User:Levicobx/sandbox

Dennis Levy is a heterosexual black man living with HIV

Dennis Levy is a Straight (heterosexual) Black Man living with HIV/AIDS. He is also a long term survivor or long term survivor or Long term nonprogressor  special needs. It was the summer of 1991 when he told his wife that he tested positive for HIV. He contracted the disease from sex with another woman. At the time most Americans believed HIV was a gay disease. It wasn’t long after that Magic Johnson told the world he was HIV http://www.newsweek.com/magic-johnson-20-years-living-hiv-67567. It would have been enough for Levy, a black, married heterosexual father, to let the world know that he had been infected. But simply by living, Levy did much more, proving that an H.I.V. infection was no longer an automatic death sentence. It is not possible to overstate how badly that message was needed in the minority communities that had been affected most severely, yet was, as always, least served by the public-health system.The myth that HIV was only a gay disease needed to be dispelled. Although Blacks represent only 12 percent or the U.S. population, they account for 44 percent of all new HIV infections http://sacobserver.com/2012/08/straight-black-men-ignored-in-aids-initiatives/

On July 1997 New York resident Dennis Levy became the first Black heterosexual activist to write about the invisibility of black and Latino Heterosexuals in the United States http://www.thebody.com/content/art30844.html ) He wrote about HIV and its effect on the minority community https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_HIV/AIDS . The majority of heterosexual men felt that children gave meaning to there life and a reason to live. However, parenting issues were not raised with HIV-positive men. Most were uninformed and unclear where to turn for information. Levy is a heterosexual father who filled the need for information about HIV positive fathers. He was a freelance columnist and political writer for minority publications such as The New York Beacon http://newyorkbeacon.net/, The Amsterdam News Paper http://amsterdamnews.com/, and the Jamaica Gleaner Newspaperhttp://jamaica-gleaner.com/. African American Men living with AIDS were mostly invisible during the beginning of the AIDS epidemic. Levy wrote about black men in the Hood http://www.thebody.com/content/art30844.html Many persons with AIDS (P.W.A.) in America were at first socially marginalized gay men, drug users, and Haitians. Heterosexual men were overlooked and understudied. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.43.11.871

Levy and his brother Harry founded in Harlem the nation’s first minority AIDS organizations for heterosexual black and Latino people with AIDS: the Black and Latino AIDS Coalition, Inc. (Blac_NY) http://www.bizapedia.com/ny/BLACK-AND-LATINO-AIDS-COALITION-INC-BLAC.html  Blac NY was modeled after Act Up a national direct action advocacy group working to impact the lives of gay, primarily white people with AIDS (PWAs) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ACT_UP. Under Levy’s leadership, Blac_NY educated thousands of black heterosexual fathers. See Daily News Special ‘A Frontline Fight: Battling AIDS through education and advocacy’ (Jay Mwamba) and ‘Black and Latino AIDS Coalition of New York: Working to stop the spread.’ AIDS, Amsterdam Newspaper July 28, 1999. (R. McCullough). During the time ACT UP was the model of a social movement organization Haldi, Abigail. "AIDS, anger, and activism: ACT UP as a social movement organization." Waves of protest: Social movements since the sixties 101 (1999): 135. Also see Teleconference on mandatory reporting and partner notification. Hoskins, V. M. "Teleconference on mandatory reporting and partner notification." The Body positive 11.3 (1998): 18.See ‘He Made A Difference’ http://www.thebody.com/content/art30944.html

Long time Harlem Minister and AIDS leader Bishop Betty Middleton served on its Board of Directors. http://pfc-inc.org/bishop.html He began educating communities of color about the AIDS epidemic. At the time, AIDS bore far more of a stigma than it does today but nevertheless Levy decided to disclose his HIV status publicly. Levy’s most notable accomplishments was supporting and helping get passed Assemblywoman Nettie Mayersohn HIV Public Health Bill in 1998 that required HIV people to notify there sexual partners. http://www.nytimes.com/1998/06/09/opinion/partner-notification-for-hiv.html Afterward, he became one of the many black leaders in the AIDS movement to lobby President Clinton to focus more attention and emergency funding on the AIDS epidemic in black and Latino communities of color. In 1998, President Clinton declared HIV/AIDS to be a “severe and ongoing crisis” in the African American community http://www.positivelypositive.ca/hiv-aids-news/AIDS_CRISIS_IN_COMMUNITIES_OF_COLOR.html   and launched the Minority HIV/AIDS Initiative with unprecedented funding support. http://hab.hrsa.gov/abouthab/partfminority.html

EARLY YEARS

Dennis Wayne Levy was born to parents Harry and Betty on December 26, 1948, in Cincinnati, Ohio. After His father’s death, 21 years old Levy continued to live with his mother, five brothers, and three sisters. Levy grew up in the turbulent 1960s in a small suburb of Cincinnati Ohio called Wyoming. His parents were part of the sweeping migration of black families out of the South during World War II. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Migration_(African_American) This migration transformed Wyoming and cities throughout the West and the North into towns divided into segregated Black and White communities. A new generation of young blacks growing up in these cities faced new forms of poverty and racism unfamiliar to their parents. Levy grew up wanting racial Justice for poor people of color. He moved to Harlem in 1980 and created the Harlem-based Justice and Levy Report, a black political news agency. See ‘Who Are Justice and Levy’ page 17 Big Red News June 3, 1980. Levy also worked with several community organizations in Harlem; New York Council of Smaller Churches with Rev. Linnette C. Williamson, http://www.williamsonparks.org/history.html and the United Block Front Street Association with the late community activist Evelyn King.. Later, he enrolled in the University of Cincinnati where he graduated in the top of his class.

AFRICAN AMERICAN AIDS EDUCATOR

Levy called himself the changing face of AIDS. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3037146/. “Heterosexual men of color –– now represent one of the largest and fastest growing group of new AIDS cases. See ‘The Forgotten Population: Heterosexual Men of Color and HIV — AIDS Issues Update — Housing Works’ http://www.housingworks.org/advocate/detail/the-forgotten-population-heterosexual-men-of-color-and-hiv/. It’s the dangerous status quo of past and current HIV talk, which—thankfully— focuses aplenty on disproportionately high rates in black MSM and skyrocketing rates in heterosexual women of color, but shockingly not the straight men the women are sleeping with, many of whom, due to said messaging strategy, are not even aware they are at risk of infection or infecting. And because no one is talking to or about them, many HIV positive men of color have chosen to stay in the shadows Levy was instrumental in garnering the support of black and Latino communities in the fight against HIV/AIDS, ultimately resulting in a historically unprecedented move, over 30 national HIV/AIDS organizations and leaders representing African-American, Latino, Native American/Alaska Native, and Asian & Pacific Islander communities joined forces in an urgent call for the development and implementation of a comprehensive National AIDS Strategy. http://blackpoliticsontheweb.com/2008/08/26/aids-crisis-in-communities-of-color-prompts-demand-for-national-plan-to-fight-hivaids/  On July 13, 2010 the White House released the National HIV/AIDS Strategy (NHAS). https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/white-house-announces-national-hivaids-strategy This ambitious plan is the nation's first-ever comprehensive coordinated HIV/AIDS roadmap with clear and measurable targets to be achieved by 2015.

In 2006 Levy began a regimen that included an antiretroviral therapy thought to stave off the onset of AIDS-related diseases. But the therapy's side effects included disorientation and nausea and caused pain throughout his body. The issue was management of AIDS therapies. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Management_of_HIV/AIDS Nothing reduced the side effects. Levy quickly began smoking marijuana. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannabis_(drug) He used marijuana to calm himself. At the time Levy exhibited no symptoms but he was considered disable and couldn’t legally work like thousands of other HIV+ people. He couldn’t afford to buy marijuana but he I knew that it helped him with his side effects from AIDS medicines - as well as eliminating the incredible headaches he used to get from the medications.” He discovered many people used marijuana. He began a committee ‘New York State Committee to Legalize Marijuana’ https://www.facebook.com/pages/New-York-State-Committee-to-Legalize-Marijuana/134828109898362 and he decided to become a advocate for legal medical marijuana.

LATER YEARS

Levy gave much of his time to the New York State Committee To Legalize Marijuana. http://positivelinks.com/nysctlm.html He is the only black leader of a legalized marijuana organization in the United States. Moreover, Levy got on board after local advocates called him up to lay out the problems with the law from a civil rights perspective. While whites and African-Americans use marijuana in roughly equal measure, 91 percent of all marijuana arrests were of African-Americans, according to a report by the American Civil Liberties Union, which analyzed arrests by police district in major cities. And while the number of whites arrested for marijuana stayed roughly constant between 2001 and 2010, the number of African-Americans arrested rose from 3,228 to 4,908 despite an influx of white, Asian, and Hispanic residents during that period. Levy says “Marijuana prohibition policy does more harm to our communities than good.” Levy has partners with legendary sociana Dana Beal in advocating for legalization of marijuana. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dana_Beal Levy is also a supporter of the national effort to legalize marijuana in the United States.