BGN History

A range of social oppressions and health concerns including, but not limited to, racism, homophobia, rising HIV infection rates, and the inadequate allocation of public attention and resources disproportionately impacts Black men who practice same-sex desire. Black gay community activists and leaders who shared a vision that local, community-driven collaborations should be an essential and primary way to build capacity within communities and the organizations that serve them founded the New York State Black Gay Network in 1998. Their advocacy led to seed funding from the New York State Department of Health AIDS Institute in late 1999. Prior to the formation of the Network, organizations serving Black men who practice same sex desire in New York worked in isolation from one another and without the benefit of a unified voice to advocate on behalf of their common interests.

Over the past seven years, the New York State Black Gay Network has gone from being an idea to becoming an important community institution that has made a real impact in Black, Gay men’s lives. The coalition’s work has changed how organizations, communities, leaders and the government understand and respond to our lives. The Network has had impressive accomplishments during that period, the most remarkable of them during the last four years. They have taken wit, bravery and struggle; and they are ours to celebrate.

We’ve built a unique organization for Black, Gay men from the ground up: We established the Network as an independent, federally recognized tax-exempt corporation; successfully transitioned staff and funding from our fiscal sponsors to that structure; created a board of directors and the startup systems and policies for the administration of our organization; repeatedly attracted the best Black, Gay talent available to our staff; and we continue to be recognized as a uniquely successful statewide collaboration after which new groups have begun to model themselves.

We’ve channeled resources worth millions into our communities: We’ve raised over $4 million in federal, state and municipal funding specifically for Black men who practice same-sex desire (almost half a million annually comes from legislators’ allocations directly to the Network); we have partnered with GMAD to base our New York City office in Harlem, and we spend a significant share of Network funds on program activities and staff in western New York; we’ve re-channeled funding awarded to the Network to community organizations in six cities; and we provided the inaugural funding for the Black Gay Research Summit, which continues to serve as a forum for exchange of data and analysis about the lives of Black men who practice same-sex desire.

We’ve achieved successes exceeding most other statewide coalitions’ at actualizing geographic parity: We’ve transformed the Network’s relationships, presence and impact in Upstate New York over the last three years; raised Upstate-specific program funding, created a second office in Rochester and located staff there; built geographic parity into our board; radically expanded the Network’s work in Syracuse, the latest city to join the Network; built lasting partnerships with numerous non-member groups in Upstate communities; and staged Network events in several new areas of the state: Long Island, the lower Hudson Valley, the Catskills, and Niagara Falls.