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to educate and serve people, prompting to Fambro learn grant writing. He applied for any federal
grant that pertained to serving people affected by HIV/AIDS and homelessness. Though his
efforts, MGPWA received several grants, which allowed it to continue offering and expanding
its services. MGPWA acted as an outreach organization through which a small amount of
funding could educate and serve the communities of metropolitan Macon area.34 Several
churches and social groups in Macon were seeing this epidemic grow and affect their gay and
transgender friends and family, which, along with continuous education, slowly began to change
attitudes toward the virus. Several churches, including St Joseph Catholic Church, and social
groups invited Fambro to speak to them about the HIV/AIDS virus and these churches and
groups would often collect monetary donations for MGPWA.35

AIDS cases continued to rise and was infecting heterosexuals, just like the homosexual
community, across the country at an alarming rate. And Middle Georgia was no exception. “Our
biggest problem is the spread in the heterosexual population,” said Dr. Katner in an interview
about the prevalence of HIV/AIDs in minorities.36 According to local AIDS experts, minorities
were quickly becoming the most-common sufferers of AIDS in Macon and Middle Georgia,
continuing to suffer from a lack of education and a genetic predisposition to the disease.37
Sexually active black women were most at risk, while the decrease in prevalence among middle
Georgia homosexual men stemmed in large part from the education efforts of Fambro and his
associates who helped persuaded gay men to change their behavior. Fambro discussed this
shocking change in the new face of HIV/AIDS, noting that educators must remember the other
half of the equation in most female HIV patients' predicaments. He stressed that "You can't

34 "The Johnny Fambro Story," interview by author, November 2017. (Michael-Angel León)
35 "The Johnny Fambro Story," interview by author, November 2017. (Michael-Angel León)
36 Cheryl Fincher, "Heterosexual AIDS spreading, specialist warn ," Telegraph (Macon), April 17, 1990, 1B.
37 Cheryl Fincher, "AIDS affecting many minorities, doctor says," Telegraph (Macon), November 11, 1987,1B.

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