Prevention Revolution or Magical Thinking?Feast of Fun podcasts LifeLube's forum on Pre-exposure Prophylaxis- Listen

via feast of Fun

June 15, 2011, from the Center on Halsted in Chicago, LifeLube hosted a live community forum on Pre-exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP). World renowned LGBT podcasters, Feast of Fun, moderated the discussion as panelists and guests were engaged on one of the most exciting developments in the fight against HIV.

 The conversation was joined by:

 Dr. Bob Grant, the protocol chair for the groundbreaking study, iPrEx.

 Keith Green of the AIDS Foundation of Chicago, who is a consultant for Project PrEPare, which explores the acceptability and feasibility of the trial among men who have sex with other men.

Rico Herrera, a Chicago gay youth currently participating in the trial via Project PrEPare.

Plus- live questions from the audience.

The forum went off without a hitch thanks to the help of our community partners:
Association of Latin Men for Action
Chicago Black Gay Men’s Caucus
Communities of Color Collaborative
Project CRYSP
Feast of Fun

Click for the podcast

COMMENTARY: A time for us and marriage equality

via San Deigo Gay and Lesbian News, By Terry Angel Mason

This artilce captures Mason's  passion as he touches on marriage, church dynamics, bullying, and other issues that is faced in the LBGT community .

Prior to the passing of Proposition 8, African-American clergy, Catholics, Evangelicals, Mormons and some non-denominational Christians urged their parishioners to vote “Yes” on Prop. 8, ignoring and completely disregarding the fact that thousands of LGBT people attend their churches and participate in every aspect of ministry, pay their tithes, and have an undying devotion to the ministry. Parishioners were told, “We must do everything we can to preserve the institution of marriage.”

Oh, if they would have only acted earlier with the same fervor years ago, perhaps heterosexual Christians would not lead the country in divorces and separations -- long before Prop. 8, gay marriage, civil unions or domestic partnerships were ever established.

Yes, you heard me right! I was amazed to discover that born-again Christians are more likely than others to experience a divorce. These statistics have been the case for quite some time. Even more disturbing, perhaps is that when these divorcees publicly announce their divorce, many of them are rejected by their community of faith rather than provided with support and healing.

It is apparent that many Christians are quick to criticize gay unions, having forgotten to remove the beam from their own eye before trying to get the speck out of their brother’s eye (Matthew 7:5). And what of the bishops, whose stories garner constant media attention in the Black churches throughout our great country?
The same bishops, who bash from the pulpit, are on their third and fourth marriage, cleverly cover up sex and drug scandals, and violently abuse their wives.

The media is constantly exposing the fact that more and more of these same bishops are committing adultery and fathering illegitimate children with women in their congregations, other than their spouses. And let's not forget to mention the ones who are on the downlow (meaning they are closeted gays) who cheat with other men!

Read more.

How is Terrance Laney healthy?

As a Black gay man, I stay healthy by placing my mental and spiritual health at the top of my priorities. 

  In my experience I have found that all forms of health start with a positive mental outlook and my health radiates outward from within.

Growing up I was exposed to the effects that mental health issues like addiction and depression can have on an individual and their families. While we were all aware of issues within our family we chose in a very passive manner to ignore them and live in denial. My family and I went through trauma after trauma without acknowledging the challenges we had faced and overcome, paying little attention to how they affected us as a family and as individuals. 

Like most African-American families, we lived in denial about the mental health issues that we faced and because of this I internalized stigma about confronting these issues and had several fears about getting help.

It wasn't until I found myself at my wits end in college that I sought help to confront  my personal challenges and to learn skills to cope with emotional pain. 

From other people's perspective I had it all, I was a young man in the prime of my life who had just achieved a major victory by becoming one of the first people in my family to go to college. Internally I was struggling, I still felt not at peace within my own mind.

In a span of 5 years I had survived the tragic death of close loved ones, the “coming out” process and the effects that the addictions of other relatives  had on me with the almost non-existent coping skills of a young adult away from home for the first time. At my university I was able to take advantage of counseling services and quickly found out that going to therapy doesn't indicate character defects but actually in many cases denotes incredible strength of character.   To put it simply, I believe therapy saved my life and prevented me from repeating the cycle of drug addiction and self-destruction that I had seen within my family in so many people.

Depression is more common than most people realize, within African-American gay communities depression is several times more common amongst Black gay men.  Treating this depression can take several forms and employ a variety of methods. Together my therapist and I agreed that counseling and physical activity like 30 minutes of daily exercise was best for me. 

After a few shorts months of working through my issues under the counselors guidance and creating a clear plan of action to resolve disputes and forgive those that I had issues with, I felt like a new and healthier version of myself.

I still have challenges, I am human and still manage to have bad days and get involved in situations that do not promote my well-being. 


However, I still have those skills that my counselor equipped me with and the courage to breakthrough my fears to achieve a healthy state of mind anytime I need to. Putting my mental health at the top of my list of priorities has made it easier for me to make other choices that promote my well being like maintaining an optimal level of physical fitness, excellent nutrition and avoiding drug addiction. 


Making this choice has made it much easier for me to move towards loving and caring for myself in powerful ways and has helped me to stay healthy.


--Terrance Laney
 Atlanta/Washington DC


How are you healthy?
Please join the hundreds who have shared their tips.
Tell us HERE. Send a pic to the same place.
And we'll blog it, right here on LifeLube.
Gay men and all allies welcome to participate.
Read past posts.
Learn more about the campaign

Woof Wednesday Pectacular

The best argument for gay marriage you'll ever see on a restaurant chalkboard.

Funnyyet convincing argument!

Gay Pride: It's every choice we make.

As Pride month comes to an end, I want people to reflect on their inner "pride" and the journey it took to get there. I believe that My Fabulous Disease really captures that journey in this PSA..



For more.

Pentagon Confirms New DADT Discharges

via The Advocate, By Andrew Harmon

The Pentagon confirmed Monday that more service members have been discharged under “don’t ask, don’t tell” pending certification of the policy’s repeal, with one individual’s discharge approved as recently as Thursday.


A total of four airmen have been discharged under the policy in the last several weeks, Pentagon spokeswoman Eileen Lainez confirmed Monday.


One of those individuals is Airman First Class Albert Pisani, who spoke to The Advocate earlier this month of his voluntary separation under “don’t ask, don’t tell,” which defense officials approved on April 29.

Air Force spokesman Maj. Joel Harper told The Advocate that the discharges of three additional service members — two female staff sergeants and one male second lieutenant— have been approved since an April 29 discharge. Harper declined to say whether Pisani was the April 29 discharge, citing confidentiality reasons.


Read more.

It Gets Better: Target Team Members

Check out Target's It Gets Better Video!

Nearly 20,000 Americans Discover They're HIV-Positive

 via Christian Post, By R. Leigh Coleman

CDC officials also estimate 20 percent of the 1.2 million people living with HIV in the United States did not know they were infected, so expanding testing is critical, the report said.

These recent test results are monumental, according to U.S. health officials.

The CDC study shows that after a three-year, $111 million program to expand HIV testing in 25 of the U.S. areas most affected by HIV has provided nearly 2.8 million HIV tests and diagnosed 18,432 individuals who were previously unaware of their HIV infection.

The results of the program were published in the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

The CDC study found that homosexual individuals of all races and ethnicities were severely affected, especially blacks: 28 percent were infected by HIV, compared to 18 percent of Hispanics and 16 percent of whites.

Read more.

The people working to keep your booty....Bootylicous

via POZ Magazine, By Trenton Straube


This  except is from an article written on the International Rectal Microbicide Advocates (IRMA). This group are the leaders in the fight for better technology that would protect your booty from HIV.

Can lubes increase the risk of HIV during anal sex?

A slew of recent studies suggest that using lubes for unprotected anal sex may increase the risk of HIV, and that some lubes may harm the rectum’s thin protective layer of cells (the epithelium). It’s premature to know which brands to avoid, says Marc-André LeBlanc, a lube advocate with the International Rectal Microbicide Advocates (IRMA). Most research has been done in laboratories, and it isn’t certain whether the findings translate to humans—or whether the products’ lubricating benefits outweigh their potential harm.

But one fact is certain: “The best way to prevent acquiring HIV and STIs [sexually transmitted infections] during anal sex is still using male or female condoms,” LeBlanc says. “And we know that using lubes with condoms decreases the risk of the condom slipping or breaking—a big bonus.”

In the meantime, here’s a highlight of what scientists are investigating and how lube qualities might affect the success of microbicides:

• Polyquaterniums, a class of chemicals common in cosmetics, seem to increase HIV replication by almost four times in lab tests. A Population Council study found this ingredient in three of four HIV-enhancing Astroglide brand lubes: Astroglide Liquid, Astroglide Warming Liquid, Astroglide Glyercin & Paraben Free liquid and Astroglide Silken Secret

• Osmolality refers to the concentration of salts, sugars and other substances (solutes) present in a lube. Hypo-osmolar lubes have a lower concentration of solutes than human cells and cause the cells to swell with water and burst. Hyperosmolar lubes cause cells to shrink and become brittle. Iso-osmolar lubes don’t affect cells because their concentrations are identical. Most water-based lubes are hyperosmolar and damaging.

• pH balance is acidic in the vagina and neutral in the rectum. Many lubes are designed for the vagina—does the difference in pH mean they affect the rectum differently? 

• Good and bad bacteria live in a delicate balance in the vagina and gut. Will disrupting this balance make the rectum more susceptible to HIV? 

• Viscosity is the slippery quality that gives lube its feel and texture. Glycerin, in water-based lubes, adds to viscosity. It also makes lubes hyperosmolar—and destructive to epithelium. When a rectal microbicide now in trials proved harmful to the epithelium, researchers solved the problem by lowering the glycerin content

Read more. 

Amazes me what good sex can leads to

 By Sapphire

Three Fridays ago, I had a sexual encounter with this guy from Black Gay Chat (BGC). He was attractive, nice body, and blessed in package area.We’ve been chatting for some time and hooked up when the opportunity presented itself.

I assumed he was HIV positive because he left his status section blank on his profile. That is normally a signal online when a person HIV positive doesn’t want to disclose his/her status.  I knew to use protection anyway given that I never planned to see him again.

I took a trip over to his house and it was showtime. The sex was hot but quickly turned cold when I discovered the condom broke. The room had an awkward silence. There wasn’t much to say then after but to recap about what just happened.

I was honest and told him that I was HIV positive (even though it was listed on my bgc profile) in hopes that he was HIV positive as well. Instead he replied stating “Im clean.”  What does that mean? It also shocked me he didn’t seem nervous and showed much concern for the condom breaking. Luckily he didn’t finish off inside me so it was limited risk.

Wednesday of the following week, I started having some trouble. I was having pains and bleeding from my anus. The pains and bleeding increased over the weekend causing several other problems in the lower half of my body.

I went to the ER and discovered I had an infection. I asked for the doctor to take an STD test in addition to my blood work. I felt embarrassed but I knew that more than likely that was the cause of my pain. I received treatment for Gonorrhea while I waited for my result that would come in 2 to 3 days.

In the meantime, I contacted the guy  to let him know that he should get tested. I haven’t had sex with anyone else in the last 30 days and been tested previously for STDS within that time. He denied having anything (like I was accusing him) and said he was tested a week before we had sex. At that point, I left the situation alone.

Three days pasted and I went back for my results. I felt so much better and expected to here that I had gonorrhea. Surprisingly, The ER treated me but never put the test in. Stupid!

Even though I felt better and had no symptoms, I requested to be tested again. I felt obligated to know what was wrong with my body/

 I am currently waiting but I rather know then not know.

Living the Good Lie

 via The New York Times, By Mimi Swartz

Should therapists help God-fearing gay people stay in the closet?

Denis Flanigan isn’t hiding anything. A 42-year-old psychotherapist in Houston, he has a straightforward manner that meshes nicely with his no-nonsense buzz cut and neatly clipped goatee.

Unlike many mental-health professionals, Flanigan puts personal items on display in his office, including a photo of his partner, who is attractive, and male.

For his patients’ amusement he has on hand an S-and-M Barbie as well as a Tickle Me Freud doll. (“It’s so, so . . . wrong,” Flanigan told me, in a tone that signaled he believed it was exactly right.)

So it comes as a bit of a surprise to learn that when potential clients come to Flanigan’s office to discuss their sexual orientation — in particular whether they should reveal their homosexuality to friends, family or employers — his first response is to ask, in a neutral tone, “Why do you want to do that?”

Flanigan has a 20-year history of gay activism behind him, so you might expect that his primary goal would be to help gay clients discover and cultivate their most authentic selves. As Jonathan Ned Katz wrote in “Gay American History” in 1976, “Therapists who do not help their homosexual patients to fully explore the possibility of homosexuality as a legitimate option have not helped to expand those individuals’ freedom.”

Flanigan doesn’t disagree with Katz. “I’m a very strong believer in people’s rights,” he said one gray morning at a Starbucks in Houston. But during his early training, he encountered a few clients who either would not come out of the closet or suffered mightily when they did. Christians of the kind who earnestly believed that the Bible deplored homosexuality were particularly troubled as they tried to reconcile their faith with their sexual orientation.

The more Flanigan studied this conundrum, the more he came to see it as intractable. Some gay evangelicals truly believe that to follow their sexual orientation means abandonment by a church that provides them with emotional and social sustenance — not to mention eternal damnation.

Keeping their sexual orientation a secret, however, means giving up any opportunity to have fulfilling relationships as gay men and women.


Read more.


 

National HIV Testing Day!

Today is National HIV Testing Day! Get Tested! Know your Status! The life you save must be your own!

Click "National HIV Testing Day" below to find a testing center near you!

National HIV Testing Day

New York's First Gay Marriage?

via Living Out Loud with Darian

This is absolutely amazing! This couple was not only clever, but very lucky..

This story is one for the books. The New York Post is reporting the marriage of Hakim "Kimah" Nelson (pictured right) and his husband Jason Stenson(pictured left) who were married on May 26, 2009.

The couple managed to obtain a legal marriage license in a state that doesn't allow gay couples to wed. A marriage equality bill is currently waiting to be brought to the floor for a vote in the New York Senate.


The New York Post:


The plucky couple filled out their marriage application online at the Apple Store on 14th Street in May. A few days later, they went to the City Clerk's Office on Worth Street to complete the form and get their marriage license.


Nelson -- who goes by the name "Kimah" and hopes to one day have surgery to become a "full female" -- wore an orange dress and white leggings, his straight, brown hair falling to his shoulders.


The gullible clerk didn't seem to notice that both Nelson, 18, and Stenson, 21, have male first names.


They both had to present identification to obtain the license. Stenson used his state ID card, and Nelson gave a state Benefit Card, which he uses to collect food stamps.


By a fluke, Nelson's ID card has an "F" for female on it, because the official who issued it in April assumed from his appearance that he was a woman.


But Nelson couldn't believe the license clerk didn't ask for better identification.


"I was scared. I thought they would ask for more paperwork from me because I have a male name," Nelson said.


Ten days after obtaining their license, the wedding crashers returned to the office for the ceremony. They were clutching their license and a pair of $10 silver wedding rings they had bought in the West Village. Nelson was in the same orange dress.

Read more.

New York 6th state to legalize gay marriage

via CBS news

Celebrating late into the night, thousands of gay marriage supporters poured into the streets after New York became the sixth and largest state in the U.S. to legalize gay marriage.


After days of contentious negotiations and last-minute reversals by two Republican state senators, the bill was passed, breathing life into the national gay rights movement that had stalled over a nearly-identical bill here two years ago.

Pending any court challenges, legal gay marriages can begin in New York by late July after Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed his bill into law just before midnight Friday.

What does it mean? "It means that all of my friends can finally do the thing that they wanted to do, that I can do," Alison Casillo told CBS Station WCBS. "It means that we're equal."

CBS News correspondent Seth Doane reports that New York is a state with no residency requirement for marriage - meaning couples can come from anywhere to get married here.

Of course that is a boon to businesses - something that was undoubtedly part of the equation for some lawmakers.

A religious exemption was also built into the bill to assuage some opponents. "Whoever opposes the rights of gays and lesbians to marry - whatever religious institution, whether it's the Catholic Church, Orthodox Jews, anyone else - they are not required to marry any couple they do not want to marry," Elizabeth Cooper of Fordham University Law School told CBS News.

Republican State Senator Stephen Saland was one of the last to support the same-sex marriage bill. A self-proclaimed traditionalist, he said he agonized over the decision: "I have defined doing the right thing as treating all persons with equality, and that equality includes the definition of marriage, and I fear that to do otherwise would fly in the face of my upbringing."

"It's the wrong thing to do," said Maggie Gallagher, Chairman and co-founder of the National Organization for Marriage. "But it's also incredibly politically stupid for the Republican Party to take responsibility for passing the gay marriage bill in New York."

Read more.

Homosexuality: Editing the APA Manual, the Bible and the Book of Life

via examiner, By Kevin Probst

In 1973, the American Psychiatric Association (APA) declared that homosexuality was not a disease simply by altering its own 81-word definition of sexual deviance.  Presto, just like that, a new declaration made in a moment of time redefined sexual behavior.  The APA still considers Gender Identity Disorder and Transvestic Fetishism to be mental disorders.  If this seems inconsistent it shouldn’t be a problem for the APA to pick up the black marker and strike a couple more disorders from its manual.

 I’m not a Psychiatrist and I confess that I have very little interest in the field.  I wouldn’t know a mental disorder if it were staring me in the face which is probably evidence that I have a few.  But, I’m taken back by what seemed to be a lack of debate on the issue.  If this was a mental disorder on Monday how could it have simply ceased being a disorder on Tuesday because it was blotted from the book?  If a group of oncologists gather and declare cancer to no longer be a disease does it make it so?

 I’m not in total disagreement with the APA regarding their assessment.  I don’t think homosexuality is a disease.  I think it is but one sinful behavior in a long list of sexual sins condemned by the Word of God.  Also on that list is adultery, fornication, pre-marital sex, etc.  Sexual sin is a sub-category of a larger list of sinful behaviors including theft, lying, idolatry, e.g. the Ten Commandments.  It is true that one of these sins is no more or less offensive to God than another.  Sin is basically choosing to have it our own way rather than submit to the authority of God.  It boils down to pride, or as Old Blue Eyes used to sing, “I did it my way.”

So, why address the sin of homosexuality?  Why not address adultery, or theft or deception?  Christians often feel the need to isolate homosexuality because it is being redefined by the culture.  The success of having homosexuality stricken from the APA’s list of mental diseases was intoxicating to homosexual activists.  Naturally, the next step would be to erase homosexuality from the Bible.  It’s referral to homosexuality as a deviant, sinful behavior is very detrimental to the goal of societal acceptance.  It should be easy, just declare it to no longer be a sin and presto, it shall be so.

Read more.

HIV positive man claims he was denied medication while jailed

via Chicago Sun-Times

A South Shore man claims he was denied HIV medication for a week while he was imprisoned in a downstate jail last year, a case that advocacy groups cited as an example of a hidden problem in correctional facilities.

Arick Buckles, 39, was detained in the Bureau County Jail in Princeton last fall after learning he was the subject of an outstanding arrest warrant for forgery charges.

Buckles said he “stressed to every jailer I came into contact with” that he was HIV-positive and needed to take antiretroviral medication daily. But he did not receive medication or see a doctor during his weeklong stay at the jail, the American Civil Liberties Union wrote in a June 20 letter to Bureau County Sheriff John Thompson.

Buckles, who said he experienced severe diarrhea after his release, described his time behind bars as terrifying, because “I didn’t know what the offset of my not having those medications would be.”

“I often wonder, if I had been a diabetic, would I have been denied medication,” he said.

Jail officials allegedly told Buckles they could not give him his medication because of the cost of the drugs, a justification the ACLU letter called “inappropriate and unconstitutional.”

Read more.

Here’s to the Memories

 By D' Ontace Keyes

As I pick out my outfit for this year’s Pride celebration, I think about my first Pride celebration in 2005. I was 15 years old and so FRESH! I was a hungry boy waiting to get a taste of the gay culture.

At the time I was sheltered from everything “gay”, forced to live what could be considered a normal suburban life. Not so bad because I was able to excel in things like my education, but horrible when it came to trying to express myself. I felt colorless, trapped in a closet of evening plaid.

 Luckily, I had a boyfriend that would steal me away to the city. I was amazed at the amount of young people that would frequent the streets of Boyztown, voguing the night away on Halsted Street and just being free. I, too, wanted to be free.

The day I decided to attend Pride was actually the day I found out I was being cheated on. I was so upset, and I wanted to attend only to catch him in the act. I decided that I must find a way to attend Pride. I wasn’t out at the time, so I couldn’t tell my guardians I was going to a Pride celebration, no matter how much I thought they weren’t aware of my sexuality.  Actually, they were aware; they just tried to “straight-wash” me, believing that one day I would break away from my “path with the devil.” 

 So I worked out the typical “I’m somewhere I’m not” plan and left after church to visit “grandmother’s house” and made sure I prayed away the sins for the day, just for my parents’ sake!

It was a long ride up to Boyztown, but at that moment, I didn’t care. I was so excited for the experience that nothing could really bring me down. 

I met this lesbian while I was on the train that was so very pretty. She said I was cute too, like a girl.  She made me feel “cunty”, as the young queens will say today. We switched numbers in hopes to hang out later. I figured I had nothing to lose so why not.

I got to Boyztown, wondering where I should go and what to do. The parade was over and I was clueless as to what to do next. Strange and not so strange men were hitting on me and I LOVED It! I felt like my “Pride” has begun!

I called the lesbian I met earlier and she invited me to meet her at Montrose Beach. She was there with her friends and thought it will be cool to hang out. We met up and I was amazed at the sight of people freely showcasing their pride.

I didn’t hang with her very long, and I walked down the stroll for the rest of the time I was there. I got hit on a lot, and shamelessly switched numbers with people too. 

The surprising moment was when I ran into a friend of the family. I was scared boots! I wanted to run but he quickly spotted me. We greeted each other, a greeting that could be mistaken for flirting. We switched numbers, promising to keep word, and to hook up later. 

The day was getting late and I needed to get home before curfew. I never caught my boyfriend because we played cat and mouse the whole day. Its alright, we didn’t last much longer after that because I found someone to offer me something more substantial. 

Luckily, I got home before curfew and I thought I got away with murder. NOT!

So you remember the family friend? Well he outed me! WTF! Of course I denied the whole thing despite the evidence. They never believed it and I was crowned the queen of the town. Looking back, it’s all so funny to me.  Well, here’s to the memories.

Feel the Love... Sister Glo Doesn't Worry

I have learned not to worry about love, 

but to honor its coming with all my heart.

~Alice Walker

Love is all you need with Sister Glo each Friday on LifeLube.

 

Friday is for Faeries - Love Love Love

Forum explores Truvada's use in fighting HIV

via Windy City Times

Thanks to Windy City Times for doing an excellent article on the PrEP forum last week.

Experts on the study sat down with Feast of Fun podcasters Fausto Fern�"s and Marc Felion at Center on Halsted June 15 to talk about what the study means and if Truvada could signal the end of the pandemic. Present were Dr. Robert Grant of Gladstone Institute, Keith Green, director of federal affairs at AIDS Foundation of Chicago, and a youth who participated in a similar study Green conducted in Chicago.

Read more.

Obama treading carefully on gay issues in 2012 bid

via Reyters, By Mark Egan

Gay leaders will likely give Obama high marks at a fundraiser in New York on Today for pushing through issues like winning gays the right to serve openly in the military.

Yet calls for the White House to back gay marriage and strengthen federal anti-discrimination protection will probably go unheeded as Obama treads carefully in the run-up to next November's election.

"The conundrum Obama faces is keeping this essential core constituency while not going overboard and alienating the high-intensity opponents of that constituency," said pollster John Zogby of IBOPE Zogby International. "His challenge is to continue to play it cool and not to go overboard."

Independent voters, seen as less likely to back gay causes, will be crucial in winning closely contested states such as Virginia, North Carolina, Ohio, Florida, Indiana and Wisconsin.

With the economy in trouble, the election is shaping up as a tighter race for Obama than his 2008 victory and he must keep key voting groups on board.

Evangelicals mostly vote Republican, but Obama took 30 percent of their votes in 2008 and he cannot afford to lose them, Zogby said. African Americans voted 95 percent for Obama in 2008 and heavily oppose gay marriage, he said.

Among Latinos, which Obama won in 2008, 40 percent call themselves social conservatives.

By contrast, the gay vote is small although influential. A CNN exit poll from 2008 showed 4 percent of voters were gay, lesbian or bisexual and 70 percent of them voted for Obama. Another reckoning puts gays at 7 percent of voters.

Boston University political science department chair Professor Graham Wilson said Obama will want to keep his gay constituencies sweet because they have high incomes, making them a potentially strong fundraising group.

"So long as Obama maintains his reasonably OK record on gay issues and Republicans continue to be identified with fairly aggressive anti-gay sentiments, there is not much doubt as to where the gay vote goes," Wilson said.

Read more.

Officials link social media to rising local STD rates

via Bakersfield , BY Kellie Schmitt

This is some very interesting data that can ultimately help other parts of the United States think about similar correlations between social networks and rising rates.

Bakersfield resident Frank Tamayo has downloaded a smartphone application called Grindr that tells him if nearby gay, bisexual or curious men are interested in hanging out.

The free app will show pictures of men who are, say, 500 feet away, athletic and interested in dinner or a movie.

"I just turn it on, say 'You're cute' and go on from there," 33-year-old Tamayo said.

It's part of an increasing trend of men seeking friends, a date or intimacy with other men via phone apps such as Grindr, which has more than 2 million users worldwide and 7,000 in the greater Bakersfield area.

While Tamayo sees it as a great opportunity to meet new people, public health officials fear it's a factor in the more than doubling of reported syphilis cases in Kern County this year.

At the same time, the app's anonymity is making it harder to track people who may have been exposed to a sexually transmitted disease.

"It's easier to be anonymous, and it's more accessible," said Denise Smith, director of disease control at the Kern County Department of Public Health. "You can find so many people within a certain radius."

If patients at the health department's clinics test positive for STDs, nurses and counselors discreetly will try to contact their recent sexual partners. In the past several years, patients increasingly reported meeting sexual partners on websites, said Alira Medel, a disease intervention specialist.

Instead of offering phone numbers, emails or even personal descriptions of past partners, more and more patients give health workers a list of website user names, such as "sugardaddy" or "sweetdreams."

A state health investigator based at the Kern County Public Health building on Mount Vernon Avenue surfs those sites with a computer that isn't linked to the county network.

He sends a private message to the people with the user names encouraging them to contact Public Health. He tells those who respond about the exposure and encourages them to be tested.

Read more.

My Ex-Gay Friend

via NY Times, By Benoit Denizet- Lewis

As soon as I read this article, I was shocked because I had a similar conversation about this "phenomena" with my sister on whether this is real or are people just faking this "deliverance" once they find a spiritual balance. Whats your take ?

One Saturday afternoon last winter, I drove north on Route 85 through the rolling rangeland of southeastern Wyoming. I was headed to a small town north of Cheyenne to see an old friend and colleague named Michael Glatze. We worked together 12 years ago at XY, a San Francisco-based national magazine for young gay men, back when we were young gay men ourselves.

Though only a year removed from Dartmouth when he arrived at XY, Michael had seemingly read every gay book ever written. While I was busy trying to secure a boyfriend, he was busy contemplating queer theory, marching in gay rights rallies and urging young people to celebrate (not just accept) their same-sex attractions.

Michael was devoted to helping gay youth, and he was particularly affected by the letters the magazine received regularly from teenagers who were rejected by their religious families. “Christian fundamentalists should burn in hell!” he told me once, slamming his fist on his desk. I had never met anyone so sure of himself.
Many young gay men looked up to him. He and his boyfriend at the time, Ben, who also worked at the magazine, made a handsome pair — but their appeal went deeper.

On weekends we would go to raves together, and I would watch as gay boys gravitated toward the couple. Michael and Ben seemed unburdened (by shame, by self-doubt) and unapologetically pursued what the writer Paul Monette called the uniquely gay experience of “flagrant joy.” But unlike some of our friends who rode the flagrant joy train all the way to rehab, Michael and Ben rarely seemed out of control. There was a balance — a wisdom — to their quest for intense, authentic experience. Together they seemed to have figured out how to be young, gay and happy.

I thought about those times as I pulled my rental car into the Wyoming town where Michael now lives. A lot had happened in the decade since we last saw each other: he and Ben started a new gay magazine (Young Gay America, or Y.G.A.); they traveled the country for a documentary about gay teenagers; and Michael was fast becoming the leading voice for gay youth until the day, in July 2007, when he announced that he was no longer gay.

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If you pack a vibrator, don't get shaken by TSA

 via The San Francisco Chronicles

This article is for all people planning to travel for the Pride celebrations this weekend.

Even in these jittery times, can any air traveler be expected to part willingly with his precious electronic devices?

And not just devices that play music or games. But devices that play. Or, to put it another way, devices that jitter.

Those devices.

The Transportation Safety Administration, whose job it is to consider fully such matters, has decreed that vibrators are OK. The TSA says whips, chains, leashes, restraints and manacles are OK, too. Any law-abiding citizen has the right to carry any such device onto an airplane.

So why are so many otherwise sensible travelers reluctant to do so? Why is there embarrassment and shame, hemming and hawing? It's all so unnecessary, say experts, because traveling with an electric vibrator need be no more difficult than traveling with other problematic items, such as aerosols or toddlers.

Being nervous is counterproductive. Inspectors are trained to spot nervous passengers, resulting in extra scrutiny and more nervousness.

TSA  spokesman Nico Melendez said passengers could save time with a little common sense. Inspectors are doing their job. They are trained professionals and they know a vibrator when they see one. They will not confiscate a vibrator. But they are trained to pay attention to electronic devices.

"Inspectors inspect," he said. "If you don't want us to see it, don't bring it."

Carol Queen, the celebrated San Francisco sex expert, lecturer and proprietor of the Good Vibrations chain of sex stores, has traveled the world with her carry-on bags full of vibrators and other paraphernalia. Vibrators, she says, are not the problem. Shame about vibrators is the problem.

"There's no reason to be embarrassed," said Queen. "If an inspector asks you about it, look him in the eye and tell him it's your vibrator."

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Education key in HIV, AIDS prevention, 30 years later

via  The Sun News, By Brad Dickerson                                                                                                                                     Brian Hardee wanted to educate other college students about the importance of getting tested for HIV, so he went through the steps himself and presented it as a series of informative speeches.

No one in his speech class will probably ever forget the last one.

"The final speech was how I took the news after the news came back I was HIV positive. So, that's how I found out," Hardee said. "Let's just say I made a 100 in that speech class."

The Myrtle Beach resident was diagnosed with the disease in 1994 while he was a student at the American College for the Applied Arts in Atlanta.

Today, Hardee considers himself a medical miracle. A combination of strong medication and a lifestyle change that included kicking a 10-year drug habit has given him a healthy immune system and longer life than those who were diagnosed with HIV in its early days.

Experts say these stronger drugs are both a blessing and a curse in 2011, 30 years since the first documented cases of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, or AIDS, in the United States. Those who are diagnosed are living longer, healthier lives, but it's also creating complacency and apathy in the younger people who now find themselves at risk.

The Los Angeles Times reported that AIDS has killed nearly 30 million people worldwide, including an estimated 500,000 in the United States. Today, another 34 million people - including nearly 1.2 million in the U.S. - are living with the virus that causes the disease, human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV. This year, about 1.8 million of them will die, including about 17,000 in this country.

By the end of 2010, there were 736 known HIV/AIDS patients living in Horry County, according to statistics from the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control. There are 356 who have AIDS.

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