On May 1, Jason Collins, the 7-foot center for the Washington Wizards and a former Boston Celtics, came out. His statement, “I’m a 34-year-old NBA center. I’m black. And I’m gay” made the cover story for the May 6 issue of Sports Illustrated.

On May 2, three Morehouse College basketball athletes were accused of raping an 18-year-old Spelman College student. The story didn't hit the airwaves as the Collins story did.

Many in the African-American community were silent on both incidents because they view both as poxes on the community.

(Editor's note: This essay by Mark S. King — an AIDS advocate, an author and a blogger living with HIV since 1985 — is about why HIV stigma among gay men persists. It runs in the June issue of Poz and is now available online.)

Stigma is insidiously quiet. It is conjured in the mind, born of discomfort and fear, and then it is projected at “the other” among us. It judges them and isolates them. And it happens without a sound.

“Afuera: A Young Latino’s Journey” by Marcelino Rosas is a gripping tale of a gay adolescent's coming of age.

The book is written in the style of an autobiography, and explores many issues that a lot of readers will be able to identify with, and also some that are shocking, titillating and controversial.

CHICAGO – Illinois Unites for Marriage, a group in favor for marriage equality, has begun robo-calling residents of largely African-American districts in the Windy City area in an attempt to secure enough votes to pass the state's bill that would allow same-sex weddings.

Although the state Senate has already passed the marriage-equality bill and Gov. Pat Quinn is urging passage, the bill is stalled in the state House due to uncertainty of the vote. Some of the swing votes are in the largely African-American districts in the Chicago area.