Dwayne Jenkins of Nashville CARES
Today, you get a double dose of Dwayne Jenkins! I’ve known Nashville CARES and Brothers United executive director Dwayne Jenkins for over 20 years. He’s run Tennessee’s premier HIV/AIDS service organization for more than 26 years and founded Nashville’s annual Black gay pride celebration.
And in this episode of Words of Love, you’ll learn about the work he does for the Black gay community through his organizations and how conversations affecting the community have evolved during his time in Tennessee’s capital city. You’ll also get a glimpse into Dwayne’s personal story with his three sons and his spouse of 27 years.
6:19 - Dwayne's introduction and how the two Dwaynes met
10:12 - Why Dwayne made Nashville his home and how he started Brothers United there
16:50 - The conversations around AIDS and HIV were very different in the mid-90s
23:44 - How availability of STD testing has changed in the last 20+ years
27:46 - How SIMBE Socials helped break HIV testing records
33:12 - What the My House facility is for, and how it developed
36:29 - How Black gay pride came to be in Nashville and how the level of local support changed
43:22 - How Dwayne met his husband and the story of his two sons
48:36 - The next phase in the lives of Dwayne and his family
58:37 - A message to the queer youth from Dwayne
About Dwayne Jenkins
Dwayne Jenkins is a native New Yorker from the Bronx who has lived in Nashville since 1994. He has worked at Nashville CARES, Tennessee's premiere HIV/AIDS Service Organization for over 26 years and serves as the Director of My House and MSM Education and Services. He is the Executive Director of the Brothers United Network, Inc., the state’s first African American Gay focused 501c3 organization, and is the Founder and President of Nashville’s annual Black Gay Pride Celebration. He has been the Community Advisor to the (GSA) Genders & Sexualities Alliance at Tennessee State University since its founding in 2003, and serves as the Board Chair of the Center for Black Equity which advocates for over 70 Black Pride organizations as well as focuses on equality and justice for Black LGBTQ communities through expansive platforms on Health, Economic and Social Equity. Dwayne attended Buffalo State College for a BA in Communications, has been a proud & financial member of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity for 38 years, raised three sons, has 2 God children and lives with his spouse Nathan of 27 years.