DBGM’s story began in 2010 with a series of community-based discussion fora on Black gay mental health and the factors contributing to their depression, suicidal ideations and attempts, and was the start/continuation of working to raise awareness of the shame and stigma surrounding mental health in Black communities. These community-based fora were held throughout the US, in several cities with large Black populations, and drew on their community leaders, including religious, mental health practitioners, and advocates/activists to share their stories and hopes for the future.

The documentary You Are Not Alone , premiered on November 2012 at the famed Audubon Ballroom in NYC. The film highlighted at least six underlying themes and factors contributing either singly or collectively to a Black gay man’s struggle with depression and suicidal ideations (thoughts).

Those factors formed the reason for DBGM’s founding in February 2013, and with 13 board members, held its first meeting at Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine, located in central Harlem, NYC. At that meeting, the new Board of Directors elected their executive, and established its By-Laws, and Policies and Procedures.

In the following years, DBGM became established as one of a few, if any others exist, organizations that is primarily focused on Black gay men’s mental health, and along with working for greater mental health awareness, provides opportunities for community members to work on their healing through participating in support groups and discussion fora, and breaking the shame and stigma surrounding mental health.

In keeping with the Board’s directive to expand mental health awareness beyond Black gay men, to include LBTQIA+ community members, that in 2014 the organization launched the annual In My Mind (IMM) LGBTQ+ People of Color Mental Health Conference with its first Summit at Rutgers University, Newark Campus. It, and subsequent fora, focused on specific themes and issues impacting LGBTQIA+ Black and peoples of color communities’ mental health allowed for clinicians and academicians to meet with and share knowledge and information with advocates, activists, students and community members struggling with mental health. Each year IMM raises and opens several issues impacting LGBTQIA+ Black and peoples of color communities. The recently concluded ninth gathering on October 12, 2023 at Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY, focused on, “Embracing Differences” - Uplifting LGBTQIA+ Black and Peoples of Color Disability Communities.

Usually the evening before the Conference, DBGM hosts a pre-IMM Conference VIP Reception, Together We Are @ The Table, for Sponsors, Speakers and Presenters to network in an informal setting. Recognizing that belonging is crucial to one’s mental health and sense of self, that the organization hosts an annual pre-holiday (Thanksgiving/Christmas) gathering, I am Not Alone @ the Table, for Black gay men who are alone or will be alone during the holidays, when families and others are gathering; Black gay men who live alone, who have no family, or who are estranged from their families, to experience a sense of togetherness and belonging in their community. During the COVID-19 pandemic, DBGM partnered with the James Beard Foundation for a virtual Pre-Thanksgiving cooking show and discussion, featuring a Native American Chef and a pair of Black/African-American Chefs, who demonstrated healthy foods for these communities.

In 2016, the organization launched its “I Am Working On Healing” Program, with two groups: SONS - a group for gay men of color who struggle with the absence of acceptance for who they are from their mothers and or mother-like figures in their lives; and HER (Helping Everywoman Restore) - a group for mothers and mother-like figures of color who lost sons to HIV/AIDS and or suicide. 

In January, 2020, at the start of the second half of DBGM’s fiscal year, the organization was poised to begin a monthly series of in-person discussion fora in each of NYC’s five boroughs. With the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak, and following the success of the first forum in February on Immigration, HIV, Mental Health and LGBTQ+ people of color at Hostos Community College in the Bronx, the organization transformed those planned events into a 12-week online program, covering many different subjects impacting LGBTQ+ people of color communities. As the pandemic continued into 2021, the organization launched a virtual six-week forum. “LGBTQIA+ Black and Peoples of Color in the Global South” to focus attention on celebrating the achievements of LGBTQ+ people of color living along the Equator and in the Global South make in their respective communities.

In October 2022, DBGM launched the Ancestral Institute online on October 6, and again hosted it online on October 28. The Ancestral Institute acknowledges four truths, one of which includes that traditional/ancestral healing, as part of Black and peoples of color culture, was systematically erased/excised from a thriving, vibrant, alive people, and replaced in its stead by a religious belief that was and still is alien to these communities. The Institute is intended to be the logical next step in mental health care for, about and by Black and peoples of color, which draws on and reconnects with ancestral/traditional healing rites, rituals and practices to meld/fuse these with contemporary mental health constructs and to create a unique form of mental health evaluation, diagnosis, treatment and care for and to which Black and peoples of color could identify. It is planned that the third iteration will be in person.