NAESM Men’s Health and Wellness Center: Meet The Nurses Who Are Reshaping How Black Gay Men Receive Care
Lonnie Calvin (Left) and Brandi Pinckney-Green (Right)
When Brandi Pinckney-Green learned that NAESM Founder Rudolph “Rudy” Carn needed help to bring his vision for a new Men’s Health and Wellness Center to fruition, her first instinct as a nurse practitioner was to ask how she could help. Despite juggling teaching duties as a nurse educator at Georgia State University and as a home health and hospice RN, the Savannah, GA native, who was born into a family of nurses, says she “saw an opportunity to be a part of something good” when she received the call nearly two years ago to bring her medical expertise to this unique healthcare facility.
Carn envisioned a place where Black men of all sexual orientations could have access to holistic health care, but especially Black gay and bisexual men disproportionately impacted by the HIV epidemic. It’s this vision that Pinckney-Green along with Lonnie Calvin, Director of the Men’s Health and Wellness Center, work to execute daily.
“This is a judgment-free zone. I've worked in sexual health many, many years,” says Calvin. “You have to be judgment-free because everybody's got their story and you don't know what it is and what their circumstances are. So the least amount of judgment, the best for you and for the patients, for the clients, because you're going to be able to serve them better. They will see right through you if you are full of judgment or you have some issues with their sexuality. It will come out,” she says.
“I’ve worked in sexual health many, many years. You have to be judgment-free because everybody’s got their story and you don’t know what it is and what their circumstances are.”
For Pinckney-Green, her approach to serving Black gay and bisexual men and Black men of trans experience simply comes down to following The Golden Rule.
“I’m just a simple girl from the South who treats everybody the way I want to be treated,” says Pinckney-Green. “It is not my job to understand why someone is homosexual. It's my job to help them prevent the transmission of HIV.”
Stigma remains a barrier for individuals living with HIV to get into and stay in care. It can also be a major deterrent for individuals seeking to access the services that Pinckney-Green and Calvin provide at NAESM Men’s Health and Wellness Center, which is centered in the heart of what many would describe as “the hood” in a predominantly Black lower-income area in South East Atlanta.
“When do I come? I don't want anyone to see my car outside,” Pinckney-Green recalls two of the most frequently asked questions by clients who have to overcome the stigma associated with HIV and being seen within proximity of a building associated with the virus even before they arrive. She also tells The Reckoning that getting medication into the hands of clients is another example of how stigma shows up in the lives of people living with HIV.
“They can either come here to pick up their medications, which I’ll put in a discreet bag for them or we can also mail it to their home,” says Pinckney-Green. “Legally, I have to put the label on it, but a lot of them rip the labels off before they leave, and I just shred it,” she says.
The NAESM Men’s Health and Wellness Center is not restricted to HIV care, nor is the focus solely on Black cisgender gay men. Pinckney-Green says she is also focused on hypertension, colon cancer, and other diseases African American men are considered being at high risk for acquiring, along with STI screenings and treatment among heterosexual Black men—a population that historically hasn’t considered themselves at risk for HIV.
“Stigma remains a barrier for individuals living with HIV to get into and stay in care. It can also be a major deterrent for individuals seeking to access the services that Pinckney-Green and Calvin provide at NAESM Men’s Health and Wellness Center...”
Focus On Prevention & Treatment, Less on Judgment
“I call them my off-the-chain boys who just can’t keep it in,” says Pinckney-Green, referring to some of her Black male heterosexual clients.
“I have a lot of those. They can come here and say, ‘Nurse, I got a wife.’ ‘I got two girlfriends. I got a mistress, and I can't stay away from all of them.’ I'd rather them tell me and I put them on PrEP so the wife won't get something, the girlfriend won't get something. That's just how I see it being in my position. I'm not saying it's right, or I agree. But I feel like if I could stop it here, it'll help my women on that side dealing with their men,” she says.
Lonnie Calvin inside of an exam room at the NAESM’s Men’s Health and Wellness Center
It’s another example of Pinckney-Green and Calvin’s commitment to providing an “open, honest, and loving environment for men who are in need or who identify with situations in which they need PrEP or PEP,” referring to the antiretroviral drug given to individuals not living with HIV to prevent acquisition, and the drug given to an individual post-exposure to prevent the virus from attaching itself to human cells and replicating.
The NAESM Men’s Health and Wellness Center provides both PrEP and PEP for free to individuals at high risk for acquiring HIV through Avita Pharmacy’s 340 B Program and generous funding from Gilead if an individual's income is below a certain number and is uninsured.
“For the majority of my population, the medications are free because of the lack of insurance and the income gap,” says Pinckney-Green. “I struggle with people, unfortunately, who are insured with the funding.” Although she adds, “its different ways to get around it,” as to not discourage the insured who could benefit from being on PrEP or PEP from seeking assistance.
Clients of the Men’s Health and Wellness Center aren’t the only people being impacted by its presence in one of Atlanta’s most unexpected neighborhoods. The residents around the Center have also become protective of the employees and the building itself.
“I’ve heard the community kind of looks out for this place,” says Calvin. “We’ve had no incidents as far as violence or disruption of service because of what’s going on in the community or whatever. I feel supported by the community.”
“When I first started here, it was a young man who lived in the neighborhood. He came over here and he said, ‘we watch out for you guys,’ recalled Pinckney-Green. He said, ‘I know when you come every day, we all just watch out for you guys.’ And I said, I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing,” she says through laughter. “And then I realized he was sincere. I feel like if you're inundated in your community and they know who you are, but you don't act like you're better than them, they’ll actually take good care of you.”
A World Without HIV
Both Pinckney-Green and Calvin are committed to providing quality healthcare to individuals from marginalized communities through the NAESM Men’s Health and Wellness Center. And while their personal politics didn’t align with the previous Trump Administration, they do share the former President’s goal of ending HIV by 2030.
“I definitely can see a day where this [HIV] will be something in the past because I think science is going in that direction,” says Calvin.
“I strongly believe we will conquer this virus. I refuse to believe that HIV will conquer us continuously,” says Pinckney-Green. “If I could see it gone in 2030, that would be phenomenal. I believe it's possible. We have the tools. We have the means. We have the people on the ground. Now the people around us who are most at risk—it's time for them to step up and take a bit of responsibility.”
“If I could see [HIV] gone in 2030, that would be phenomenal. I believe it’s possible. We have the tools. We have the means. We have the people on the ground.”
When asked how it would look for those most at risk to take more responsibility, Pinckney-Green made it clear.
"That means being honest with yourself, even if you're not honest with your friends and your family. That means going to a provider or seeking counseling. If you need—taking PrEP, if you know you are in that category. I don't care if you're married with 10 kids. If you know you're in that category and you're at high risk, PrEP is out there. There is no need for you to contract HIV and give it to anyone else,” she says.
“And then PEP, my gosh, you get in some trouble, you have a good Saturday night, call your physician on Monday—PEP is within 72 hours. You take Biktarvy for 28 days. It still prevents you from getting HIV. I don't see why this virus can't go away by 2030, but the community around us, they have to do their part."
