WASHINGTON—Leaders of 10 organizations with ties to the gay community said last week that the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as well as the National Institutes of Health, aren’t doing enough to combat HIV/AIDS in the gay community, particularly among gay men of color.

“It is shameful that 25 years into the epidemic, the National Institutes of Health has not done the research and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has not given us the tools to stop the impact of HIV in black gay communities,” Ernest Hopkins, of the National Black Gay Men’s Advocacy Coalition, said Oct. 30.

The officials noted statistics that show dramatic increases in HIV rates among gay men below age 30 in the past six years. They also pointed to studies in recent years documenting high rates of HIV infection among black gay men in major cities. Despite that, the officials said, the CDC has only designed one intervention specifically to address HIV rates among black gay men out of a total of 129 interventions targeting African American populations in general.

Organizations sponsoring the call for federal action, in addition to Hopkins’ group, are the National Coalition for LGBT Health, Arcus Foundation, the Gay and Lesbian Medical Association, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, Lambda Legal, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, Log Cabin Republicans, the National Black Justice Coalition and National Stonewall Democrats.