LGBT

When historical villains die, at least if they are white, male Americans, Conventional Wisdom and Miss Manners say one should simply move on neutrally, "not speaking ill of the dead." Or something.

I strongly disagree. Whereas I philosophically agree that there is no such thing as a totally evil person without contradictions, it is quite appropriate to draw a balance sheet on public figures who have greatly and directly impacted our lives ... in this case for ill.

Helms was such a voluble and prolific person, Rush-Limbaugh-cum-Senator-Claghorn, and his ascendance so felicitously intersected the rightward moving Zeitgeist, that his legacy of harm extends far and wide – from making overt racism politically acceptable in modernized ways, to eliminating civil liberties and the right to organize as workers, to restricting women's reproductive freedom domestically and around the world, to banning public support for art with any erotic or sexual content, to extending the HIV epidemic by forbidding any federal funds to be used on any materials that frankly portray and discuss sex and drug use.  read more »

Overlapping Epidemics, Innovative Interventions: How Do Psychosocial "Syndemics" Drive HIV Among Gay Men - And What Can We Do About It? • Call Recording and Presentations Now Available

Download call recording and presentations here: mp3 file • Ron Stall: slides • Jim Pickett: slides

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On June 11th, CHAMP held another of our monthly community forums in New York City – Does Gender Engender HIV? Vulnerability and Resilience Across the Gender Spectrum. The forum was a great success, attracting a good-sized crowd despite occurring smack in the middle of Pride month! Our panelists were Vanessa Brocato of GMHC, Nathan Levitt of Callen-Lorde Community Health Center, and Kim Watson of the Community Healthcare Network – each one dynamic and informative. CHAMP's very own Coco Jervis facilitated a lively discussion about ways that the social, economic and political aspects of gender and gender expression are entwined with the HIV epidemic.  read more »

Today the New York Times published a batch of letters responding to their editorial on rising HIV rates in young gay men. Since they didn't publish CHAMP's letter, I thought i'd do it here (This is why we love the Internet!)

The January 14th editorial, “HIV Rises in Young Gay Men,” spent a lot of energy blaming 19-year olds, and ignored core issues that hamper effective prevention efforts.

A recent Journal of Adolescent Health study counted youth homelessness as a major factor in HIV risk. The New York City Council commissioned a 2007 report showing that one-third of all homeless youth in NYC were gay.

Congress continues to bankroll abstinence-only education programs in spite of the proven increase risk behavior they cause. Though the HIV epidemic grows worse in black and Latino communities, the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) budget has remained stagnant for a decade.

We still have no national HIV prevention plan, 27 years into the epidemic.

Young gay men are not to blame for the profound failure of government to provide comprehensive HIV prevention—nor for the media’s continued ignorance of the root causes of HIV.
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Gay City News is reporting today that they were leaked a memo from inside the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) that recommended some changes to the NYC Code regulating sex venues. Whether you're in NYC or not, the document is a fascinating read of public sex policy, and may impact you if you live in another city (they talk at length about what Los Angeles and San Francisco have done).

Sara Markt, spokesperson for DOHMH said to Gay City News that "[T]his document was an internal backgrounder about our current policy, what other cities do, and what the options could be if this policy was ever to be revised," she wrote. "We don't have any plans to change the policy at this point, just wanted to evaluate how NYC and other cities are dealing with the issue... [W]e are not making any moves to change or recommend changes at this point."

But FYI, here are the options they are considering in the full memo, also published by Gay City News:

1. Continue current policy. Allow bathhouses to operate without inspection in private areas; close (or threaten to close) gay bars and other venues in which sex takes place in public.

Comment:This requires the least effort and is unlikely to cause a public outcry. It has resulted in changes in some institutions where warning letters have been sent, and may have a "chilling" effect in keeping other venues from allowing sex on the premises. However, it is likely that HIV transmission will continue to occur from unsafe sex in private areas of bathhouses and at the other venues, including "private sex parties."

Want the good news or bad news first?

I'll give you the bad news.

Sex columnist Dan Savage whose syndicated column Savage Love is read weekly by millions in alternative weeklies around the country, wrote a blog entry for the Seattle news site The Stranger about the NYT story on rising HIV infections among young MSMs. His blog post was his usual snarky self, but horribly misinformed. He writes:

" so long as gay health educators refuse to level with gay men--there's no "moderating" your meth use; you can suck too much cock; anal sex isn't a first-date activity and having anal sex with hordes of anonymous partners, even with condoms, is sure-fire way of contracting HIV--these new campaigns won't have much of an impact. And so we'll be reading this story again in a couple of years, yet another story about HIV infection that makes tragic heroes of guys like Javier Arriola and goes on to suggest that straight talk about HIV infection is part of the problem, not part of the solution."  read more »

In what seems like a space-filler on a slow news day, the New York Times reported yesterday that HIV rates among gay men under the age of 30 are on the rise.

Why do I say it must have been a slow news day? This data was issued in a press release by the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene on September 11, 2007. The NYT story, which was the front page of yesterday's Metro section, appeared nearly three months later. In any case, here's the main info from the Times:

"The number of new H.I.V. infections in men under 30 who have sex with men has increased sharply in New York City in the last five years, particularly among blacks and Hispanics, even as AIDS deaths and overall H.I.V. infection rates in the city have steadily declined.

New figures from the city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene show that the annual number of new infections among black and Hispanic men who have sex with men rose 34 percent between 2001 and 2006, and rose for all men under 30 who have sex with men by 32 percent."  read more »

Showing the “missing pieces” of HIV prevention puzzle in the United States, more than three hundred people poured into the downtown Atlanta streets for the PJM Unity Rally and March in Atlanta, GA, on Tuesday, December 4th, where the National HIV Prevention Conference (NHPC) ended on Wednesday. People from across different communities marched to demonstrate unity for a comprehensive HIV prevention in the US, not to be divided by community or issue.

In order to draw conference attendees from the hotel to the opening rally two blocks away at Hardy Ivy Park, a group of carolers sang an HIV prevention song to the tune of “The 12 Days of Christmas.” Other PJM folks were in the lobby, decorating marchers with the PJM sash—a white satin cloth with the red PJM Unity logo. Helping to sash people in the hotel was Miss Rhode Island 2007 Ashley Bickford, who was attending the conference as someone interested in HIV/AIDS issues.

The spirited marchers burst from the Hyatt onto Peachtree Street, blowing whistles and chanting, and made their way to Hardy Ivy Park to meet the crowd already assembled. The March MC Waheedah Shabbazz-el took the bullhorn and hyped the crowd to a frenzy, reminding the crowd, “HIV is more than a disease, It’s positive proof of injustice!” The marchers grabbed signs and flashlights from organizers and marshals, and the rally was in full swing.  read more »

As we slid our tired bodies into the miniva/taxi to go to the airport, CHAMP staffers Lei, Cameron, and I (Kenyon) were met with yet another challenge. We were riding with two other people whom we did not know, but were headed to the same destination.

I say in the passenger seat, while Lei and Cameron were in the middle and back row respectively. Both were sitting next to the well scrubbed and "professionally" dressed people who had, by account of their conversation, attended the same conference we did. But what message did they get?

The two began to talk about their work. (Just to describe, they were a white man and a black woman. Both presumably straight). Without cause of provocation, they launched into their work. The woman spoke the most, while the dude offered assuring "Yes, and Uh-huh, and Something's gotta be done!" every so often. She started talking about youth in juvenile detention facilities--boy/teens. She said she has been talking to ministers about getting on board with the issue of HIV education and being more frank about sex and sexuality.

I think, OK cool.  read more »

Over the weekend, Trinidad & Tobago and Caribbean-region community groups that work with MSM read and responded to a newly published retrospective study, showing MSM's in 38 poor and middle-income countries have 19 times greater risk of HIV infection than the general populations.

Joel Simpson, a human rights lawyer based in Trinidad who serves on the C FLAG Steering Committee, recalled comments he had made days before in marking World AIDS Day: “It is not who they are that puts gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men at risk for HIV,” he had written. “It is the political, legal, economic, social, cultural forms of marginalisation and exclusion that make MSM vulnerable. Criminalisation of sexual activity conducted between consenting, adult men in private reinforces the perpetuation of homophobia at all levels of society, and drives this vulnerable group away from the information and education that is necessary to save their lives and the lives of the men and women who are their partners.”

In the Trinidad study used in the larger meta-analysis, 1 in 4 MSM reported also having sex with women in the past year, and that group of men had lower levels of knowledge about HIV transmission than did those that had sex only with men.  read more »