(07-16) 04:00 PDT Washington -- The leader of the NAACP turned the spotlight Saturday on HIV and AIDS. During the opening day of the organization's national convention, he participated in a panel discussion on the epidemic, begged members to address the disease in their communities, and called for everyone attending to get tested.
Then, he practiced what he preached.

President Bruce Gordon, joined by Chairman Julian Bond, walked to an on-site AIDS testing center, filled out several forms, swabbed his gums for a quick HIV test, and returned 20 minutes later for the confidential results.
Activists lauded the move, saying it has been a struggle over the years to get African American leaders, including the nation's largest civil rights organization, to confront the HIV crisis plaguing the black community.
This year, things have changed.

The 97th annual conference, which thousands are expected to attend, opened with a health symposium titled "State of Emergency: Our Emergency: The HIV/AIDS Crisis in the Black Community," followed by a lunch with a film about the epidemic and a performance piece on AIDS by actress and singer Sheryl Lee Ralph.
"It is such a big deal to have high-profile people acknowledging the disease and being tested," said Phill Wilson, founder of the Black AIDS Institute in Los Angeles, who has long been pushing for influential African Americans to get involved. "It tells our community that we are embracing the epidemic, that we have gotten over the stigma. That is crucial."
In the past, the NAACP has lagged behind the efforts of other groups to address HIV and AIDS. This marks the first year the organization has made the disease a priority.

Last month, it joined the National Black AIDS Mobilization, which wants to build a mass black response to the epidemic. The NAACP is co-author of an annual report on HIV in black America. This year's convention is offering information on the disease as well as free on-site counseling and testing for anyone who is willing.
"It's been a process over the last five years, and it took awhile for this to be characterized as a black issue," said Wilson, who has lived with HIV for 25 years and AIDS for 15. "It is not easy for large black organizations to do what is necessary to fight the disease, mainly take ownership by confronting the stigma, marginalization and denial."
From the epidemic's start 25 years ago, black people have been disproportionately more likely to test positive for HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. More than half of all people now diagnosed with HIV in the United States are African American, and black people with AIDS are seven times more likely than whites to die from the disease, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control.
AIDS activists, researchers and people with HIV attribute the continuing rise in infection rates among African Americans to reluctance by many blacks to address the disease as their own.

"This is an issue we can no longer afford to ignore," said Myisha Patterson, the NAACP's new national health coordinator, who organized the panel discussion and has pledged to make HIV a priority. "We must promote personal dialogue on this issue, encourage testing, and support additional programs that will literally save our lives."
Many NAACP leaders and members referred to AIDS as America's new civil rights movement. Some blamed the alarming numbers on the faith community's reluctance to get involved.

"The universal church has been a destructive force on HIV, saying that AIDS is a sin, a punishment from God," said Pernessa Seale, executive director of Balm in Gilead, a New York-based nonprofit that works to get churches to provide AIDS education and support. "It is 25 years later, and we are still fighting that myth, that lie.
"If there is a sin, it is a sin that we the adults have allowed our children to have this 100 percent preventable disease."

According to federal research, 66 percent of youths diagnosed with HIV are African American, and black women make up two-thirds of new HIV diagnoses among women.

"It's a crisis we should have seen coming, but as a community we were slow to respond," Wilson said during the panel discussion. "You must know your HIV status."
Kim Smith, a Chicago doctor who treats AIDS patients, pointed to two black celebrities to demonstrate the importance of being tested.
She told the hundreds of people gathered for the panel discussion that basketball star Magic Johnson got his HIV test early, so he was able to get treated right away.
"He looks as healthy as anyone you have seen," she said.

But 31-year-old N.W.A. rapper Eric "Eazy-E" Wright did not get tested until he was sick. He found out he had AIDS when he was in the hospital on a breathing machine, and shortly after, he died of AIDS in 1995, she said.
"The contrast is getting tested," she said. "Be like Magic."

Donna Christensen, Democratic delegate to Congress from the Virgin Islands, pledged to continue the fight for federal funding for HIV research and prevention and urged members to vote for officials who take the disease seriously.
"What you do in the ballot box is very, very important," she said. "Hold those of us who are there accountable and those who want your vote accountable. Make sure they know HIV/ AIDS is an emergency."
Gordon said he will take thousands of members to Capitol Hill on Wednesday to lobby for voting rights and to push for more funding for HIV research and prevention.
"This issue will kill us, and we can't let that happen," he said.

E-mail Leslie Fulbright at lfulbright@sfchronicle.com
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