Bay Area HIV Support and Education Services (BAHSES)

In 1985, the San Francisco chapter of Black and White Men Together, a social and political organization dealing with racism and interracial relationships among gay men, formed an AIDS Task Force (BWMT/ATF) to address the AIDS epidemic and its impact on people of color. In 1989 the BWMT/ATF name was changed to BAHSES and an effort began to secure a non-profit status.

The National BWMT recognized the important work the San Francisco chapter - BAHSES - was performing and wanted to use that model to help other chapters. In 1988, it formed the National Task Force on AIDS Prevention (NTFAP) to accomplish this goal. In 1993, BAHSES was dissolved after it successfully provided counseling, education, and advocacy to a multicultural population at risk of, or having, HIV infection - primarily low income residents of the Tenderloin and Polk districts and the lower Nob Hill area.