In This Issue

Earlier this year San Francisco 49, Chris Culliver, made waves with his homophobic comments about gay men in the NFL. In response to the backlash he faced, this month Culliver began to make good on his pledge to educate himself about LGBT issues. But while the media pounced on Culliver's comments and furthered its on-going narrative about perceived Black homophobia, the pro-gay statements made by several other Black male celebrities went relatively unnoticed. In this issue, writer Rod McCullom shares a range of comments made by Black male celebrities that suggest that more nuanced stories about homophobia among Black men and Black America are in order.

As the reality of sequestration settles in, we run a Colorlines story that examines what it means in real life, particularly as it relates to the social safety net. Also in this issue, the CEO of OhioHealth sits down with Mary Agnes Carey at Kaiser Health News to discuss how his company plans to deal with sequestration's impact.

Alicia Keys lends her celebrity to Greater Than AIDS's new EMPOWERED Campaign an outreach program to increase awareness among American women, and particularly women of color.

Finally, in April the Black AIDS Institute will begin its Train-the-Trainer Webinar Series, a seven-segment series that aims to improve HIV care and treatment through training, networking, and mobilization. Find out more and sign up.

Yours in the struggle,

Phill