Ads on LIRR target African-American homophobia

In between ads for TV shows and clothes on the Long Island Rail Road is a different kind of message. These ads feature pictures of young African-American men with their families, at church and on the basketball court. At the top of each poster are the words, "I am gay."

The Bay Shore-based Long Island GLBT Services Network sponsored the ads with a $37,000 grant from the state health department. David Kilmnick, chief executive of the group, said he hopes the ads will start a conversation within black communities about homosexuality and homophobia. "This is the first time there's this visible of a campaign and so widespread across the entire Island," he said. "It's in your face in a positive way. . . . It's talking about, 'We're gay and this is our home and this is our community.' "

Dale Anthony Edmonston, an African-American AIDS activist from Hempstead, said homophobia in the black community has had disastrous results for gay black Long Islanders. "In the African-American community, it's taboo to talk about gays and lesbians," he said. "Many members of the African-American community have family members who are gay and lesbian."

African-Americans have the highest rates of HIV and AIDS among any racial group on Long Island: 809.4 out of every 100,000 blacks on Long Island are infected with the virus, compared with 317.1 out of every 100,000 Hispanics and 94.9 out of every 100,000 whites, said the state department of health.

In addition, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that black men who have sex with men account for the largest number of new cases of HIV and AIDS among blacks nationally.

"HIV/AIDS continues to be a major health concern for all New Yorkers, but especially gay African-American men," said Jeffrey Hammond, a spokesman for the health department. "The campaign will help to reduce the stigmas that often create barriers for African-American gay men to seek testing and treatment."

The ads began this month at nine LIRR stations, on trains and buses, and across a trestle in West Babylon. The MTA, which operates the LIRR, said it has received two complaints from people offended by the message.

The Rev. Reginald Tuggle of Memorial Presbyterian Church in Roosevelt said he thinks the new campaign is misguided.

"There's no movement to single out homosexuals" in the black community, Tuggle said. Gays are not a topic of discussion in many black churches, he said - especially since other issues are more relevant.

"People who are gay come in all races," Tuggle said. "And homophobia exists in every community. To say that only black people don't like black people who are gay, that's silly. That's reprehensible."

Christopher Gabriel, 42, a gay black man from Roosevelt, said he thinks the ads are a good first step, but more needs to be done. "I don't know if the ad campaign is big enough to make a dent," said Gabriel. "We're going to need several ad campaigns . . . to get to the point when we can even have a dialogue."

With Kathleen Kerr