San Francisco, CA, March 7, 2006--Reverend Cecil Williams will use his keynote address at the upcoming "Life of Hope: The Black LGBT Spirituality Forum," to encourage houses of worship to embrace the Bay Area's Black lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community and forge spiritual connections that help protect against HIV and AIDS. The free public forum, to be held this Saturday, March 10th from 11 am-3 pm at Glide Memorial United Methodist Church, is being organized by Black Brothers Esteem (BBE), a program of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation that works to improve the mental and physical health of African American gay, bisexual, and same-gender-loving men.

"Black gay men are hungry for spiritual connections but they don't always feel welcome at houses of worship," said Micah Lubensky, BBE's community development manager, "so we're building bridges between the LGBT and faith communities." Research from the University of Minnesota's Center for Spirituality and Healing shows that people with spiritual practices and connections enjoy improved health outcomes and respond better to HIV treatments.

Such innovative approaches are urgently needed to address the disproportionate impact that HIV and AIDS are having on the gay African-American community. Research from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicates that in the seven major American cities hardest hit by HIV, an average of 47% of Black gay and bisexual men are HIV-positive. While the prevalence of HIV is lower in San Francisco--roughly 32% of Black gay and bisexual men here are HIV-positive according the San Francisco Department of Public Health--it remains higher than the rate for gay and bisexual men here who are white (26%), Latino (23%) and Asian (10%).

Spiritual connections that foster self-esteem can help address this problem, according to Mohamed Ragab, LGBT coordinator at Soka Gakkai International, a local Buddhist organization that is among the faith centers joining in the new community outreach effort. "When you empower yourself with good self-esteem, you can conquer not just AIDS, but anything else that comes your way," said Ragab, a gay man who has lived with AIDS for more than 20 years. Pursuing a sound spiritual path has helped Ragab persevere and inspired him to help others in the LGBT community find faith and hope in the face of adversity.

Black Brothers Esteem will feature Ragab's group, and ten other houses of worship that welcome the LGBT community, in its forthcoming spiritual resource guide Spiritually Healthy Brochure. To create the guide, BBE members visited churches, a synagogue and other faith centers in San Francisco, Oakland and Berkeley to assess whether each was sensitive and welcoming to LGBT people and those living with HIV/AIDS.

BBE, which recently celebrated its 10-year anniversary, developed the guide and forum as part of seven-month process that encouraged members to explore spirituality as a source of strength and resilience for their health. For more information about Black Brothers Esteem, the forum and the resource guide, including a podcast interview on the intersection of spiritual health, holistic health and HIV, visit www.sfaf.org/bbe.

These initiatives are timed to coincide with the "Black Church Week of Prayer for the Healing of AIDS," a national observance from March 4th-10th that has been organized for the past 18 years by the Balm in Gilead, an African American HIV/AIDS organization dedicated to linking churches and health. "We all have a responsibility to get involved," said Steven Tierney, deputy executive director for programs and services at the San Francisco AIDS Foundation. "By promoting deeper spiritual connections within the Black LGBT community, we can literally save lives."