The new Clik Magazine is out and on the cover is Phill Wilson who is Executive Director of Black AIDS Institue in Los Angeles, CA. Phill Wilson who turned 50 on April 29 has been living with the HIV/AIDS virus for 25 years now. The Black AIDS Institute is the first Black HIV/AIDS policy center dedicated to reducing HIV/AIDS health disparities by mobilizing Black institutions and individuals in efforts to confront the epidemic in their communities. Our motto describes a commitment to self-preservation: "Our People, Our Problem, Our Solution." Phill Wilson was diagnosed with HIV in 1985 and with full-blown AIDS in 1989. The executive director of the Black AIDS Institute (www.blackaids.org), Wilson was an early activist and co-founded several important organizations, including the National Black Lesbian & Gay Leadership Forum, and with friend Michael Weinstein and Wilson's lover Chris Brownlie, the AIDS Hospice Foundation and its Chris Brownlie Hospice. In 1990, a year after Brownlie died, Wilson was appointed AIDS coordinator for the city of Los Angeles. By then, Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reported 179,000 AIDS cases since 1981, of which more than 113,000 (63 percent) died. In 1990, the CDC reported 43,339 AIDS cases, a 23 percent increase from 1989. Gay/bisexual men and IV-drug users represented more than three-fourths of reported cases. Today 1.2 Million people are living with HIV/AIDS and it is up to us as a people to make a difference and stop the spread of this diease.
New Clik Magazine out