Friday, October 31, 2008
Feel the Love...
Sparkle, Sister, Sparkle
Sister Glo shares her glittery gems of love for LifeLube.“Love has to be practiced. It has to find something to do. Love isn’t just a feeling. It’s an instruction: Love one another. That’s hard to do. It doesn’t mean sit at home and have fond feelings. You’ve got to treat people as if you love them, whether you do or not.”
-Wendell Berry
Sister Glo is an HIV educator, gay men’s health advocate, and member of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence in Seattle. She is drawn to sparkly objects and believes that glitter and the transformative power of love in action are necessary to gay men’s health and wellness.
Will My Marriage Last?
I got married on Saturday. I'm just hoping it lasts through next week.
Few newlyweds enter a marriage with such low expectations (except for maybe Britney Spears, whose 2004 Vegas quickie was annulled after two days). But my new spouse, Jeff Bechtloff, and I are gay men living in California. And like thousands of couples who've tied the knot since the state Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage this spring, we rushed to get wed before voters could decide on Nov. 4 whether or not we should.
Read the rest, by David J. Jefferson , in Newsweek.
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Gay is Good
So, LifeLube's Jim Pickett is the guest on the panda-obsessed Feast of Fools today, talking about why "gay is good", the National Gay Men's Health Summit, racism, booty health, the Tunnel of Love, World of Chocolate, and why the whole panda thing may just be a sign of Obama fever.
Listen to the podcast.
***And if you are in Chicago November 18, do plan to join LifeLube, Project CRYSP, Dr. Will Wong (yes, that's his name), pornstar J.C. Carter and the Feast of Fools for the Tunnel of Love.
Unspoken Mentorship: Intentional and unobtrusive coaching for new generations of queer men and women
[This was originally published in the Summer, 2006 issue of White Crane Journal, and so good, we wanted to share it here.]By Chris Bartlett
Many spiritual traditions point to the value of a gift freely and anonymously given. Jewish tradition states that all charity and philanthropy (tzedaka) ought to be contributed anonymously, with the goal that the recipient not be aware of who gave the gift. The strength of such an anonymous gift is that it can have a positive impact on the recipient, neither bringing about shame nor reinforcing existing power dynamics. I argue here that a gift of mentorship can likewise be unspoken—fueled by a powerful intention, and strengthened, paradoxically, by the lack of formal or named structure. In short, please mentor someone—but don’t tell him or her that you are doing it!How would it feel if you knew that a number of men and women had been secretly watching your back; both gently guiding your path with an invisible hand, and offering words of support in moments of both success and failure. They had actually been doing this for you for over ten years, without formalizing the relationship or pointing out the many gifts of coaching and leadership development that they had offered. You had often noticed their involvement in your life: the shared lively debates about politics, tips on how to manage a difficult situation or person, or advice on the best disco music for inspiring a crowd. It was they who (without telling you) had advocated that you receive the scholarship or the position of leadership. It was they who (without your knowledge) sent friends your way: new, inspiring friends who came along at just the right moment. They (unbeknownst to you) observed your growth and watched your development. It was they who told you that you were more than up to the many challenges that confronted you in living a good life.
I was lucky to have such an intentional and powerful gay adult in my life in Eric Rofes, who had been my friend and colleague for fifteen years when he died in June, 2006. Eric played an influential and unobtrusive role in my development as a leader. What I didn’t know until quite late in our relationship is that he had an intention to have this role towards me (and to quite a few others).
I had been thrilled and honored when Eric sent me the draft of one of his books to review, or invited me to sit on a panel with him, or introduced me to another gay writer or activist whom he admired. He gave me gentle feedback about my own efforts: “Your talk grabbed the audience”; “You could have given a few more examples”; “You need to include more ideas from women and people of color”. When I went through some very challenging months in 2000, Eric wrote me an encouraging note but didn’t offer any intrusive or unsolicited advice. If I had attempted (as some did) to formalize my relationship with Eric in some way, he would have said, “I don’t like the concept of the mentor. Too hierarchical. I learn as much from you as you do from me.”
Three years ago, after many years of such steady and informal coaching and friendship, Eric revealed his original intention in the context of a discussion about leadership development. He told me that Urvashi Vaid, community organizer and philanthropist, had talked with him in the early 1990s and suggested that he choose seven gay men and work with them to understand what it meant to be a radical gay community organizer. Eric liked the idea—but he decided that he didn’t want to tell the guys that he chose that they had been chosen. In addition to me, he chose six other men from different regions, fields of interest, and skills sets. If you were to speak to any of them today, they would tell you that they experienced the same depths of Eric’s generosity that I had.
Having had such a positive experience with Eric, I have sought to embrace this model of “unspoken mentorship” (as I call it: Eric would have been appalled at the implied hierarchy). I too have chosen a number of men (and in my case women and transpeople) whom I have intentionally and (unstatedly, informally) supported in their work as allies, colleagues, and organizers.
I choose five to seven men or women whose lives I would like to impact. Why five to seven? It’s natural that some percentage of the total will not be interested in my energies on their behalf: some will be too busy to receive my intention; others will be the sorts of independent spirits who bolt at the appearance of my assistance. It’s important for me quickly to let go of those who clearly are unwilling recipients of my intention and attention.
When I do choose, I look for the individuals who seem to benefit from my particular personality and energy type. Perhaps my match is the new young sissy at the faerie circle, or the co-worker who shows particular signs of strength in gentle leadership. I have been drawn to the transman who has spoken up at a community forum, or the lesbian who has just moved to town and shared a smile and a warm hug with me. I choose carefully, because the intention of support for these individuals is a powerful one, and it’s important for me to carefully consider possible recipients before I set my intention into action. I choose widely and diversely: people of color, queer heterosexuals, bold colleagues, dance partners, Radical Faeries, and, in one case, someone I met on the subway.
Once I have chosen, I begin to support the individual in his or her work. I offer to help on their projects, I share information about my own work, I recommend participation in various community efforts, I email interesting articles to them for their comment, and I am available to listen if they wish to share something. The key thing for me is to be keenly aware of when such support is appreciated, and when it is obtrusive and unwanted. I am always listening for the invitation for my unspoken intention. When the invitation does not exist, I let go and move on. Importantly, my intention is to help each one manifest his or her own dreams successfully.
I measure success in this project by the extent to which I am steadily of service to some number of queer folk who are open to my support. It feels unnecessary to name the relationship or to set forth its responsibilities in a contract. Such formality would, I believe, dispel the magic that exists in an informal relationship of mutual service and kindness.
At Eric’s memorial service in San Francisco I told a few of his “secret mentees” about Eric’s intentions towards us. It turned out that he hadn’t mentioned the plan to any of the others. I have to say that I’m not sure that it was the right thing to do to tell them myself. One of the people I told was thrilled to find out (“I thought that something like that was going on”); another seemed perplexed (“How weird”). The key thing I learned from these interactions at the memorial was that the magic of any of our relationships with Eric did not come from knowing that he had the intention. It came from the actions he took to invest in each one of us- actions that derived from that purposely unexpressed intention. Perhaps Eric would have preferred to have kept his secret to the grave, knowing as he did that some of the more spirited among us would resist the idea of being mentored by anyone. It is certainly clear that Eric’s impact in my life, and the lives of these other men, had nothing to do with a formal, structured relationship called mentoring. On the contrary, the beauty of his intention came in the humility of its not being spoken and in its actual impact: a new generation of gay men who benefited from Eric, as he benefited from us. It’s tzedaka of the best sort, I would say.
Chris Bartlett is gay community organizer and activist from Philadelphia, PA. He can be reached here.
Your Launching Pad for All Things HIV/AIDS in Chicago
Your Chicago HIV/AIDS Community
AIDS Connect is your launching pad for all things HIV/AIDS in Chicago. It is a community site designed to connect people to HIV/AIDS resources across the city.
On this site, people can:
• promote Chicago-area HIV-related events
• post job, volunteer, or internship opportunities in the
• find information on housing, case management, legal advice, and other services
• access PEERSpeak: An interactive educational tool to learn more about 
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Exotic
...“exotic” cannot be a permanent quality of any object. In order to enjoy the exotic, we must keep it at a distance. As soon as we possess it, it becomes familiar...
by Shinen Wong, via Fridae
In University, I fell in love with a boy whose name is S. I was 21, and he was 19. I was in my third year of university, just one year short of graduation, whereas he had just matriculated, fresh out of high school, nervous and excited, a gorgeous mess of a character. He was scruffy, lightly bearded on his boyish face, with short sugary-brown hair gently tousled on his head. He was Caucasian, with a lean, tight-framed, slightly lanky body. He stood about half an inch or so taller than I, about 1.27 centimetres in metric, something he and I had joked about once, foreshadowing our insurmountable differences.I remember seeing him during our first Gay-Straight Alliance meeting that year, and catching glimpse of his adorable features peeking out from behind the girl he was standing behind. He and I never made eye contact that night, he had a nervous timidity that meant he scurried away from the meeting as soon as it was over, and before I had had the chance to introduce myself. I could not stop thinking about him. I had felt my heart race like it had not for so long. I knew that I had to speak to him, the boy with the tuft of scruff under his chin, and the earrings that connoted: maybe he was a bad boy.
Read the rest.
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Addressing Intimate Partner Violence
Intimate partner violence signifies a range of aggressive acts used by one partner in a relationship – from a nameless trick to a lifelong spouse – to maintain power and control over the other.
by David Phillips
A Queerman and Leatherman from Arlington, VA, David is a leader of the Rainbow Response Coalition: Addressing IPV among LGBTQ in Metro DC. Watch his powerful video - Rough Cut: Day 8766
With rates of prevalence exceeding that of HIV among LGBTQ people, intimate partner violence (IPV) must be addressed within the 2009 Gay Men's Health Agenda, to prevent and to heal the abuse which too many of us have known. Studies have shown that about 40 percent of Gay men and men who have sex with men have experienced IPV during their lifetimes, with half that number having experienced IPV during the last five years.Yet, in surveying for community-based services designed for survivors of IPV, one will find very few counseling programs and virtually no legal assistance and shelter offerings prepared to serve Gay men and men who have sex with men in a welcoming and affirming manner. Notable programs that do exist for LGBTQ survivors include Fenway Community Health's Violence Recovery Program, the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center's STOP Domestic Violence Services, Seattle's Northwest Network, and the advocacy of the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs. If we want Gay men to be happy, healthy, and whole, the lack of available IPV services and the cycles of abuse must end.
Intimate partner violence signifies a range of aggressive acts used by one partner in a relationship – from a nameless trick to a lifelong spouse – to maintain power and control over the other. Intimate partner violence takes many forms, from hitting and verbal abuse, to rape and threats of outing one's sexual orientation, HIV status, or immigration status. IPV can be physical, emotional, sexual, or financial, but it always takes a psychological and spiritual toll on survivors.
I know this because intimate partner violence was inflicted on me over 24 years ago. A man whom I loved during college abused me physically, emotionally, sexually, and financially, coercing me into drug use, prostitution, and enduring his abuse for over a year. In 1984 there were fewer places for a Gay 18 year-old to turn, and the police were certainly not an option, particularly for someone who was not Out. My closeted state became a weapon that he used against me, just as other abusers do to their partners today.
Most of us would recognize a punch in the face, a kick in gut, or a violent sexual assault by a partner as abuse. Still, we might never see or be able to imagine more covert forms of abuse that are perpetrated every day somewhere near us between male partners.
No man should be dehumanized or talked down to by his partner. That's abuse.
No man should feel compelled to have sex that he doesn't want to have. That's abuse. BDSM without consent is battery and rape.
No man should have to sacrifice his personal safety in exchange for having his sexual orientation kept secret. That's abuse.
No man warrants having his money or possessions taken from him or destroyed to prevent him from leaving an abuser. That's more abuse.
Survivors of intimate partner violence are at increased risk for depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, suicide, problems with physical and sexual intimacy, infection with HIV and other STIs, and self-medicating with alcohol, nicotene and other drugs. We can spend years in self-doubt and confusion over why we were abused and why we stayed, answers we don't necessarily need in order to heal. However, culturally-sensitive counseling and response services--police, shelter, legal aid--can reduce the suffering which may follow survivors for decades. We need not remain prisoners of our batterers long after leaving them, and with community-based support we can recognize the abuse for what it is and begin to heal ourselves from the trauma we never asked for or deserved.
Watch David's powerful video - Rough Cut: Day 8766
[Click here to read previous input into the 2009 Gay Men's Health Agenda. Click here to get involved in Gay Men's Health organizing and ongoing dialogue. Please feel free to send in a post of your own here. We will be happy to publish it! ]
Loving Pinups
mmmmmmm..... real men
Pinups is a quarterly periodical that features one, sometimes two nude male models. There are no words—just an exaggeration of the classic centerfold. The magazine exists in book form but can be taken apart and then tiled together to reveal a life-size image. Created by Christopher Schulz, it's printed in New York City. And the editorial team over at LifeLube adores it!
Thanks to Knucklecrack for putting these real men on the LifeLube radar. MWAH!
Pinups is a quarterly periodical that features one, sometimes two nude male models. There are no words—just an exaggeration of the classic centerfold. The magazine exists in book form but can be taken apart and then tiled together to reveal a life-size image. Created by Christopher Schulz, it's printed in New York City. And the editorial team over at LifeLube adores it!
Thanks to Knucklecrack for putting these real men on the LifeLube radar. MWAH!
Study examines repeated exposure to HIV in treatment-suppressed HIV patients
A new study looking at unprotected intercourse within gay couples when each partner has established HIV-infection found a correlation between anti-HIV immune response and sexual activity.
Study results showed that individuals who had regular unprotected receptive anal intercourse with partners with significant levels of HIV in their blood showed a stronger anti-HIV immune response. In addition, the magnitude of anti-HIV specific immune response correlated with their exposure to HIV through sex.
Published in the October 24th, 2008 issue of PLoS Pathogens, "Immunity to HIV-1 Is Influenced by Continued Natural Exposure to Exogenous Virus," is authored by a research team from UCSF and the Gladstone Institute for Virology and Immunology.
The researchers found no evidence of systemic superinfection (re-infection with another strain of HIV) in the receptive partners, whose virus had been successfully suppressed through antiretroviral therapy for at least five months. In a comparison group of HIV-infected couples in which both partners' viruses had been suppressed by therapy, researchers did not find the same strength of immune responses correlations or the same correlations with sexual exposure.
"We found HIV-specific immune responses in the treatment-suppressed partners that correlated with the level and route of exposure. The individuals with no detectable virus who were on antiretroviral
therapy and who were exposed to HIV through receptive intercourse with a partner with detectable virus, had the stronger anti-HIV immune responses in comparison to individuals exposed to partners whose virus was also suppressed by antiretroviral therapy, where no effect was seen," said study lead author, Christian B. Willberg, PhD, post- doctoral fellow in the UCSF Division of Experimental Medicine.
Notwithstanding the intriguing HIV specific findings, the findings also reveal an important general mechanism occurring in infectious diseases.
"We found that immune responses to chronic viral infections are influenced not only by the chronic infection existing in an individual or host, but also by exposures to exogenous virus from outside the individual or host," said study co-senior author, Douglas F. Nixon, MD, PhD, professor of medicine in the UCSF Division of Experimental Medicine.
The investigators were unable to determine from these findings whether there is any benefit from this type of repeated exposure to HIV—i.e., a type of therapeutic vaccination for HIV-infected patients with suppressed virus. Some HIV patients on antiretroviral regimens lose many of their HIV-specific immune responses over time due to the successful suppression of viral replication by therapy.
"Indeed, our hypothesis had been that in the context of these waning anti-HIV responses among the suppressed partners and the expected level of exposure from repeated unprotected receptive intercourse, we would find evidence of superinfection. While we did not find systemic super-infection, we cannot exclude limited or localized superinfections in the gut. And, antiretroviral therapy may have been the factor that prevented superinfection in these patients," said study co-senior author Robert M. Grant, MD, MPH, senior investigator at the Gladstone Institute of Virology and Immunology and associate professor of medicine at UCSF.
The study involved 49 HIV-infected gay men from the San Francisco Positive Partners Program study—a cohort of couples in which both partners are HIV-positive that began enrolling participants in 2000. Viral suppression in this study meant viral loads less than 50 copies. Among those participants whose virus had not been suppressed, the lowest viral load was 9,420 copies.
The team that designed this study benefited from its unique multidisciplinary composition. Immunologists working with social researchers were able to design a study that managed to distinguish between different levels of viral suppression and different patterns of sexual contacts and correlate the immunological aspects with the behavioral variables.
"We call the interaction between these two scientific communities together: 'social immunology'. It may be true that patterns of social activities shape immune responses generally, as we observed for people with HIV having contact with other HIV infected persons. Obviously more study is needed and we would like to see whether social immunology will continue to offer important insights," said Grant.
"While we have not found a case of superinfection in our cohort of chronically infected HIV couples, a handful of cases of superinfection verified by linkage to a known partner's virus have been reported in chronically infected HIV patients. It is also important to stress, these findings do not address the negative consequences of acquiring other sexually transmitted diseases through engaging in unprotected sex or the potentially positive consequences that unprotected sex may have in partnerships where both individuals are HIV-positive," said study co-author, J. Jeff McConnell, MA, director of the Positive Partners study at the Gladstone Institute for Virology and Immunology.
Read the paper here.
Connect with the Gay Men's Health Movement via Ning
Click here to engage every which way but loose with the gay men's health movement. This fabulous new web portal, put together by Stephan Adelson, is a wonderful, fresh, functional way for all the folks working on gay men's health to stay connected with each other - to share, inspire, encourage, challenge, enrage, debate - always moving forward.
Visit the site and sign in - join the conversation and take action for yourself and your communities.
Monday, October 27, 2008
Lady Bunny
Time for a giggle...
"Lighting don't affect a bitch's ability to pick up a goddamn brush!"
Is she illiterate?
Thanks Feast of Fools!
"Lighting don't affect a bitch's ability to pick up a goddamn brush!"
Is she illiterate?
Thanks Feast of Fools!
THE TIME HAS COME TO END THE HIV BAN ON TRAVEL AND IMMIGRATION
It’s time for the U.S. to end this anachronistic and discriminatory ban and treat foreign nationals with HIV with the dignity and respect they deserve.
by Victoria Neilson
Legal Director
Immigration Equality
I feel a little beyond my ken addressing issues of gay men’s health since I’m an immigration attorney, but I think that it’s important for anyone who cares about HIV issues to be aware of the discrimination against foreign nationals with HIV which continues to exist under U.S. immigration law, and our hope that this law will soon change. “Foreign national,” is a broad term (the Immigration Service and press often use the term “alien.”) This term encompasses short-term visitors, such as tourists, students, long-term temporary workers, and “green card” applicants, such as relatives of Americans, diversify visa lottery winners, and refugees and asylees. Under current law, any HIV-positive foreign national seeking to enter the U.S. short-term or seeking to obtain a “green card” here, is barred by law from doing so. Even if that person wants to enter for just one day, he cannot do so without first going through an onerous waiver process.
For “green card” applicants, an HIV waiver is only available if the applicant has a close relative who is a U.S. citizen or legal permanent resident, or if the applicant is an asylee or refugee. Since long-term same-sex partnerships are not recognized under U.S. immigration law, the HIV ban disproportionately discriminates against LGBT foreign nationals who are less likely to have relationships with U.S. citizens or “green card” holders which would qualify them for a waiver.
In 1993, when President Clinton sought to change this policy and remove HIV from the Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) list of “communicable diseases of public health significance,” Congress espoused overt homophobia, claiming that Clinton had kowtowed enough to the homosexual lobby, and inserted HIV directly into the Immigration and Nationality Act. This made HIV the only medical condition which barred entry by statute, as well as by HHS regulation.
Finally, 15 years later, Senators John Kerry and Gordon Smith, and Congresswoman Barbara Lee, were able to insert language eliminating the statutory HIV ban into the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) bill which was signed into law on July 30, 2008. It is significant that Congress and the President passed this legislation as part of PEPFAR because the HIV ban has tainted our image as the purported leader in the fight against AIDS abroad while we continue to discriminate against those with HIV at home.
The removal of the statutory HIV ban was a huge first step toward equality under the law for foreign nationals with HIV. The ban is still in effect, however, until HHS removes HIV from its list of “communicable diseases of public health significance.” The Director of the Centers for Disease Control Julie Gerberding stated in a letter to the Washington Post on October 6, 2008, “this administration is committed to removing HIV infection [from the HHS list] as soon as possible.” We hope she’s right. It’s time for the U.S. to end this anachronistic and discriminatory ban and treat foreign nationals with HIV with the dignity and respect they deserve.
[Click here to read previous input into the 2009
"If you were rejected every time you disclosed your HIV status, would you?"
HIV stigma is putting 'clean, ub2' or 'disease-free' in your online cruising profile.
HIV stigma is rejecting HIV-positive gay men when they disclose their HIV status but having sex with them when they don't.
Because of HIV stigma, some gay men make silent assumptions about the HIV status of their sexual partners based on beliefs they hold about who has HIV or how someone with HIV looks or where someone with HIV has sex.
HIV stigma is rejecting HIV-positive gay men when they disclose their HIV status but having sex with them when they don't.
Because of HIV stigma, some gay men make silent assumptions about the HIV status of their sexual partners based on beliefs they hold about who has HIV or how someone with HIV looks or where someone with HIV has sex.
Join Us in the Tunnel of Love
A happy booty
is a healthy booty...
is a healthy booty...
[click to enlarge]
Find out how to keep it hot, happy and healthy.
Learn the secrets of the porn stars.
*FREE* RSVP for this November 18 live podcast forum at the Center on Halsted. Moderated by the Feast of Fools.
Friday, October 24, 2008
STOP AIDS Project's social quarantine approach to HIV prevention
If this particular misuse of social network theory is the future of HIV prevention, I want no part of it, and I will do everything within my power to stop it.by Michael Scarce
In their social network approach to HIV prevention, STOP AIDS Project in San Francisco has launched an attempt to segregate older and younger gay men to prevent new infections. Defined as "preventing disassortative mixing," the self-described community based organization has received a $200,000 research grant from the University of California to implement experimental structural interventions to "pull high risk and low risk men apart" in social environments such as bars and interactive web sites. Disassortative mixing refers to sex between men with differing characteristics such as race and age.Jen Hecht, Education Director for STOP AIDS Project, and Dan Wohlfeiler, former Education Director, have stated, "Young men’s greatest risk of infection is having sex with older men, who are more likely to be HIV positive."
Although they assert a dedication to respecting human rights and freedom of choice, they liken their interventions to other public health prohibitions such as bans on smoking in public spaces. These comments are disturbingly reminiscent of conservative groups' recent call for restricting gay men's freedoms based on community-acquired staph infections. The groups based their argument on the notion that infected gay men pose a danger to the "general population," citing legal bans on smoking in public places and demanding similar legal intervention to prevent "second-hand sodomy."
In a meeting earlier this year, the collaborative research team described a scenario in which a door man turned away a group of younger men who attempted to enter a gay bar frequented by older gay men. The scenario was described as a positive and idealistic example of the kind of effect they hoped to achieve in their prevention of "mixing." In a recent national presentation to other public health organizations, Wohlfeiler displayed a slideshow containing a cartoon image of an older, Tom of Findland-like gay man with a mustache, leather jacket, and bulging crotch. He remarked:
"It's an older gay male icon, and the reason I put it there is: Years ago there were a number of young men who would come into the STOP AIDS Project and say, 'We don't want to have... If we want to be safe, we avoid having sex with guys who have leather jackets and mustaches,' by which they meant somebody considerably older. And of course we all laughed, and said, 'Oh, that's silly. That's not very protective.'
But in fact, one of the riskiest things a young person can do is have sex with somebody who is much older. And for gay youth, you know, and straight youth, that's been born out to be true, that age of partner is sometimes more important in terms of their risk than the frequency of condom use, their drug use, and other individual factors."Wohlfeiler fails to elaborate exactly how the age of one's sex partner is more important than condom use in becoming infected with HIV.
STOP AIDS Project's attempts to coerce and manipulate gay men's behavior escapes the oversight of the University of California's Human Subjects Research Review because it operates on a community level rather than directly affecting specific individuals. The research grant assures community involvement at each step by consulting with a number of community advisory boards for each of the social venues, despite the fact that the boards have never met monthly and none of them have met for nearly a year.
Their work relies on highly biased statistical data gathered during the course of street outreach to San Francisco gay men, and invokes the notion of "core groups" akin to the early days of the epidemic. In the early 1980s, the Centers for Disease Control identified a "4-H Club" of risk groups that included hemophiliacs, Haitians, homosexuals, and heterosexual prostitutes. The resulting stigmatization of certain populations based on demographic characteristics associated with HIV infection led to widespread discrimination, social isolation, and even violence against these groups of people. For these reasons, the Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990 included explicit protections against discrimination not only for those infected with HIV, but also for those who were wrongly perceived to be infected based on other characteristics or for associating with infected individuals. Other federal legislation guarantees fundamental civil rights that include equal access to public accommodations such as bars, regardless of one's HIV status or age.
Attempts to "fragment sexual networks" of gay men might sound like objective epidemiological science, but they ultimately serve to divide our community.
This cultivates ageism and the stigmatization of those infected, creates a false sense of safety equating youth with lack of risk, further socially isolates HIV positive men, prevents intergenerational mentoring, erodes our civil liberties, and destroys our collective access to forms of social capital and other assets that produce and protect our health.
I have left my position at STOP AIDS Project because I refuse to support work that damages gay men's health in these ways, and because I have been repeatedly harassed and disciplined by Jen Hecht and other members of STOP AIDS Project management for opposing what I believe to be unethical, illegal and discriminatory practices. If this particular misuse of social network theory is the future of HIV prevention, I want no part of it, and I will do everything within my power to stop it.
Read "Ask Gay Men What They Want and Need" - also by Michael.
Preparing for a New Administration - and Putting Gay Men's Health Squarely on the Agenda
It is not simply enough to address the consequences of stigma and discrimination against LGBT Americans.
by Randall Ellis
Senior Director of Govt Relations
Legacy Community Health Services - Houston
Discrimination and a lack of appropriate funding for our community’s health needs deprive many gay men from achieving the optimal level of health and wellness. Although LGBT people in general have gained greater visibility in our society, the past eight years have been a difficult for gay men’s health and wellness issues. While the current administration has used LGBT Americans as scapegoats in their quest to win elections and maintain political power, our most pressing health issues have had to compete for dwindling funds. As Washington DC prepares for a new administration, gay men can now hope to proactively advance important health care issues instead of fighting to simply maintain current funding on programs.National AIDS Strategy
Worldwide, most cases of HIV are spread from heterosexual contact, not sex between men. Here in the U.S., however, gay men make up a disproportionate share of HIV/AIDS. We as gay men must continue to take responsibility in leading the fight to end this disease.
It is a disgrace that we are more than 25 years into HIV/AIDS epidemic and the United States of America still does no have a comprehensive strategy to address HIV/AIDS; something we require of foreign nations seeking assistance through PEPFAR (President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief). It is time that the United States put in place a comprehensive plan that pulls together government agencies, community organizations, as well as the business community to create a coordinated plan to bring down HIV infection rates, increase access to lifesaving care, and reduce racial disparities.
Increased Resources for Mental Health and Substance Abuse
Mental health services and substance abuse prevention and treatment are issues greatly underfunded in the United States. It is time that we invest more resources in interventions designed specifically for gay men. In addition, we need more funding for and LGBT treatment and mental health clinics.
Often estranged from their families of origin due to their sexual orientation, gay men also face homophobic attitudes from co-workers, media, and religious and social institutions. These negative messages, combined with an overall lack of social support, frequently lead to feelings of isolation and depression that in turn can have a deleterious effect upon the overall health of this population. Studies have consistently documented higher rates of depression, substance abuse, and suicide attempts among LGBT populations due to these social stresses.
It is not simply enough to address the consequences of stigma and discrimination against LGBT Americans. We must also push for a nationwide campaign to combat the discrimination and stigma. We must address the root causes of mental health and substance abuse by creating a more tolerant and accepting society.
Healthcare Reform
The issue of reforming our nations’ health care system has gained momentum over the past year. An overwhelming majority of Americans believe the new administration must act now to change our current system. It is important that LGBT Americans have a seat at the table as our nation looks at reforming our healthcare system. Gay men and their families must be able to provide input to ensure our issues and concerns about healthcare are addressed.
The coming year hold the promise of great change for our country. Gay men must seize the opportunity and proactively push a healthcare agenda that deals with the unique challenges our community faces.
[Click here to read previous input into the 2009
Feel the Love...
Sparkle, Sister, Sparkle
Sister Glo shares her glittery gems of love for LifeLube."When love and skill work together, expect a masterpiece."
- John Ruskin
Sister Glo is an HIV educator, gay men’s health advocate, and member of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence in Seattle. She is drawn to sparkly objects and believes that glitter and the transformative power of love in action are necessary to gay men’s health and wellness.
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