Dear America: You Have a Gay Problem

via HuffPost Gay Voices, by Josh D. Scheinert

Dear America,

It must be hard being you these days. You have so many big issues -- from the economy to national security and the looming election, just to name a few. If I may though, I'd like to focus on another one.

This is Canada, your northern neighbour (I spell it with a "u"). Blessed with a bird's eye view, I've watched troubling developments unfold below. Before more damage is done, I thought it best to offer some Canadian insight in the hopes that it may assist you as you move forward in your struggle.

I've wanted to write this for a while. During the lead up to Proposition 8 and the continued legal battle that has ensued, as debates over gay marriage spread to other states, you questioned if allowing soldiers to fight and die openly would ruin your military just as teenagers across your country tragically took their own lives after being bullied for who they were.

What finally forced my hand was a heartbreaking and infuriating article in Rolling Stone chronicling how one school district in Minnesota not only condoned but actively promoted the bullying of its LGBT students.

The result of the Anoka-Hennepin school district's policy has been devastating. One can only pray (isn't that what they'd want us to do?) that the souls of those who took their own lives are now at peace.

You Americans don't pay all that much attention to Canada. We know, and are mostly okay with it. But as you strive to build your land of the free, it might do you good to look up every now and then.

When you do, you'll discover something that might surprise many of you: We aren't all that concerned about gay people. Our Conservative government has said it has no intention of re-opening a debate on same-sex marriage, which is legal.

Abroad, it has become a consistent and strong advocate for gay rights. Contrary to some beliefs, no radical gay agenda came and hijacked our society. The sky hasn't fallen.

Now sure, things up here aren't perfect. We too have unfortunately been faced with instances of homophobic bullying and tragically, gay-teen suicide.

There are Canadians unhappy that Bob and Joe can express their love just like Bob and Joan. And I certainly don't want to imply that all, or even the majority, of Americans are anti-gay.

But there's something different, something malicious about the debate in your country. The haters are too hateful and the vilification of the LGBT community has spread too far.

In what other free and equal society would those seeking to be Commander-In-Chief stand silently as a crowd of citizens booed a soldier because he was gay?

It is a true juxtaposition of cowardice and courage, and such a moral deficiency should automatically qualify one as unfit to lead a nation.


Read the rest

"Viagrafication" of Canada's Gay communities

via Examiner, by Jeromie Williams

If you had even a quick moment to look around your gay village this summer amidst all the distractions of Pride celebrations, you might have been convinced from the barrage of Viagra advertising that Canada's gay community was under siege from an epidemic of unprecedented male impotency.

Bus stops, sponsorships, posters and bar tops all sporting a jaunty little blue pill in front of the rainbow flag urging you to “Talk to your doctor” but not really explaining just what it is was you were supposed to ask about.

Sure, other corporations have targeted Pride festivities in the past trying to peddle their wares, but sticking a bottle of Absolut in front of the rainbow flag followed by “Absolut Pride” is pretty straight forward: Drink this, get drunk, have fun, be gay.

However when superimposing a Viagra in front of the rainbow flag and leaving it up to the imagination, is Pfizer saying: If his rock hard abs don't do it for you, maybe this will?

If you ask Vincent Lamoureux, the Director of Corporate Communications for Pfizer Canada just what the message to the gay community is supposed to be, he'll tell you that “Participating in Pride Week is a natural extension of the brand’s ongoing focus on reflecting the spirit of vitality and joy that’s associated with being proactive and open about your health and wellbeing,” and that “Pfizer Canada has always been a strong advocate for encouraging Canadian men and couples to be proactive and get educated about health issues.”

For the purposes of this article, a completely non-scientific sampling process put that statement to the test when 56 different gay men ranging in all ages and sizes were asked if they had ever used or known someone who had used Viagra.

 Of the 56 respondents, 32 of them answered yes to the question, but when asked if any of that usage had been for a diagnosed medical condition, not a single person answered yes.

So why had all these men popped a Viagra if it wasn't prescribed to them? Let two of the respondents tell you in their own words.


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Vancouver Hosts Gay Men's Summit Nov 25 - 6

Gays in Canada love to talk. And they’re pulling no stops this year at the BC Gay Men’s Summit from November 25 to November 26. The event is open to all gay men, as well as those folks who are currently engaged in working or volunteering around gay men’s health issues.

The line up this year’s discussion looks GREAT. Here’s a snapshot of what’s on the program:

-    Supporting gay youth: how do we nurture resilience in gay teens? Experiences from a northern BC town.
-    Unmasking the “gender factor” in gay men’s health: a review of the latest information from the national Sex Now! survey of gay men
-    The Pig Sex Project: an exploration of the experience and knowledge of those of us who identify as sex pigs.
-    What’s going on with HIV Post Exposure Prophylaxis in Canada? Why is it not freely available in most of Canada for gay guys?
-    Preliminary results from the Toronto bathhouse survey!
-    Does mental wellness make us more resilient to HIV infections?
-    Increased criminal charges being laid against poz guys for not disclosing HIV status: how are we going to respond?

To register, or to check out the official program go to the Summit website. Check out our Facebook event page and follow us on Twitter or the discussion at #BCGaySummit. The summit is free for students and volunteers from local organizations.

So who's going to Vancouver? Can you bring LifeLube along?

Brain Disorders Occur in One in Four HIV-Positive People According to New Study

Brain disorders may be almost commonplace among people infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, a startling new Canadian study has found.

One quarter of HIV-positive patients who took part in a 10-year Alberta study also suffer from neurological disorders, reports Chris Power, a neurology professor at the University of Calgary. The percentage of middle-aged Canadians with neurological disorders is just five per cent.

Read more.

Canada judge: Insertive unprotected anal sex does not create 'significant risk of serious bodily harm'

via Aidsmap, by Edwin J. Bernard

A Canadian judge has ruled for the first time that an HIV-negative person is not placed at 'a significant risk of serious bodily harm' if they are the insertive partner in unprotected anal intercourse with an HIV-positive man.

According to a statement from the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network this "reinforces the basic point that not every risk of transmission will be considered 'significant', and illustrates the importance of ensuring that courts consider carefully the scientific evidence before them in determining when there is a 'significant risk' of harm, rather than simply criminalising non-disclosure in all circumstances."

Read the rest.

Polaroid Moments Reveal Queerness is Alive and Well

[LifeLube met the wonderful Ted Kerr from Edmonton Alberta at the 2009 National LGBTI Health Summit - and he shared some of his amazing work with us ....]

One on One started off as an attempt to queer and comment on the commodification of the gay male body but then evolved into something better—frank conversation between queer men about our bodies and what we do with them.

It almost always happened the same way; the guy would come over, we would both be nervous, I would be unbrave in asking them what I wanted for the photo and they would be unsure about how far they were willing to go. As we began talking both of us would loosen up and soon trust was born, truths were flying, pants were dropping and Polaroids were developing.

For me it is interesting how Polaroids have always been a way that queer dudes could make their own porn - and at the same time as the future of Polaroid was most unstable, so too in-the-face of perceived homo-normalization, was the idea of queerness. While doing One on One I learned that there are many attempts to save the continuation of Polaroid film, and that queerness is alive and well.

www.tedkerr.org

[we will feature more of these wonderful polaroids over the coming weeks - thanks ted!]

Similar rises in gay men’s HIV diagnoses seen in Western Europe, North America and Australia since 2000

via Aidsmap, by Roger Pebody

A comparative analysis of HIV diagnoses in gay men in eight industrialised countries has found that while they decreased between 1996 and 2000, diagnoses went up by 3% a year from 2000 to 2005, researchers report in the June 2009 issue of the Annals of Epidemiology.

The researchers used national surveillance data compiled by public health bodies in the UK, the Netherlands, France, Germany, Spain (Catalonia only), Australia, the United States (25 states only) and Canada. These countries were chosen as a convenience sample of concentrated epidemics where the surveillance systems were broadly comparable (although not identical) and did not change too much during the period studied.

Read the rest.

Talk to Frank about Hep C

Hepatitis C is emerging as a sexually transmitted infection in gay men. So far this is only affecting HIV-positive guys. Sharing blood during anal sex may lead to infection; specifically when two bottoms share the same top during group sex. Also, HIV-positive individuals may be uniquely vulnerable to Hepatitis C infection during sex.

Frank Talk is an awareness campaign about sex and Hepatitis C developed by the Community Based Research Centre in Vancouver in partnership with the Health Initiative for Men (HIM). Have a look www.checkhimout.ca

To tell or not to tell...

via Globe and Mail, by Margaret Wente

Knowingly exposing others to HIV ought to be a serious crime.

Or should it?

That is the furious argument unleashed by the trial of Johnson Aziga, a man who was found guilty last week of first-degree murder. The murder weapon was unsafe sex. The thoroughly repugnant Mr. Aziga was found to have infected seven women with HIV, even though he knew he was infected, and even though he knew he had a legal obligation to inform his sex partners. Two of his victims died of AIDS-related cancers.

Peter Troyer, a 37-year-old Toronto man who is himself HIV-positive, has no doubt about where he stands. “It is absolutely reasonable to have a law,” he says. “He exposed people to a potentially dangerous virus without their consent. I wouldn't want to live in a society that didn't punish this behaviour at the highest level.

But Canada's gay and HIV-AIDS activist groups overwhelmingly disagree. They believe the law will further stigmatize people who are HIV-positive. It could lead to serious violations of people's human rights. It will remove the onus from uninfected people to protect themselves, and may even give them a false sense of security. Perversely, it may even lead to higher rates of HIV.

“It is important to understand that there may be negative consequences if these cases are brought to trial,” argues Mark Wainberg, a leading AIDS researcher and activist based at McGill University.

The logic is that if you don't know you are HIV-positive, you can't be accused of its transmission.

Read the rest.

Health Initiative for Men gets ready to launch

via xtra west (canada) - full article here

[snip]

Inspired by the successes in women's and aboriginal health movements, Banks says it's time for queer men to become more involved in their own health —"to think of health as way beyond disease," he says. It's "about creating opportunities for people to connect and to feel validated. New and more contemporary understandings of health encompass that."

Longtime AIDS activist John Kozachenko agrees that the gay community needs to face up to a wider range of health concerns. "I think the focus has been —although very important that it has been —on HIV/AIDS," he says. "People aren't really aware of other health issues that they might be concerned with."

"To effect the kind of change that will have a long-term impact on reducing risk and vulnerability," says Banks, "you have to address the social issues."

"There are issues related to childhood experiences of sexual abuse, issues around social support, around homophobia, power imbalances in relationships, alcohol and substance use," Bognar explains. "All of those things sort of form a big knot of problems that can't be attacked individually."

"The big, big, big bad guy in all of this is homophobia, heterosexism —the bullshit that makes queers, transfolks feel like their sexual or gender identities are somehow defects," Banks adds.

[snip]

Read the full article here.

Manitoba mistake: Forced HIV testing is never justified

via Shawn Syms
extra.ca

Manitoba legislators are poised to force people to get tested for HIV and hand over the results. The Testing of Bodily Fluids and Disclosure Act — introduced earlier this month by the province's health minister Theresa Oswald — is supposed to protect first responders such as paramedics, or anyone else who offers first aid to an injured person.

According to a Winnipeg Free Press report, the legislation would allow someone to apply for a judicial blood-testing order if they believe they've been exposed to a blood-borne disease, such as HIV or hepatitis.

A health minister should know better. Oswald claims this bill would provide "peace of mind" to emergency workers — but the law would offer little protection at too great a human-rights cost.

The best way to show respect for the efforts of first responders and health care professionals — and demonstrate genuine dedication to their health and safety — is to provide education about the actual risks, and implement safeguards to reduce those risks.

Workplace exposure to HIV is not impossible — but the real risk is dramatically low. So much so, there has only been one confirmed case in Canada over the past twenty-five years. According to the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network, practical things that would actually offer protection against occupational exposure include needles with safety features that reduce the possibility of needlestick injuries, Kevlar-lined gloves for police officers and proper containers for the disposal of sharp implements.

And if there is a genuine risk of HIV exposure, a person can take a one-month course of treatment called post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP), which is believed to greatly reduce any likelihood of infection.

If someone's broken skin, mucus membranes or internal tissues have clearly been exposed to someone else's blood, they should get PEP. If not, they likely shouldn't. Some paramedics have argued they need the other person's test results to determine if PEP is needed. That's a mistake.

A potentially exposed person needs to go on PEP almost immediately, within mere hours after the risky incident. Forcing a test and awaiting the results means too much delay. And a negative test result could offer false reassurance, because of the window period before HIV is detectable.

Forced testing offers no benefit in the case of diseases like hepatitis either. All health workers should be vaccinated against Hep B and there is no preventative treatment for Hep C, so there is no benefit to knowing if the potential source person has it. On the other hand, when someone's HIV status is exposed to others unnecessarily, the risks can be unpredictable and life-changing.

We may imagine times have changed, but according to a survey by the Public Health Association of Canada, "20 percent of Canadians do not believe in supporting the rights of people with HIV/AIDS" — and many people would wrongly avoid even casual contact with someone HIV-positive. So people living with the virus have every right to be wary of human-rights abuses and undeserved mistreatment.

Let's show the life-saving efforts of professionals dedicated to our health and safety — and well as the rights, security and well-being of people with HIV — the concern, appreciation and respect that they all deserve.

For more information, see the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network's excellent primer on forced HIV testing.

Study: Health care use among gay, lesbian and bisexual Canadians 2003 and 2005

A new study published today in Health Reports provides the first national picture of health care use by sexual orientation. It shows that the use of health care services differs depending on self- identified sexual preference.

The study examined whether self-identified sexual preference was a factor in the use of various aspects of health care, such as consulting health care providers, having a regular doctor, and using preventive procedures, such as Pap tests.

The study was based on combined 2003 and 2005 data from the Canadian Community Health Survey for adults aged 18 to 59. It found that gay men were much more likely than heterosexual men to have consulted a medical specialist or mental health service providers, such as social workers or counselors, in the year prior to the survey.

Click here to read the full report.

A world away?

AIDS / The impact of HIV from Congo to Canada

by Shawn Syms for Xtra.ca

"In the early days of the epidemic in North America, when only gay men and heroin addicts had HIV it was easy to shun people with the disease: these were marginalized groups, easily isolated."

-Stephanie Nolen in 28: Stories of AIDS in Africa

Zackie Achmat went from fighting apartheid to fighting for his life. After he tested positive the gay activist formed the Treatment Action Group in 1998 to demand affordable medication for three million people living with HIV in his country. Achmat announced he would "not take expensive treatment until all ordinary South Africans can get it on the public health system." He became a national hero.

Achmat is profiled in Stephanie Nolen's 28: Stories of AIDS in Africa. Nolen, who identifies as queer, is the Globe and Mail's Africa correspondent. She's written about AIDS since 2003. Her choice of 28 stories is symbolic, representing the estimated millions of Africans living with HIV.

A moving and intelligent book, 28's great strength is a freedom from moralism. In her introduction Nolen gives the most straightforward description I've read of how HIV operates in the body, how it's believed to have first manifested among humans and the trajectory of the virus across the continent and around the world.

Blaming others is a universal aspect of the response to HIV. In North America the onset of the epidemic among queers and IV drug users was interpreted as a morality play. Many of Nolen's interviewees express disbelief they could be touched by that "white man's disease," an export from America, which, at worst, was thought to affect prostitutes and the poor.

Read the rest.