Gay Men's HIV/STD Taskforce
Background of the development of the Manifesto
The Gay Men's HIV/STD Taskforce was formed in the fall of 2001 in response to recommendations from the December, 2000 Seattle Gay Men's Health Summit. The Task Force was formed to provide community-level input and direction for efforts to re-invigorate local HIV and STD prevention efforts for gay and bisexual men.
In 2003, the Task Force adopted the following mission statement: "To support and guide ongoing, effective and comprehensive prevention responses to HIV and STDs among MSM in the Seattle area."
In its 2003 work plan, the Task Force gave highest priority to the following four items:
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Critically analyzing the theory and assumptions underlying prevention/intervention approaches and content;
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Critically analyzing and evaluating agencies' effectiveness in getting prevention message to clients,
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Identifying new prevention messages or shifts in messages;
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Retaining the elements of moral and ethical responsibility in the language of prevention messages. |
In the spring of 2003, a work group of the Task Force was formed to address #1 above (i.e. critically analyzing the theory & assumptions that underlying prevention approaches and content). Early on, the workgroup decided that the moral/ethical components of prevention were the source of least understanding, most disagreement, and therefore the object of greatest need for increased understanding. The working group conducted background research on "sexual ethics," and in May 2003 hosted a workshop on Ethics for the entire Task Force. Christine Caron Gebhardt, a professor of Medical Ethics at Seattle University, presented the workshop.
The idea for publishing a "Community Manifesto" grew out of follow-up discussions after the Ethics workshop. At subsequent meetings, the Task Force identified the following parameters for the manifesto:
- Definition: The document would define our demands, values, and vision for a healthy Gay community (adopted July 21, 2003, meeting of the ad hoc working group)
- The purpose(s): To build an HIV responsive community. To promote ideas that will help people feel supported. To distribute a statement of values that help establish Gay community norms. To promote the idea that we should treat each other with value as human beings instead of as objects. To issue a call to action that "micro-organisms don't care about us, but we can care about ourselves." (adopted August 4, 2003)
- The audience: Gay & bisexual men, and all men who have sex with men. (adopted August 4, 2003)
- Distribution: 1. Release the Manifesto through a press conference with community supporters, 2. Publish the Manifesto as full-page ads in local targeted media, along with a list of the names & organizational affiliations of Task Force members who endorse the content, 3. Use the ads and web-postings to solicit additional people to "sign-on" as endorsers of the Manifesto, 4. Re-publish the Manifesto as paid ads just before World AIDS Day, and include the full list of endorsers as a means of demonstrating growing, grass-roots support for the principles outlined in the document. (adopted September 15, 2003, meeting of the ad hoc working group)
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