Our Last Forum of 2011, Get Freaky - is Now LIVE on the Feast of Fun Podcast

 LifeLube's last community forum of 2011was held last night - and we discussed sex, sex, sex. Check out the Feast of Fun podcast from the event here.

This forum was co-sponsored by the Chicago Black Gay Men's Caucus. LifeLube partners include Center on Halsted - where the forum was held - TPAN, Howard Brown Health Center, and AIDS Foundation of Chicago.

We had sex toy demos during the reception - thanks to Cupids, Tulip and Early to Bed for making that happen!

Thanks to our wonderful panelists -

* Gary Bucher - anal health specialist, dir. Anal Dysplasia Clinic Midwest
* Debby Herbenick - sex researcher, Time OUT Chicago's sex columnist
* John Stryker - Howard Brown Health Center nurse practitioner

And of course - much love and appreciation to our hosts/moderators - Feast of Fun. Check out the podcast from the event here.

See more photos like the ones below, courtesy of Ed Negron, here on Facebook.

Check out the podcast from the event here.

More photos are here on Facebook.

Tomorrow!!!

Hey Everyone! Tomorrow is the day, get ready for our Get Freaky Community forum!

It's going to be an exciting fun-filled event, we will be kicking it off with an hour long reception starting at 6 PM featuring a cash bar, light treats and snacks.

Oh and did we mention that there will be sex toy demonstrations put on by Cupid's Treasure, Tulip, and Early to Bed!

Then after we've eaten and drank our fair share join us in the Hoover Leppen Theater at 7 PM so we can get down to the dirty talk! Our hosts from one of the most popular gay podcasts out there Marc Felion and Fausto Fernos of Feast of Fun will be facilitating discussion with our three distinguished panelists:

Gary Bucher: Anal health specialist, director of the Anal Dysplasia Clinic Midwest

Debby Herbenick: Sex researcher and Time OUT Chicago's sex columnist

John Stryker: Howard Brown Health Center nurse practicioner

Please join us
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Center on Halsted
3656 North Halsted, Chicago

We begin at 6:00pm for free light nibbles, a cash bar, and sex toy demos in the 2nd floor John Baran Senior Center.

The dirty talk begins at 7:00pm in the Hoover Leppen Theatre, 3rd floor. Hope to see you all there!!!


RSVP Here!

Walk Down Memory Lane, Stop at "Get Freaky"

via Feast of Fun, by Marc Felion

In the years since we started podcasting, a lot has changed about how we think of gay men’s health and sexuality.

We used to be concerned about what we did with our asses and now we’re more focused on our assets. By concentrating on what we are already doing well, we can better see the big picture of who we are and how to live happy, healthy, and sexually fulfilling lives.

Lifelube, a pioneering group of health advocates that we’ve partnered with is holding its last forum of the year- Get Freaky – where anyone can ask questions and bring up difficult topics about gay men’s health.

The funding for the group has come to a close and it’s in the process of reapplying for 2012- so this next forum may be its last or like Cher’s farewell tour, it’s just one more of many to come.

Join us today as we walk down memory lane with Jim Pickett to look back at the live podcast forums we’ve done together and the life lessons we’ve learned.

• How shunning shame and injecting a sense of humor to gay men’s health creates an impact
• Bridging the generation gap.
• How big of a problem is alcohol and drug use for gay men?
• And Sexual Revolution 2.0 goes mobile.

See all the forums here

Visit our sponsors:

 Get Freaky:

Time for some dirty talk to affirm our sexual health
Join us for a “gay birds and the bees” & ask a renowned panel of gay/bi men’s health sexperts the questions that weren’t covered in your high school sex ed class.
Tuesday October 25, 2011 – Space is limited so please RSVP

See the rest

Get Freaky October 25 - Our Last Community Forum of 2011

It's all about those things that "go bump in the night."

Space is limited for this free event, please RSVP today to hold your space.

click to enlarge

Your Evening's Fabulous Sexperts:

• Gary Bucher - anal health specialist, dir. Anal Dysplasia Clinic Midwest
• Debby Herbenick - sex researcher and Time OUT Chicago's sex columnist
• John Stryker - Howard Brown Health Center nurse practitioner

Please join us
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Center on Halsted
3656 North Halsted, Chicago

We begin at 6:00pm for free light nibbles, a cash bar, and sex toy demos in the 2nd floor John Baran Senior Center.

The dirty talk begins at 7:00pm in the Hoover Leppen Theatre, 3rd floor.

FREE! Register online and be sure to tell us the sexy questions you have on your mind.

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

Prevention Revolution or Magical Thinking

O what a night! The forum was informative as our panel of experts provided information behind  Pre-exposure prophylaxis for HIV (PrEP).This can potentially save millions of lives once available to the public.The audience was engaged by details of two exciting projects, iPrEx and Project PrEPare, both working to provide the opportunity for people to take a daily pill which could protect against HIV transmission.The audience also heard a testimony from a PreEP user on how he was affected by the study.  The Podcast of this event will be posted as it becomes available unto LifeLube.Check out the action below!

 

Photos by Ed Negron

For more.

Is a Daily Pill the Answer to HIV Prevention Among Gay Men? Is This a Prevention Revolution, or Magical Thinking?

LifeLube, Association of Latin Men for Action, Chicago Black Gay Men's Caucus, Communities of Color Collaborative, Project CRYSP, and Feast of Fun are teeming up to bring you and yours a free podcast forum to explore this hot issue.

Wednesday, June 15 - Center on Halsted - be there.

Hear from real guys who are taking “the pill.”

Ask tough questions about costs, risks.


Why can't people just wear condoms?

How far YOU would you go to protect yourself?

Click for more info and to RSVP.

Click to download the flyer you see below. Please share.

Transtastic! Feast of Fun podcasts LifeLube forum on Trans-Body Politics - LISTEN

[one of LifeLube's best forums, ever!]

via Feast of Fun

Today we present our live podcast with LifeLube from the Center on Halsted in Chicago, Illinois: Trans-Body Politics, The Original T-Party. The forum was held last week - May 19.

Join us for an extraordinary conversation with three groundbreaking people involved in the forefront of the trans rights movement-

Actor Alexandra Billings- the first trans woman to play a trans woman on television, you’ve seen her on such TV shows as ER, Greys Ananotmy and Bones.

Author and activist Jamison Green, a policy specialist on the staff of the Center of Excellence for Transgender Health at the University of California.,

And Lara Brooks, who for over nine years has worked at Chicago’s Broadway Youth Center with street-based young people, many of which identify as trans.
Come feel the love and dive into our version of the state of the union of the trans rights movement and what it means for everyone.

Plus- live questions from you, the audience in person.

NOTE: Here’s a link to Jamison Green’s survey on Respectful Language mentioned during the taping of the show. Check out the huge list of terms used in medical literature to describe trans. Some of my favorite are: “gender gifted, genderforked, transbian, tranny and two-spirit.” We prefer to use “transtastic.” Read more about the study’s 10 year history here.

Click for the podcast.

LifeLube's NEXT Forum: Prevention Revolution or Magical Thinking - IS A DAILY PILL THE ANSWER?

SAVE THE DATE: June 15, 2011

Center on Halsted

6pm - 9pm

RSVP and more info to come. Stay tuned.

RSVP Today for Trans-Body Politics Featuring Alexandra Billings!

The (other) T-Party; Trans-Body Politics

There is a transgender emergence happening in Chicago. After generations of struggle, transgender men and women are becoming more visible, integrated and finding new admirers gay, straight and everywhere in between. And yet the struggle continues.

What are the positive and negative repercussions of increased trans visibility and integration? How and why do different bodies and identities provoke the fear, violence and injustice this community continues to face in the midst of progress? What can the LGBT and allied communities do to change the story?

Featured panelists include Alexandra Billings, performer and community leader, Jamison Green, PhD, University of California, San Francisco Center of Excellence for Transgender Health, and Lara Brooks, manager of the Broadway Youth Center. Moderated by Fausto Fernos and Marc Felion of the Feast of Fun.

This event is being sponsored by the University of Illinois – Chicago Institute for Policy and Civic Engagement. Please join LifeLube, Project CRYSP, and the Feast of Fun for an invigorating, LIVE, podcast forum.

Thursday, May 19th, 2011
Center on Halsted
3656 North Halsted
Hoover Leppen Theatre
Doors open at 6 p.m. for light nibbles and schmoozing.
Taping begins at 7 p.m.

This event is free but YOU MUST RSVP as space is limited!

Feast of Fun: David Munar and 30 Years of the Big A

via Feast of Fun

This year marks the 30th anniversary of the first AIDS diagnosis in the U.S.

It’s difficult to measure the devastating impact AIDS has had on humanity, not just the horrors of the disease itself but the inadequate response of governments and health care institutions to this incredible loss of life.

Gay activism in 1988. This poster could have been made yesterday, and yet, we've come a long way baby.
And yet through it all, people have risen to the challenges brought on by AIDS and created organizations to fight the disease and bring about change.

Today, we take a look at three decades of AIDS with David Ernesto Munar, the newly appointed President and CEO of the AIDS Foundation of Chicago. David got involved in the fight against AIDS at a very young age, and has seen our struggles and triumphs through the years as he’s risen through the ranks.

Most recently, young people have taken to digital media by storm as a way to inspire each other and find all kinds of information on how to create gay straight alliances or at schools.

The benefits of this are profound as studies show that LGBT people who’ve undergone severe trauma as a result of bullying are more likely to become HIV positive.


Listen to the podcast.

Announcing LifeLube's Next Live Podcast Forum,The (other) T-Party, Trans-Body Politics, Featuring Alexandra Billings

This event is free, but you must RSVP to attend.

What are the positive and negative repercussions of increased trans visibility and integration? How and why do different bodies and identities provoke the fear, violence and injustice this community continues to face in the midst of progress? What can the LGBT and allied communities do to change the story?

Featured panelists include Alexandra Billings, performer and community leader, Jamison Green, PhD, University of California, San Francisco Center of Excellence for Transgender Health, and Lara Brooks, manager of the Broadway Youth Center. Moderated by Fausto Fernos and Marc Felion of the Feast of Fun. This event is being sponsored by the University of Illinois – Chicago Institute for Policy and Civic Engagement.

Please join LifeLube, Project CRYSP, and the Feast of Fun for an invigorating, LIVE, podcast forum.

Thursday, May 19th, 2011 Center on Halsted 3656 North Halsted Hoover Leppen Theatre

Doors open at 6 p.m. for light nibbles and schmoozing. Taping begins at 7 p.m.

This event is free, but you must RSVP to attend.


Please also consider attending the AIDS Foundation of Chicago/Service Provider's Council Trans Actions Wellness Conference from 9:00-3:30 that day.

Feast of Fun podcast: The Battle Over HIV Prevention

Last time there was a lot of fuss over a little blue pill, Bob Dole was doing Viagra ads on TV.


via Feast of Fun

Check out the podcast now.

The AIDS Healthcare Foundation launched a national ad campaign to discredit PrEP or Pre Exposure Prophylaxis, a new HIV prevention technique that involves taking Truvada (an existing HIV medication) on a daily basis.

The LA based health organization blasted this approach, saying there is no magic pill, and that it’s just a misguided attempt to put HIV negative men on unnecessary meds to enrich the fat cats in the pharmaceutical industry to the tune of $10,000 a year per patient.

Why is the leadership of the nation’s largest AIDS organization arguing against a treatment that could potentially save millions of gay men from becoming HIV positive?

Today, gay men’s health advocate, Jim Pickett, from the AIDS Foundation of Chicago, joins us to explain the controversy surrounding this new treatment, and the possible reasons it may be misunderstood.

Listen to the podcast.

And that smart HIV-positive shirt Jim is wearing? Part of a cool anti-stigma campaign out of the Illinois Alliance for Sound AIDS Policy. Check it out.

PODCAST: LifeLube Helps Get Your Butt Out of the Sand

via Feast of Fun (one of the exclusive places LifeLube advertises, cuz they're worth it)

Your body is a magical wonderland waiting to be explored, but proceed with caution because risks may be lurking around the backside. You can’t just stick your butt in the sand and pretend there’s nothing behind there to deal with.

Today health advocate (and LifeLube minion) Jim Pickett joins us to answer your vital questions about your butt. Yes, your derriere, your bon bon, your gluteus maximus, because overcoming our bashfulness over the booty is key to gay men’s health.(And rectal microbicides too!)

Why do gay men enjoy anal sex? How do I know if my boyfriend is good for me? Are some types of lube safer than others? How do I keep my booty fresh and fabulous?

Plus we take a closer look at the Asset Based Lifestyle- the secret every gay man needs to know about focusing on what works in your life in order to bring about the change you need to shine.

And of all the hot hot hot news... Listen.

LifeLube's Pete Subkoviak Talking Homophobia on Feast of Fun

via Feast of Fun

Listen to the podcast.

Disease, suicide, abuse and discrimination, in many ways all stem from the same disorder- homophobia.

So how do we get to the root of this hate and create an environment where our health, wellness, and human rights are respected and nurtured?

Does it all start with just a little bit love and understanding?

Pete Subkoviak, health advocate, blogger for Lifelube, and policy coordinator at the AIDS Foundation of Chicago joins us to talk about fighting homophobia, in obvious and not so obvious ways. Next week in Chicago, Lifelube is holding a public discussion on fighting hate and bigotry, and they want to hear your ideas on what works.

Pete also shares with us his own experience in being a trans guy, and how he got the support from his family to transition at the young age of 18.

Plus we take a look at some trans guy myths and legends, like why so many guys choose the name Bastain or Sebastian and what part the film “The Never Ending Story” has in choosing that name.

Listen to the podcast.

Check out info on the It's Not Just "Faggot!" forum next Wednesday.

Rubber Lover

Your new boyfriend may give you a whole lot more 

than just a box of chocolates.

LifeLube's Jim Pickett popped over to Feast of Fun podcast HQ, located on a leafy avenue in Andersonville, to chat up the  topic "is it okay to stop using condoms with my boyfriend?with Marc and Fausto. Coincidentally, an issue that just happens to be the theme of LifeLube's upcoming forum "What's Love Got To Do With It?" at the Center on Halsted next Tuesday, September 21.

Click and listen to the podcast.

Click for more info and to RSVP for the free forum.

Frankengay HIV Campaign Inspires the Photoshop Set

via Feast of Fun

[ALSO - read a NEW post on "he's the one" from one of the campaign models (left)
on  the UngayGuy.com]

Did you hate the creepy HIV awareness ad as much as we did?

When the Illinois Department of Public Health gives you lemons, make something fabulous! We’re doing a Photshop contest, asking people to make their own images of the scary “Frankengay” from the bizarre “He’s the One” ad campaign.

Here’s all you have to do:

1- Download the Frankengay Monster Face
2- Make anything fabulous with it (image or video)
3- How about an “awareness” campaign? “Until there is a cure…” or “Because there is hope…”
4- Post it in the comments below.

Five winners get a Feast of Fun t-shirt and phone call from us, plus one lucky winner gets to come on the podcast and plug your blog, site or group. Through the phone, of course. 

[read lifelube's post on the messiness of it all]

We Took Pleasure Back - and Now it's Available on Podcast!

Click for the Feast of Fun podcast of the LifeLube forum - Taking Pleasure Back

 
When talking about sex and gay men, the fear of danger, diseases and risk usually become the focus. Why does it have to be this way? Why not talk about the fantastic sex we do have? After all, being gay is not just good, it's fabulous.

Join us (recorded live) from the Center on Halsted on November 11 with a panel of experts as we explore desire and ways we can be intimate, sensual and loving with each other, sponsored by LifeLube and Project CRYSP.

Please give it a listen, and leave your comments. Let's keep up the great conversation we started at the Center. Did you want to say something and didn't get a chance? Did we neglect something? Agree, disagree? Spill it.

And click here for photos and links to podcasts from previous LifeLube forums from 2008 and 2009.

Please stay tuned for our 2010 series of forums.

“We’re Taking Pleasure Back – and we want you to help us!”

When did gay sex automatically equate to penetration? Why do our conversations about gay men's sexuality consistently focus on disease and risk?

The last Project CRYSP/LifeLube/Feast of Fun special podcast forum on gay men's health this year 

Join us to discuss ways gay men can explore our desires and be intimate, sexual, sensual, lusty and loving with each other - without any worries of risk and/or disease. Let's think creatively and expansively - and learn about some research on pleasure as well.Is it possible spend an hour and NOT mention these things?

Let's give it a try.


Featured panelists include Gary Harper from DePaul University (far right), activist and spoken word artist Keith Green (also Project PrEP director - left) and Samuel R. Galloway, a sex educator from Tulip Toy Gallery (also from the University of Chicago - center.) As always, Fausto Fernos and Marc Felion of the Feast of Fun host, and will be recording the event for a podcast.

Click here to check out the beautiful flyer.

It'll be a pleasure.

Wednesday, November 11
Center on Halsted, Hoover Leppen Theatre (3rd floor)
3656 North Halsted, Chicago
Doors open for nibbles at 6:00p, program begins promptly at 7p.
The event is FREE, but RSVP's are required.

Risky Business Podcast is LIVE - WHAT IS YOUR OPINION OF BAREBACKING?

via Feast of Fun

On today’s special edition of Feast of Fun, we’re teaming up with Lifelube and Project Crysp in conjunction with the 2009 National LGBTI Health Summit to bring you Risky Business- a raw discussion with a live audience at the Center on Halsted on the sex and intimacy we crave and the risk we’re willing to take.

How do adult films with bareback sex affect our sexual desires and practices?

Are videos depicting sex without condoms a hot but safe way for viewers to find pleasure or is it a dangerous normalization of risk?

We have a panel of experts here to break down the ins-and-outs of condomless sex.

Tony Valenzuela, Writer and Activist whose work focuses on the politics of gay sex, subcultures and assets based perspectives. He’s known as AIDS activism’s most misunderstood man.

Mufasa Ali, Minister and Activist, as well as co-founder of ONYX, a leather group for men of color.

Dr. Braden Berkey, Clinical psychologist whose practice focuses on gay men, and the director of the Center on Halsted’s Sexual Orientation and Gender Institute.

Chuck Renslow, the founder of International Mr. Leather Conference and Convention, was in the audience to talk about why he recently banned bareback porn at IML and the future of the ban.

This is a frank talk about the kind of sex men have in real life and how they “seroadapt” or reduce sexual harm.

For many people, this is just the start of the conversation surrounding sex without condoms, it is not the final word. If you have any questions or insight, please leave a comment and keep the conversation going. Please be respectful and refrain from personal attacks, inflammatory remarks or general hysteria.

Listen to the podcast.

Check out photos from the forum.