In This Issue

This week we kick off our coverage of the Road to AIDS 2012 (RTA 2012), a nationwide tour intended to engage communities on the National HIV/AIDS Strategy and insure their voices are heard as the nation develops its platform for the XIX International AIDS Conference next year in Washington, D.C. Over the next nine months journalist Tamara Holmes will report from all 15 RTA 2012 cities, beginning today with the San Francisco/Bay Area.

You'll also find a wrap-up of the Black Treatment Advocate Network trainings, which kicked off last year in Houston, Jackson, Miss., and Philadelphia, and this year expanded to Atlanta, Chicago and Los Angeles.

Dating today isn't easy for anyone, but when you have HIV/AIDS it brings particular challenges. Marvelyn Brown shares how she navigates common issues that arise as she goes out with HIV-positive as well as HIV-negative men.

In a not-so-surprising development, Black youth admit feeling under pressure to have sex, but less from their peers than from society and the media. They also report that they don't always use condoms, which we know. They do, however, value their parents' advice about love and sex. So if you care about a Black young person, please speak frankly with them about protecting themselves—and not just from pregnancy, which they view as their primary risk, but from HIV also.

Colorlines.com editorial director Kai Wright reports that there are 6 cities in the United States where the official unemployment rate among Blacks is equivalent to the rate during the Great Depression. Poverty drives health disparities, including HIV. We also run a story from AIDS.gov on HHS's recent reviews of its progress toward NHAS's 2015 goals.

Yours in the struggle,

Phill