Ralph Garcia’s friends didn’t know he had AIDS until he died. He didn’t want to tell them he was gay.
“There’s many stories like that, where men don’t seek care because they don’t feel they can be honest,” said Gina Thompson, administrator of the HIV program at Bushwick’s Wyckoff Heights Medical Center. “Many people are dying right now because of that stigma.”
Despite gains in both treatment and perception, lingering fears against being labeled gay or HIV-positive are hindering any further decreases in the high diagnosis rates of this majority Latino area. Gay youth who are shunned by their families are particularly at risk. Medical providers, social workers and Bushwick residents are combating homophobia to lower HIV transmission in the neighborhood.
