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Hi I'm a young black gay male who is about to graduate next year from college. I'll be 24 after I graduate next year from pharmacy school. I've lived in the Midwest my entire life and am ready for a change. I want to move somewhere where a young medical professional can thrive but have a great night life and good social gay scene that's diverse. The scene up here in the Midwest isn't that great and I also am tired of winters. I want somewhere its warm all the time to start a fresh new life. I've narrowed it down to these locations but am open to anywhere really:
Florida: I visited Miami a few years ago and loved it but I hear living there isn't the same as vacationing there. I heard Tampa is more for family oriented folks and not somone who has no responsibilities besides to work and make money. I heard Orlando is nice but not sure about anywhere else.
California: I was thinking LA but I hear its not as great as I think plus its expensive. Maybe Sacramento, San Jose, San Diego.
I'm not really aware of anywhere else it'd be good to move to. I hear Atlanta is amazing but I'm not really to keen on it just becuase it seems everyone is moving there and I feel it'd be better to move when ready to settle down.
I don't know how true to is but I've heard many times that Atlanta, Georgia is supposed to be something of a mecca for homosexual black men.
Certainly Atlanta has as good a night life as anywhere on this planet.
But not to rain on the thread, I just want to encourage you (in a good way) to go in with your eyes open no matter what city it is you pick. The cities in the U.S. known for having a "night life" and that are either in warm climate areas of the nation or heavily visited by tourism are typically the cities with the highest HIV rates in the nation.
I'm just speaking odds here as a gambler might and I'm not trying to stigmatize gay males or any city in general. But reality is a hard pill to swallow.
Milwaukee is a cold climate city most of the year, not a great tourist attraction, and not particularly "known." Yet, supposedly close to 50% of black males in Milwaukee that have sex with other males have HIV. I think the actual stat was 40% or somewhere in the 40s. Close enough to 50% in terms a need to be concerned with the spread of STD in a cohort.
And I've read of educated gay black males that were far more educated and informed on HIV than myself that have ended getting HIV through sex. So, it's not only the "ignorant" that can get it.
Anyone can get an STD of course, not just gay males, but we as individuals and a society should want to reduce our individual odds of acquiring one or more. In this sense, like telling people not to pick up hitch hikers, or telling kids not to walk off with strangers, a false-negative error is less costly to make than a false-positive error.
Within the "night life" of gay black males or other black males that have sex with males, it would seem the message is not reaching as many as it is among white gay males. Or at least that is what it partly seems like to me [shrug]. But maybe I'm wrong.
Furthermore, the report charges that government officials, the black community, and the LGBT community have collectively looked the other way.
Quote:
According to the report Back of the Line, Phill Wilson, President and CEO of the Black AIDS Institute, said wistfully, by the time a Black gay man reaches age 25, he stands a roughly one-in-four chance of being infected with HIV. By age 40, the odds reach an astonishing 60 percent.
Quote:
Black MSM represent 9% of all MSM in the U.S., but account for 38% of new infections among MSM. In New York City, Black MSM are 325 times more likely to be diagnosed with HIV than heterosexual Black males. Nationally, HIV prevalence among Black MSM is roughly double the prevalence among white MSM. Although AIDS is a nationwide crisis for Black MSM, evidence indicates that the problem is especially severe in the South, where new cases are rising most rapidly. […] In 2005, CDC disclosed that 46% of Black MSM surveyed in five U.S. cities were HIV-positive
My educated guess would be the City of Atlanta is one of the hotbeds for HIV and the spread of HIV. I could be wrong though, but that is just a guess of mine.
Being a young, black, male, professional that's a pharmacist you will have a lot going for you and an awesome future ahead of yourself. Just be careful of falling into certain traps in the "night life" that can end up ruining a lot of that, or bringing you misery in your 40s.
Florida: I visited Miami a few years ago and loved it but I hear living there isn't the same as vacationing there. I heard Tampa is more for family oriented folks and not somone who has no responsibilities besides to work and make money. I heard Orlando is nice but not sure about anywhere else.
As a gay male and Florida native (living here now) I would recommend the Tampa Bay area over either Miami or Orlando. The Tampa Bay area is friendlier and less expensive than either. St Petersburg is where I would recommend focusing as it's down to earth with much less pretension than most cities, has a diverse gay population and offers many more liberal, progressive neighborhoods than Tampa. St Pete's Gay Pride Day typically draws in the neighborhood of 100,000 attendees. Surprising St Pete
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