A group of ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

When asked to start a support group for gay black men living with HIV, or human immunodeficiency virus, Larry Scott-Walker said no thanks. His friend raised the question in 2015, and by that point, the 35-year-old HIV program manager had accumulated over a decade’s worth of experience working in the HIV field, first in Baltimore and then in Atlanta, often leading such support groups. “They were just, like, really sad,” he explained. People would come to the groups to unpack each week’s traumas. There was healing in the process, said Scott-Walker, but the groups rarely moved forward from it. The most recent group had dissolved due to lack of interest, including his own.