PIP: While recognizing the important role played by lesbian women in HIV/AIDS prevention in many countries, and as members of some gay organizations in the South, this article focuses only on gay men. Even though formidable societal proscriptions against homosexuality exist in many developing countries and Eastern European countries, gay men served duty on the front lines as AIDS educators and care givers. The threat of the AIDS crisis impelled some to openly acknowledge their sexuality in an effort to reach gay men at risk. In the West, gay organizations had already laid a 10 year foundation of organization and community trust, when the AIDS epidemic appeared in the public spot light. This fact allowed them to act as effective educators of their own gay communities. They were so effective that the number of new HIV cases has leveled off in the gay community. In Central and South America, gay movement cohered in 1976 and responded quickly to AIDS in 1983. In Africa, homosexuality is often considered a contamination of the West and national gay organizations (NGOs) have only recently been formed in Ghana, Tanzania, and Nigeria. The only AIDS services organizations (ASOs) for black men exist in Zimbabwe and South Africa. In Asia NGOs are a new phenomenon that exist only in Hong Kong, Indonesia, India, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand. All NGOs have several things in common. Governments are rarely interested in working with NGOs so they are forced to find their own funding and develop their own education campaigns. Even in countries that recognize the implications and magnitude of the AIDS crisis, their education programs and policies are often homophobic or anti-gay. In the countries where the government is sympathetic to the gay community they rely upon NGOs to help them develop national education programs for both gays and the rest of the population.