over 1,500 contacts with Black gay and bisexual men in the Chicagoland area, improving their health and wellness by engaging health care and service providers, mentors and one another.

We design programs and pursue partnerships that reach a wide cross-section of our communities and reflect our social/economic diversity. In our work, we use many different names to describe ourselves and our community, such as gay, bisexual, same gender loving (SGL), down low (DL), and/or queer. Our partners also use the term MSM (men who have sex with men) to describe our community.

Programs

Love Fest

Our annual “edu-tainment” summer festival provides hundreds of Black gay/bisexual men with HIV/STI screening and outreach, education and referrals to partner organizations. Performers are invited to entertain throughout the day. Recreation and physical health activities are also set up.

Love Fest has taken place every year since 2005 in Jackson Park (6401 S. Stony Island Ave.) on Chicago’s South Side, a popular gathering place for many in our community.

You can still show your support for LoveFest and for CBGMC! Visit our NEW online store and purchase LoveFest 2012 souvenir t-shirts and other cool items!

Conversations with the Caucus

Our quarterly community forum strengthens the work of service providers and engages our community in advocating for our health. Forums typically resemble a day conference, with physicians, researchers, policy leaders and community members networking, educating and brainstorming around various topics. Our vision is to enhance local efforts to develop public policies, initiatives and programs to decrease new HIV infections and increase community health outcomes. Previous topics have included:

  • Citywide HIV/STI Prevention and Treatment Guidelines for Black MSM
  • Impact of the National HIV/AIDS Strategy on Black Gay/Bisexual Men in Chicago
  • Bridging Gaps between HIV Research and BMSM
  • HIV prevention among BMSM youth
  • Black Gay Men, Mental Health, Spirituality

Supper Club

This program brings together professionals who work with Black men who have sex with men to socialize, network about and brainstorm ways to address the HIV epidemic. Topics have included engaging HIV epidemiology, testing, linkages to care, antiretroviral therapy, biomedical prevention and the development of a comprehensive resource directory specifically for the Black MSM community.

Attendees included infectious disease physicians and researchers, as well as executives, case managers, program directors, policy leaders and medical service providers representing more than 30 Chicago-area agencies.

Conversations: Retreat-Style

Our quarterly weekend retreats are spaces dedicated to Black gay/bi men to discuss HIV/STI risk management, intimate partner relationships and positive self-image/identity.

Our retreats are based on the CDC’s evidence-based intervention Many Men, Many Voices (3MV), which is designed specifically for Black men who are romantically/sexually/emotionally attracted to other men. This model addresses cultural/social norms, sexual relationship dynamics, the social influences of racism and homophobia, and increases in national HIV/STI rates.

This series links participants to ongoing social gatherings.

Paragon House/Ball Sexual Health Initiative

Ball events that promote HIV awareness and demonstrate the talent in our communities address many of the barriers to general and sexual health care faced by gay, bisexual and transgender people of color within house/ball communities.

Our partners are University of Chicago Medical Center and Access Community Health Network.

Event Partnerships

We collaborate with advocates, providers and other allies to raise awareness among our community and address social issues that impacting their daily lives. Past events include:

  • Pre-screen of THE SKINNY with Q&A (with several community partners)
  • Civil Unions – Remixed (with Affinity, Lambda Legal and the Chicago Urban League)
  • “Stop Transmitting Silence” (with several community partners)
  • A Mirror to the Heart: Breaking the Stigma around HIV/AIDS (with Haymarket Center)
  • PrEP: Prevention Revolution or Magical Thinking? (with several community partners)
  • United in HIV (with Cyon Flare and Rae-Lewis Thornton)

Culturally Competent HIV Testing

We assist with regular testing that targets the hardest to reach and the most in need within our community.

Focus Groups

These feedback forums help us learn directly from the experiences of Black gay/bisexual men across Chicago to design our programming to better meet their needs.

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