JOEL B. TAN : Special Tactics in the Cultural War on AIDS : Asian community doesn’t get much attention, partly because of ‘model minority’ myth.

Joel B. Tan, a Chinese-Filipino immigrant, is program coordinator for the Asian Pacific AIDS Intervention Team, a nonprofit organization that provides education on HIV and AIDS to the Asian-Pacific Islander community. He was interviewed by Mary Helen Berg.

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I became involved with the organization out of selfish reasons. My experience led me to the point where I wanted to do something about HIV and AIDS only because, if I tested positive as an Asian-Pacific Islander man, the cultural needs that I have and the certain social life needs that I have, I know wouldn’t be met in some of the mainstream AIDS agencies.

The World Health Organization estimated that by 2000, 46% of the world’s AIDS cases will be Asian.

But other organizations haven’t been addressing the Asian community, partly because of the “model minority” myth. That means Asians are considered to be educated, affluent, healthy and heterosexual and are not in need of social assistance.

Right now (Asians) are reporting low in terms of AIDS cases, and we aren’t given much attention. But the reason we are reporting low is because Asian-Pacific Islanders are not testing.

Those that are testing are going underground, or going home to the motherland, or cutting deals with their doctors to not present their sickness as an AIDS case because of the shame and the stigma.

We found that gay Asian men were not using services because of the closeted nature of their cultures.

For example, a gay Filipino man, a good friend of mine, we knew he was gay but we didn’t know he was HIV-positive until he died. This happens too often--and it’s 1993.

He was one of the founders of the first Filipino gay organizations. He was empowered enough to do that but, around HIV and AIDS, he did not get any support. I couldn’t blame him for not coming out with it, but too many cases happen like that.

Our main strategy is to address the diverse needs of the Asian community, but this brings up the complexity of the Asian-Pacific Islander communities.

We all have different sets of norms. What’s tolerable for me as a Filipino is not necessarily acceptable to someone who is Japanese. Filipinos who may be more Westernized may feel more comfortable with seeking social service help than a Japanese person who is not used to going outside the family for help.

So since Mohammed won’t come to the mountain, the mountain will come to Mohammed.

Monthly we pick several sites where we can find gay and bisexual Asian men and we go to straight bars now where we can find what we call MSM--men who have sex with men but who don’t identify as gay or bisexual. We distribute condoms and talk with bar patrons about the risks, testing options and where they can find services.

We do basic HIV and AIDS presentations to the general Asian community, to social service providers and youth groups, and we do Asian-Pacific Islander gay, lesbian, bisexual sensitivity training for social service providers.

We are starting an emotional support group just for HIV-positive Asian-Pacific Islander women and men. Up until now there haven’t been any (groups). That’s really been a problem because often when a group is racially mixed, the concerns of Asian-Pacific Islanders get overlooked because we are least likely to speak up.

There’s also a need to have separate groups for women and men because the issues are different. Asian-Pacific Islander women are in real danger because of the cultural norms. It’s very oppressive toward women, and they are less likely to be able to negotiate safer sex.

We hope to become a one-stop (resource) for Asian-Pacific Islanders on AIDS and HIV-positive health concerns.

As a long-term goal, we hope to at least bring the community up to date, to demystify and exorcise the demons around what it means to be HIV-positive and Asian, to be gay, HIV-positive and Asian and all those barriers that keep us from being a more cohesive community.

Like it or not, we have to stay (united) as a community to be a political force.