After the startling news of HIV hikes in Black Men, a new campaign hopes to reach out to the community.
It's called "Testing Makes Us Stronger" and here's the story behind it, from Richard Wolitski, a deputy director in the CDC’s HIV/AIDS Prevention Division:
Testing Makes Us Stronger builds on the strengths of young black gay and bisexual men. This campaign was developed based on extensive input by a panel of 19 black men who have sex with men who are leaders in their community. The CDC then used these recommendations to expand the formative research to develop images and final concept for final campaign with 400 men participating by the end.
We believe that the message of this campaign is affirming. We wanted to show black gay couples who are loving and supportive and, at the same time, we wanted to document a diverse range of strong men in community. We hope to show that their isn’t one idealized form of masculinity but men who represent different forms of strength that come from a place of affirmation.
We do need stronger messaging, but we also need the Black community to get involve more than ever.
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