AIDSfree: These are the gay black pastors working to overcome stigma about HIV

One in two gay black men will be diagnosed with HIV during their lifetime

At a building in Atlanta’s West End, Duncan Teague is arranging chairs, laying out song sheets, and getting ready to welcome all and everyone who enters the door.

Teague’s church is called Abundant Love, and a sign on the steps underscores the point – “We welcome your authentic self to join us in our community centred work”.

The pastor’s church, a member of the Unitarian Universalist Association, lies outside of the mainstream. Some universalists do not even consider themselves Christians.

Yet Teague, and others like him, are crucial to efforts in the US south to counter the homophobia and bigotry that exists in some churches. The historic discrimination in some churches, many believe, has been a factor in forcing gay people to lead secret lives, making the spread of HIV more likely.

Unlike some pastors, Teague tells those who come to Abundant Love, whether they are gay, straight, bisexual or asexual, that God loves them all.

Asked to sum up his philosophy, Teague says: “Celebrating and respecting the dignity of everyone – including gay, lesbian and transgender folks, who live in the area and want to come to church and be respected. This is a place for everyone.”

Teague, who moved to the city in 1985 and once worked for Aid Atlanta, a group helping those with HIV and Aids, could not be working in a more important place.

Today in the US, a gay black man has a 50 per cent chance of being diagnosed with HIV at someone during their lifetime. In Atlanta, the figure is even more staggering – closer to 60 per cent.

Many factors lie behind this – racism, poverty and lack of education among them. But homophobia within elements of black society, and the black church, also hinder progress.

“I have to put some blame with the black church, but not just the black church,” says Teague. “Every powerful entity within the black community needs to own this.”

The Elton John AIDS Foundation supports many institutions and grassroots efforts in Atlanta and beyond, to help provide HIV testing, counselling and medicine. It also seeks to educate, and confront stigma, something it knows can best be done by community leaders and influencers.

This year, The Independent and Evening Standard are raising money for the foundation in our annual Christmas appeals. Recently, Sir Elton and Evgeny Lebedev, owner of the two titles, visited Atlanta to meet doctors, patients and educators. They also had a HIV test done to show how simple it can be.

They issued a statement that said: “As we write, 37m people globally are living with HIV. Last year alone, 1.8m people contracted the virus and 940,000 died of an Aids-related illness. This need not happen.

“Today’s medicines not only enable those living with HIV to have full and fulfilling lives, but also ensure they cannot pass the virus on to others.”

Sir Elton, who has a home in the city, was also in Atlanta to perform two concerts for his Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour. At one gig, he recalled establishing the foundation 26 years ago at his “kitchen table, up the road”.

Preacher Ken Lazarus says it is essential to minister to people where they are, especially the homeless (Andrew Buncombe)

“We’ve come a long way,” he said. “But there’s still an epidemic in the south and in Atlanta. It used to be a disease of the affluent. Now it is a disease of the poor, especially poor African Americans.”

Bishop Oliver “OC” Allen is another of those trying to preach love not hate. An educator and advocate for people with HIV, and the LGBT+ community, he was asked by Barack Obama to serve on the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/Aids. He is also an advisor to a black church HIV initiative of the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People.

As founder of Atlanta’s Vision Church, a progressive Pentecostal congregation, he works to create a place that feels safe for all.

Yet, he said, even if he and his team succeeded in creating a welcoming space, the people who come often bear scars or wounds of the challenges they have faced.

He and other pastors, he said, were still burying young black men who had perished from Aids.

Speaking about building connections with other pastors, he said he chooses not to talk about Aids or HIV from a theological standpoint. “The last thing is to debate theology,” he says. “You have to have them frame this as a social justice issue, not just a public health issue, because there are so many layers.”

Ken Lazarus, the self-styled “Cussing Preacher”, does not operate from a fixed church. Rather, he prefers to reach out directly to some of the most in need – the city’s homeless and poor – by engaging with them on the streets.

He says he takes food and medicine into the city’s parks and ministers to them as they sit.

He tries to look as much like them as he can. Sometimes he is mistaken for a homeless person, something he is proud of.

Lazarus, 55, who identifies as bisexual, has been living with HIV for 32 years. He says it is easy for some with the virus to feel disconnected, so he speaks to them “like a regular person”.

The preacher, who also considers himself an outsider to the mainstream churches, adds: “There is a place for organised religion, but we’re talking about going after the lost.” Some of those churches, he says, are not welcoming to people who have not bathed for a week, or keep their belongings in a trolley.

He says: “We need a strategy to reach those people ... You’ve to to go where they are.

“Jesus went with the lost … We don’t want to make disciples of people who are already saved. In places like Los Angeles or Atlanta, many are in the parks or on the street.”

He says his organisation works in many different areas – providing housing, mental health provision and assistance with benefits. Many factors frequently overlap, he says.

He also provides teaching materials on HIV and Aids to other preachers, to help them minister to those at risk or living with the virus.

“We try to teach how to do pastoral counselling to those who are impacted,” he says. “Until HIV and Aids is dealt with on a daily basis, it’s just going to be pushed to the back.”