Anal 101 with Tristan Taormino

Tristan Taormino recently sat down with Keith Orr from AIDS Action's MALE Center before she held a workshop dealing with issues around anal sex.




Check out her Pucker Up posts on anal sex.

Feel the Love... with Sister Glo

Joy is prayer - Joy is strength - Joy is love - Joy is a net of love by which you can catch souls.

~ Mother Theresa

Sister Glo shares her glittery gems of love with LifeLube each Friday.

Friday is for Faeries

The "Work In" - The Infamous 4th Step

Ed Negron, a former drug user, turned gangbanger, turned drug dealer, turned own best customer, turned addict, turned recovering addict (still there), turned activist, turned business manager, turned student, turned Substance Abuse Counselor, turned better and happier person, turned someone who can love and be loved (Love you Patrick), turned blogger. Check out Ed's own blog here.

Featured Every Thursday on LifeLube --- check out all of Ed's "Work-In's" here.

Series began with Step One January 29, 2009
Click here for Step Two
Click here for Step Three

The 12 Steps: A historic and analytic explanation

[Channeled via 12 Steps Workbook: The Proactive Twelve Steps by Serge Prengel]

Since the beginning of our work-in we have been doing a lot of work, good work to, on our inner self, keep it up. This is the first major effort we’ll make at formal self-examination. Self-examination, and the resulting self-knowledge, is critically important to building our inner strength. It is also a vitally important component of all spiritual disciplines. It’s time to own our shit. In order to move forward you have to own up to your mistakes and stop blaming others for them. Without doing this we are bound to continue to repeat those old mistakes over and over again.

Step 4

I honestly look at the effects of my actions on others and myself.

Original wording (AA):
Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.

Honesty

When things aren't working well, the temptation is to hunker down, feel defensive, and try to prove why what you're doing should work. Of course, this won't magically make things work.

Step 4 is about stepping away from the heat of battle, and taking a non-partisan look at your own actions.

Does it mean that you were bad, and we now have to become good?

No, you're certainly not trying to become an angel (or to convince yourself that you’re one). In fact, if you try to go that route, your life somehow becomes even more unmanageable. All you have to do is try to not be so defensive. That is, try to just face the reality of what you do without jumping to justify it in the same breath. The original 12 steps called Step 4 a "fearless" moral inventory. The fearlessness lies in that you accept to face reality, whatever it is.

Beyond good and evil

What makes this kind of honesty possible is removing the notion of judgment - that is, the potential for blame and shame. Step 4 is about looking at facts - as opposed to adding overlays of judgment and blame onto them in such a way that the facts become obscured.

There is a big difference between being in Criminal Court and doing Step 4:
- In Criminal Court, the rule is for the indicted person to avoid responsibility.
- In Step 4, your goal is to work toward taking responsibility for what you do.

Why would you do that? It is a logical continuation of the leap of faith described earlier. Your hope is that, whatever you find out about yourself, it will be something that you can live with.

This will lead you to eventually get to know your true self - - and that this might turn out to be a better person than you thought you were!

Now it’s time to stop reading and start writing.

Get to work! You have an inventory to write.

To read daily motivations visit my blog at thework-in.blogspot.com or to receive daily motivations via email join our Google group Back To The Basics Please .

If you are not sure how to begin your work-in or need some guidance please feel free to post a comment or email me directly at thework-in@hotmail.com, I will response as soon as I can.

(Usual disclaimer applies: The suggestions on this blog are just that “SUGGESTIONS.” My words cannot heal your pain and or addictions. Nor can I change your life. Only you can.)

“Every time you don't follow your inner guidance, you feel a loss of energy, loss of power, a sense of spiritual deadness." -- Shakti Gawain

How is Leon Liberman healthy?

I'm a 77-year old Emersonian non-conformist, surprisingly blessed with probably undeserved good enough health, considering decades of indifference, neglect and abuse. The accompanying photograph is proof that I look somewhat younger than my age.

What do I contribute my good health to? I walk. I do it in part as my only exercise but mostly for pleasure. I have an insatiable curiosity and very little is missed when you walk as opposed to drive which I never learned to do.

I don't make a career of aging or not being wholly well. I accept the physical, social and sexual limitations forced on me and because of that acceptance, I handle them well. I seldom run to catch buses, rest when I'm tired, don't suffer bores and understand rejection. I detest condescension by those who patronize the aging.

I know that what seems right for me not be right for others. I thrive on black coffee, Marlboros, the odd bourbon and a lot of nostalgia although I agree with Simone Signoret who called her autobiography, "Nostalgia Isn't What It Used To Be."

I eat what I enjoy eating when I'm hungry. Retired and living alone, it's easy for me not to abide by popularly accepted lunch and dinner times. I weigh an approximate 160 pounds. I think that obesity should be taxed to pay for the inevitable diabetes and kidney and heart failure treatment that is as much a drain on the health care system as any other condition if not more.

I dutifully turn up for regularly scheduled doctor appointments and rush to see doctors when I suspect that something unusual is happening. I recently asked a doctor why I'm so fortunate in responding well to medication that I take for diagnosed conditions and am able to ward off others related to aging and the sexually active. He said that genes have a lot to do with it and as much,
it's the luck of the draw. My father died at 81 and my mother at 90.

I keep medication down to the minimum required for me to survive and function as I want to. I take very little preventive medication. I expect to outlive some if not all of the cursed afflictions of aging. I've never been in a gym, run a marathon, or bought anything at Whole Foods. I have no panacea to share for keeping in good working order. Someone had written, "The only justification for death is to live" on a Barcelona metro wall. I buy that argument. Do what has to be done to keep yourself in good or as I said in my case, good enough health but make sure that it includes large doses of curiosity, new learning experiences, simple pleasures and everyday delights. Mental health is as important as physical. Don't give in or give up. Keep interested.

Abrazos y Besos!

-- Leon Liberman
Chicago

How are you healthy?
Join in the conversation.
Tell us HERE. Send a pic to the same place.
And we'll blog it, right here.
Read past posts.
Learn more about the campaign.

Civil Marriage. Civil Rights.

pic by Terence Heuston

Salon - Gay mecca no more

"We needed to show how our movement would benefit overall democracy."


California used to be a sanctuary for homosexual immigrants worldwide. Now they might go to South Africa, or Maine.

via Salon.com, by Sandip Roy

When I first moved to San Francisco from India, my aunt said, "Be careful, it's full of homosexuals. And it has earthquakes."

I didn't tell her that I wanted to feel the earth move. I had watched "The Times of Harvey Milk" on video and knew that this was where you came to be gay, from places where you didn't dare to say its name.

California drew not just the lonely teenagers from Idaho and Missouri on Greyhound buses. It also drew immigrants like me from all over the world seeking to put an ocean or two between them and their parents and clans trying to arrange their marriages. This was where software companies gave us domestic partner rights and the mayor marched in pride parades. This was where the world looked to see if change had come to America. And where we came for sanctuary.

But now the center of gravity is shifting. In the wake of the court decision on the legality of Proposition 8 (as opposed to its righteousness) there will be protests and candlelight marches and angry rhetoric. Already I am getting the faxes and e-mails. But perhaps it could also be a time for those of us who have been used to the world looking at us, to look out at the world instead. The pot of gold is shifting to the other end of the rainbow.

In India, Bollywood actor and model Celina Jaitley has a blog on the Times of India Web site calling for equal rights for gays. In Durban, South Africa, Joe Singh and his partner, Wesley Nolan, married each other. A Hindu priest officiated. Nolan put a Lord Ganesha pendant around Singh's neck to remove obstacles and ward off evils.

In a few years some young activist in South Asia might be mystified why the world's first group for LGBT South Asians was born all the way out in California. "Don't move to Kathmandu," his aunt will say. "It has Maoists and gays."

It's true. A small conservative country like Nepal is considering same-sex marriage. A few years ago the Maoists had dismissed the notion of homosexuality as a bourgeois affectation, irrelevant in the revolution. In 2008 the Maoist prime minister sent Sunil Pant (pictured above, holding umbrella), founder of Nepal's only gay rights group and by now its first openly gay member of parliament, to New York to sign the U.N. resolution calling for a worldwide decriminalization of homosexuality. (The U.S. declined to vote on that resolution at that time.)

How did that happen? Pant said when the fight for the movement for democracy took to the streets his group was right there in the trenches. "In 2006 democracy was more important than fighting for LGBTQ rights. We don't have to hide ourselves in some kind of shadow," he said. "But we needed to show how our movement would benefit overall democracy."

In California right now the economy might be more important than LGBT rights. Gay activists would do well to read Pant's handbook. There are a lot of bruising fights shaping up over budget cuts that will affect healthcare, education, social services -- all issues that will hit communities of color the hardest. These are the same communities that the gay rights marriage campaign in California was accused of ignoring in the lead-up to Proposition 8. This could be a chance for a gay movement to become more inclusive, to turn a protest rally into a real movement.

When I was in Kathmandu earlier this month, the Maoist-led government had collapsed (though not over gay marriage). Red flag-waving Maoist supporters were parading down the streets of Kathmandu, chanting slogans. South Asia's newest democracy was in turmoil, struggling to find direction. I don't know whether gay rights and same-sex marriage will get lost in the chaos. But even if they do suffer a setback, the lessons of Nepal are quite clear.

"We needed to show how our movement would benefit overall democracy."

It's a good one for California's gay activists to heed. Otherwise California will no longer be the future. It will be the place tourists come to gawk at the most exclusive club of all -- the 18,000 same-sex couples whose marriages the court left standing -- as if they are some rare endangered animals in a sanctuary. And then they will heave a sigh of relief, shake their heads at the quaintness of it all and go back to their happily married gay lives in places like Iowa, Connecticut and Maine. And Nepal.

Who's that Queer? Andy Warhol!

Brought to you by Pistol Pete

Andy Warhol was a was an American painter, printmaker, and filmmaker who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art. After a successful career as a commercial illustrator, Warhol became famous worldwide for his work as a painter, avant-garde filmmaker, record producer, author, and public figure known for his membership in wildly diverse social circles that included bohemian street people, distinguished intellectuals, Hollywood celebrities and wealthy aristocrats.

Andrew Warhola was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1928. In 1945 he entered the Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University) where he majored in pictorial design. Upon graduation, Warhol moved to New York where he found steady work as a commercial artist. In 1952, the artist had his first individual show at the Hugo Gallery, exhibiting Fifteen Drawings Based on the Writings of Truman Capote. His work was exhibited in several other venues during the 1950s, including his first group show at The Museum of Modern Art in 1956.

Many people think of Warhol as "asexual" and merely a "voyeur", however it is now well established that he was gay. The question of how Warhol's sexuality influenced his work and shaped his relationship to the art world is a major subject of scholarship on the artist, and is an issue that Warhol himself addressed in interviews, in conversation with his contemporaries, and in his publications.


Throughout his career, Warhol produced erotic photography and drawings of male nudes and one rare one of a woman "pati palomeras". Many of his most famous works (portraits of Liza Minnelli, Judy Garland, and Elizabeth Taylor, and films like Blow Job, My Hustler, and Lonesome Cowboys) draw from gay underground culture and/or openly explore the complexity of sexuality and desire. Many of his films premiered in gay porn theaters. That said, some stories about Warhol's development as an artist revolved around the obstacle his sexuality initially presented as he tried to launch his career. The first works that he submitted to a gallery in the pursuit of a career as an artist were homoerotic drawings of male nudes. They were rejected for being too openly gay.


Furthermore, the artist recalls a conversation with the film maker Emile de Antonio about the difficulty Warhol had being accepted socially by the then more famous (but closeted) gay artists Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg. De Antonio explained that Warhol was "too swish and that upsets them." In response to this, Warhol wrote, "There was nothing I could say to that. It was all too true. So I decided I just wasn't going to care, because those were all the things that I didn't want to change anyway, that I didn't think I 'should' want to change... Other people could change their attitudes but not me". In exploring Warhol's biography, many turn to this period – the late 1950s and early 1960s – as a key moment in the development of his persona. Some have suggested that his frequent refusal to comment on his work, to speak about himself (confining himself in interviews to responses like "Um, No" and "Um, Yes", and often allowing others to speak for him), and even the evolution of his Pop style can be traced to the years when Warhol was first dismissed by the inner circles of the New York art world.

Source: Wikipedia.org, mbergerart.com

FOUR days left to stop doomsday budget Illinois!

TAKE ACTION: Illinois Legislators: Don’t Come Home Until You Fully Fund HIV Services!

Less than a week remains until the General Assembly adjourns on Sunday, May 31 - and we need your help. The proposed cuts to HIV/AIDS services loom large but our elected officials cannot agree on tax reform that will sustain these critical services. Even if you've already sent a fax or letter to your legislators, Please call your state senator and representative today with this important message:

"My name is ___ and I'm a constituent. I am calling to ask my representative (or senator) to please not leave Springfield until AIDS services are fully funded. Without modest and fair tax increases, the state will be forced to cut vital HIV care, prevention, and housing. Please don't let that happen."

TAKE ACTION NOW!

It's inspiring how our community has come together to protect the well-being of all people living with and at risk for HIV/AIDS. We thank the more than 1,000 individuals who responded with letters and faxes to their legislators, and organized their communities to do the same.

KEEP THE PRESSURE ON! If state legislators don't enact progressive tax reforms to balance the budget, people with and at risk for HIV will experience substantial service cuts. With more than 44,000 Illinoisans living with HIV and 3,000 new infections each year, now is not the time to cut back on essential HIV health and human services.

An Invisible Crisis

More than a decade after Andrew Sullivan declared the end of AIDS on the cover of The New York Times Magazine, black and Latino communities in the U.S. continue to be devastated by the disease. But as the rate of new HIV infections continues to soar in communities of color, and decline among white communities, it's disappeared from the front pages of many publications. Our first story explores the efforts under way to fight this largely invisible crisis - one in which race, class, poverty, and deeply entrenched beliefs combine to hinder HIV prevention and treatment.

Watch this In the Life segment, and two others, collectively titled "Confronting Crisis" here.

AlterNet - How Can We Expect an Industry That Profits from Disease and Sickness to Police Itself?

via AlterNet, by Bill Moyers and Michael Winship

The health care industry has spent $134 million on lobbying this year to keep its profits high and public health in the shadows.

In 2003, a young Illinois state senator named Barack Obama told a local AFL-CIO meeting, “I am a proponent of a single-payer universal health care program.”

Single payer. Universal. That’s health coverage, like Medicare, but for everyone who wants it. Single payer eliminates insurance companies as pricey middlemen. The government pays care providers directly. It’s a system that polls consistently have shown the American people favoring by as much as two-to-one.

There was only one thing standing in the way, Obama said six years ago: “All of you know we might not get there immediately because first we have to take back the White House, we have to take back the Senate and we have to take back the House.”

Fast forward six years. President Obama has everything he said was needed – Democrats in control of the executive branch and both chambers of Congress. So what’s happened to single payer?

Read the rest.

How is Dennis Sneyers healthy?

There are several ways I stay healthy. The first is knowing my family health history, secondly is regular exercise and thirdly reducing the amount of stress I experience at work.

Knowing my family health history and sharing it with my physician is key. All of my grandparents and both parents had heart attacks or required by-pass surgery by their mid-50's. Knowing and sharing this with my doctor provided us with the knowledge to have the proper tests administered including cholesterol levels. Another advantage to knowing my family health history was learning that two of my five sisters experienced blood clotting during pregnancy. This suggested to my doctor that we should determine my blood factor. Not only does each of us have a blood type, but they're also different levels of clotting of the blood. After a series of blood tests it was determined that I have a blood factor called Factorr Five Leiden which means my blood clots easily. When I travel by air for long trips I need injections of medication to prevent blood clots from forming during a long sit. This condition, I learned, is especially common among people who have northern European ancestor.

It is common knowledge that exercise helps to control blood pressure and build strong bones. As we get older our bones tend to lose density and can more easily lead to fracturing. I tend to hit the gym at least 5 - 6 times a week. I insure that I get in at least 20 minutes of cardio with each work out to help control my cholesterol level and keep my weight gain to a minimum. I was also heavily involved in bringing the 2006 Gay Games to Chicago where I competed in rowing, which I continue to do. Certainly one doesn't have to belong to a gym to gain the benefits of exercise.

Stress can also be a factor in people who may be susceptible to heart health issues. Every day I make a point of getting away from my desk for a brief walk, maybe only five minutes. I also make a habit of not letting problems at work build up. Bad news doesn't get better with time so I alert my manager to any problems as soon as they are known.

Finally, my dog provides me with a lot of joy. Many studies have shown that individuals can lower blood pressure levels by having the companionship of a pet...certainly a well-worth trade off for the 6AM mid-winter walks!

-- Dennis Sneyers
Chicago

How are you healthy?
Join in the conversation.
Tell us HERE. Send a pic to the same place.
And we'll blog it, right here.
Read past posts.
Learn more about the campaign.

Subway Pole Dancers

Woof Wednesday

NOW can we Dump Gay Marriage as a Cause?

Prop 8 is a Distraction, or: NOW can we Dump Gay Marriage as a Cause?

via The Bilerico Project, by Yasmin Nair

Today's decision by the California Supreme Court will, no doubt, cause gays and lesbians to gather to express their anger over the recent decision. But in the midst of all the emotional outbursts, a lot of us are left to silently wonder how and why either Prop 8 or marriage became the raging issues of the so-called gay movement. The recent ruling will re-energize gay marriage advocates, but I suggest that we use it as an opportunity to drastically alter our course: Dump marriage now.

Let's be clear: Prop 8 was a measure that should never have passed. Today, the California Supreme Court has ruled that the measure itself will stand, but that the 18,000 or so marriages that took place in the meantime will remain legal.

I'd like to suggest that we end this drain on resources that we call gay marriage. The fact that the measure is wrong does not mean that the fight for gay marriage is the cause we should be battling for. There are, believe it or not, many, many gays and lesbians, and yes, a lot of queers and straight people, who don't feel the need to marry. They resolutely object to the idea that marital status should determine whether or not they get health care or validation from society.

Read the rest.

Prop. 8 upheld by California Supreme Court

So much for trend-setting California! BOOOOOOO!


via Los Angeles Times

The California Supreme Court today upheld Proposition 8's ban on same-sex marriage but also ruled that gay couples who wed before the election will continue to be married under state law.

Read the rest.

Gay and AIDS community condemn Frieden CDC appointment

“The bad news is that [Frieden’s] propensity to ignore the concerns of affected communities may hinder his ultimate success in achieving the goals of aligning public health with the best that science has to offer.”

via Housing Works, by David Thorpe

This week’s appointment of New York City Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden to head the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) provoked dismay among AIDS advocates and the gay press in New York City and beyond (with some exceptions).

As Health Commissioner, Frieden tried to do away with informed consent for HIV tests, made an Orwellian power grab for the medical information of people living with HIV, and infamously mishandled the so-called AIDS “superbug” case in 2005. As head of the CDC, Frieden may try to bully states into adopting routine testing without informed consent and will almost certainly take a step away from the real concerns of real people living with HIV/AIDS.

Read the rest.

Of interest in Gay City News:
Policy Regarding Bathhouses and Other Commercial Sex Venues in New York City

How is Darius Mayfield healthy?

Healthy to me means maintaining. I am healthy because I have to have positive energy in my life. My family and friends bring so much laughter and thought into my life. Without them, I do not know what I will do.

My body is something that really matters to me. I like to be cut so I workout everyday and eat a balance meal. To me, my body is a temple and what goes inside of it matters. I strongly believe that putting toxins in your body can harm it for years to come. I choose to take care of my body while I am young so I will not have so many problems once I get older.

Lastly, I respect the planet in which we live. I thank GOD for the universe, so I respect it by recycling and not littering, By doing all of this, I choose to stay healthy.

-- Darius Mayfield
Chicago

How are you healthy?
Join in the conversation.
Tell us HERE. Send a pic to the same place.
And we'll blog it, right here.
Read past posts.
Learn more about the campaign.

PRESS RELEASE: CDPH Survey Reveals Significant Racial Disparities in Rates of HIV Infections Among Men Who Sex With Men in Chicago

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

At the May Board of Health meeting (held May 20, 2009), the Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH) released data which, available for the first time, describes community estimates of HIV infection rates and levels of unrecognized infection among men who have sex with men (MSM) in Chicago. The presentation, entitled “HIV Prevalence, Unrecognized Infection, and HIV Testing among MSM in Chicago, 2008”, highlights significant racial disparities in levels of HIV infection among MSM. Between August and December of 2008, CDPH’s Chicago HIV Behavioral Surveillance System (Project CHAT) randomly sampled 570 MSM at 57 venues throughout Chicago where MSM congregate. Participants consented to a 30-minute survey and an HIV test.

The report found the overall proportion of MSM that tested positive for HIV infection was 17.4%.

HIV prevalence was 30.1% among African-American MSM,
12.0% among Hispanic MSM,

and 11.3% among White MSM surveyed.

The racial disparity appears significantly more pronounced among MSM under 35 years of age. Young African-American MSM were over 7 times more likely to be infected than young White MSM (30.0% vs. 4.2%). “These findings mirror national data from other large cities that show disproportionate rates of HIV infection among African-American MSM, particularly among younger groups, compared to other MSM”, said Nikhil Prachand, senior CDPH epidemiologist and a principal investigator of Project CHAT.

Of those who tested HIV-positive, over 50% were unaware of their HIV infection at the time of the survey. Two-thirds of African-Americans (67%) were unaware of their HIV infection at the time of the survey. This compares to half of all Hispanic MSM and less than a quarter of White MSM (23%).

Among all MSM unaware of their HIV infection, 50% reported not having an HIV test in the past year. Many reported their main reason for not being tested recently because of ‘a fear of testing positive’. The data also suggest that MSM may be unaware of their status because their infections may have been very recently acquired.

CDPH funds fifteen HIV Prevention agencies and over twenty programs throughout the city to target MSM through group and individual level interventions. CDPH also works collaboratively with the Chicago Black Gay Men’s Caucus, whose mission is to stop the spread of HIV infection and promote the well-being of African American MSM. This partnership has resulted in new community leadership, numerous educational events and several large scale HIV testing efforts over the past few years.

Along with our community partners, CDPH has expanded HIV testing, condom distribution efforts and increased the usage of evidenced-based interventions (e.g. D-UP, Many Men, Many Voices and Community Promise). Additionally, CDPH coordinates promising new efforts such couples counseling, research projects, social marketing, and cultural competency trainings. We also anticipate engaging in biomedical interventions to prevent transmissions.

Project CHAT is funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and is part of a national 21-city surveillance system. This system, which was implemented in 2004, aims to collect behavioral data on risk behaviors and HIV prevention utilization for at-risk groups. Data is collected in three-year cycles with annually alternating populations including MSM, heterosexuals, and injection drug users. The data released Wednesday reflects findings from the second cycle of the MSM survey conducted in 2008.

CDPH Commissioner Terry Mason stated, “It is vital for us to continue promoting testing and education for HIV and other sexually transmitted infections among all Chicagoans and increase prevention efforts with populations that are disproportionately impacted.”

Assistant Commissioner for the STD/HIV Division Christopher Brown, stated, “These baseline data will be used to increase HIV awareness among all MSM and, by working with our community-based partners, to strengthen and expand our prevention efforts.”

For more information about this press release or the upcoming community educational session, please contact Nikhil Prachand at 312-745-3204 or Mini Arellano at 312-745-0384.

[NOTE - Stay connected to LifeLube for ongoing discussion and analysis around the CHAT data, including new information about sexual risk behaviors, substance use behaviors and adverse childhood experiences.]

Huffington Post - Gay US diplomats to receive equal benefits

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton will soon announce that gay American diplomats will be given benefits similar to those that their heterosexual counterparts enjoy, U.S. officials said Saturday.

In a notice to be sent soon to State Department employees, Clinton says regulations that denied same-sex couples and their families the same rights and privileges that straight diplomats enjoyed are "unfair and must end," as they harm U.S. diplomacy.

Read the rest.

Please Support the 2009 National LGBTI Health Summit

Join local organizers for a social mixer and fundraiser at Sidetrack on Tuesday, June 9, 6p - 9p, in support of the 2009 National LGBTI Health Summit [scheduled for August 14 – 18, 2009 in Chicago.]

The health of our communities is important to all of us – LGBTI and Especially U.

The Summit will focus on “Health Through the Life Course” and is dedicated to preserving and improving the emotional, physical, spiritual, intellectual, psychological, environmental, and social health and wellness of LGBTI people of all races, ages, creeds and classes.

Donation: $25 - Please join us and tell your friends. Fabulous raffles include tix to Baryshnikov at the Harris. This thrilling appearance by the legendary dancer features the Chicago premiere of “Three solos and a duet” featuring Baryshnikov dancing solo and with his long-time dance partner and collaborator Ana Laguna (see a preview below.)

Visit http://www.2009lgbtihealth.org to learn more about the Summit, register, and get involved.

Generation You Podcast is now LIVE

On this special edition, Project CRYSP, LifeLube and Feast of Fun bring you a podcast forum taped in front of a live audience at the Center on Halsted in Chicago, Illinois last Wednesday, May 20.

Click here for the podcast.

We have a THINK PINK TANK- a multi-generational panel of experts on how to break down the barriers when it comes to age differences: Bill Rydwels, a founder of TPAN (Test Positive Aware Network) and a member of SAGE, the Center on Halsted’s Advocate and Service group for GLBT Seniors; Tony Alvarado-Rivera, a coordinator at the Broadway Youth Center’s LGBT Mentor Program, which aims to build healthy relationships between generations in our community; and Chris Bartlett, the director of the Greater Philadelphia LGBT Leadership Initiative.

Listen as we take you on a deep discussion on what it means to age as a gay man and how we can bridge the gap to become a happier, healthier and more connected society.

Plus questions from the audience live! You don’t want to miss it.

SAVE THE DATE - The next live podcast forum will be held on August 17 at the Center on Halsted, in conjunction with the 2009 National LGBTI Health Summit. Stay tuned for details and RSVP info.

Register Now for the 2010 Gay Games

Be part of it!

The biggest sports and cultural festival in the world will take place in Cologne from July 31 to August 7, 2010. Some 12,000 participants from more than 70 countries will converge for the Gay Games VIII Cologne 2010 and celebrate the principles of participation, inclusion and personal best.

The invitation is open to everyone – regardless whether you are heterosexual or homosexual, male, female, transgender or transsexual, and regardless of religion, nationality, ethnic heritage, political convictions, athletic skills, physical capabilities, age or physical condition.

Click here for more info.

Manties. Really?