[CrimsonTide4]

I was just e-mailed the transcript from the show, 31 pages, MS Word Document. I hesitate to post it here for copyright and length reasons. If anyone who missed the show or just wants a copy, hit me up on my Yahoo account and please put GC in the title if you have never ever e-mailed me before.

ETA: There is also at the end of the transcript is an article, I believe to be from the New York Times, here is a brief excerpt:


FULL-LENGTH ARTICLE
MAGAZINE DESK | August 3, 2003, Sunday
Double Lives On The Down Low
By Benoit Denizet-Lewis (NYT) 7969 words
Late Edition - Final , Section 6 , Page 28 , Column 1
ABSTRACT - Benoit Denizet-Lewis article explores phenomenon of subculture called Down Low, or DL, which encompasses black men who have sex with other men but otherwise live straight lives; says they are products of culture that deems masculinity and fatherhood as black man's primary responsibility, and homosexuality as white man's perversion; says that while blacks make up only 12 percent of population in US, they account for half of all new reported HIV infections; says mainstream gay world has fought AIDS mostly among white, openly gay men and has little interest in minorities who do not identify as gay; says DL culture is expanding and is alarming to public health officials because men may spread infection to wives or girlfriends; says many blacks see DL as announcement of masculinity and separation from white gay culture, and thus many reject condom use; profiles several men who embrace DL culture; photos (L)
Double Lives on the Down Low
By Benoit Denizet-Lewis

In its upper stories, the Flex bathhouse in Cleveland feels like a squash club for backslapping businessmen. There's a large gym with free weights and exercise machines on the third floor. In the common area, on the main floor, men in towels lounge on couches and watch CNN on big-screen TV's.

In the basement, the mood is different: the TV's are tuned to porn, and the dimly lighted hallways buzz with sexual energy. A naked black man reclines on a sling in a room called ''the dungeon play area.'' Along a hallway lined with lockers, black men eye each other as they walk by in towels. In small rooms nearby, some men are having sex. Others are napping.

There are two bathhouses in Cleveland. On the city's predominantly white West Side, Club Cleveland -- which opened in 1965 and recently settled into a modern 15,000-square-foot space -- attracts many white and openly gay men. Flex is on the East Side, and it serves a mostly black and Hispanic clientele, many of whom don't consider themselves gay. (Flex recently shut its doors temporarily while it relocates.)

I go to Flex one night to meet Ricardo Wallace, an African-American outreach worker for the AIDS Task Force of Cleveland who comes here twice a month to test men for H.I.V. I eventually find him sitting alone on a twin-size bed in a small room on the main floor. Next to him on the bed are a dozen unopened condoms and several oral H.I.V.-testing kits.

Twenty years ago, Wallace came here for fun. He was 22 then, and AIDS seemed to kill only gay white men in San Francisco and New York. Wallace and the other black men who frequented Flex in the early 80's worried just about being spotted walking in the front door.
Today, while there are black men who are openly gay, it seems that the majority of those having sex with men still lead secret lives, products of a black culture that deems masculinity and fatherhood as a black man's primary responsibility -- and homosexuality as a white man's perversion. And while Flex now offers baskets of condoms and lubricant, Wallace says that many of the club's patrons still don't use them.




Edited one more time, there is a lot here including these statistics:

Some HIV/AIDS Statistics

The Chicago Tribune recently reported that AIDS is the number one cause of death for African Americans between the ages of 25 and 44. Once again, AIDS is on the rise, in the United States and around the world. More women, more college students and more people over the age of 50 are at greater risk than ever before. It's really something you need to know about.
The estimated number of deaths of Americans who have died of AIDS since the disease's first appearance in the early '80s is over 500,000.
The number of new infections is estimated at 40,000/year for the past decade.
It is estimated that of the 850,000–950,000 Americans living with HIV one in four are unaware of their infection.
An estimated two-thirds of new cases come from people who are unaware that they are infected with HIV.
In 2000, HIV/AIDS was among the top three causes of death for African-American men ages 25–54 and African-American women ages 35–44.
Black women account for 72% of all the new HIV cases in women.
67% of black women with HIV contracted it from heterosexual sex.
African American women are 23 times more times likely to be infected with AIDS than white women.
African American men are almost nine times more likely to be infected with AIDS than white men.
Seniors represent an estimated 14% of total AIDS cases, and senior women represent 18% of female AIDS cases.

Source: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (www.cdc.gov)