Posted: 01 December 2008 at 1:37pm | IP Logged

Let me tell you three stories.

First story. One of my best friends, a middle-age man with whom I worked on AIDS issues in the 1980s, sent me an e-mail several months ago saying that he had recently tested positive for HIV.
He acknowledged that he was extremely embarrassed to be confessing this fact: The message we had all promoted then - as now - was to have only “safe sex” and to use “a condom every time.”
“I must have neglected to use a condom,” he said simply.

Second story.
I was at my local grocery store during the late summer when I ran into a casual friend I’ve known from the bars, a man somewhere in his late 40s, I’d guess, and we stopped to chat. He said he recently found out that he was HIV-positive, which he confessed surprised him.
“I thought I was safe because I was exclusively a top,” he said. “But apparently not.”
I gathered that he was already taking an antiviral combination, which suggested that his T-cell count was low, so he may have been infected some time ago.

Third story. A good friend, an older man, told me that early this fall he had his first HIV test in several years and was surprised to learn that he was HIV-positive. Not only that but his T-cell count had sunk to the 100-150 range, clearly qualifying for an AIDS diagnosis.
“I did what I considered ’safe sex’ and assumed I was uninfected. I never had any symptoms that I recognized as being HIV-related,” he told me. “But then I noticed that I was getting tired easily and wanted to take naps throughout the day. I thought that was just a function of getting older, but evidently not.”

These men are all Americans, fellow Chicagoans. And, most of all, friends. World AIDS Day will be observed on December 1. Do I care about AIDS among people I do not know and will never see or meet?
Only marginally.
What I do care about is gay men in the US, in my city, in my neighborhood. In short, I care about my friends, present and potential. Anyone who cares as much about total strangers in foreign lands as he does his friends and people in his own community has a strange idea about the value of personal relationships.
I lived through the first wave of AIDS, 1981-1996. I lost a lot of friends during that time. Suddenly it feels as if I am beginning to live through a second wave of AIDS infections–not necessarily resulting in deaths this time, at least in the medium term, but decisively altering people’s lives.
When people’s T-cell levels decline to a certain point, they have to begin an anti-viral drug regimen that involves taking one to four drugs every day at the same time every day. If they travel, they have to pack their drugs and make sure nothing interferes with their drug regimen. They have to do this for the rest of their lives. And some of the drugs have inconvenient side effects, from nausea or wooziness to diarrhea to unpleasant dreams. But taking the drugs is better than not taking them.

It seems vitally important to remind people that AIDS is still a threatening presence in the gay community.
I have read estimates that 20 % of those infected do not know it. I have seen no statistical support for that estimate and I am sure the number is far higher - 40 % or 50 %?
The US Centers for Disease Control acknowledged not many months ago that for years it had under-estimated the number of people annually infected with HIV by more than 40 %.
Every year, every day, young gay men come out and begin engaging in sex. They may think they are invulnerable, they may be heedless, or they may never see a safe-sex message or have had the term “safe sex” spelled out for them. When I have visited bathhouses or back-room bars, I have seen people of all ages and ethnicities engaging in unprotected sex.
Clearly safe-sex messages have lost their impact or are not reaching them in a persuasive fashion.

Many people seem to care more about AIDS abroad than in the US President Bush has sponsored billions of dollars in funding to prevent AIDS in third-world countries, but said little abut AIDS in the US  Some evangelical churches are involved in helping to combat AIDS abroad, but show no interest in AIDS in the US
It seems clear that they are interested in helping heterosexuals abroad, but want nothing to do with homosexuals in the US.

So it continues to be up to us.

http://www.365gay.com/opinion/world-aids-day-a-dissent/
Some of Paul Varnell’s previous columns are posted at the Independent Gay
Forum. (Pvarnell@aol.com)

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Elsie Said: 
Fear-based messages only work so long, and they worked in the 80s and early 90s. They do not work now.
The problem is that structural issues in society which led to the first “wave” you lived through have not truly changed yet. Gay people are still subject to discrimination every day, and in fact are now suffering from campaigns to make sure that discrimination is explicitly legal. That kind of messaging can be boiled down to society telling gay people, “You are expendable — we don’t think you are worth as much as other people are.”
No matter how you fight it, that kind of society-wide message, over time, finds a home in a person. Its effect is that people don’t value themselves or others as much as they could — and so taking care of oneself long-term doesn’t seem to appeal when, in the short term, a person can find a distraction from all of that hell out there.
Prevention messages and interventions based on behavioral theory don’t fall on deaf ears entirely, but they work on very short timetables because the larger societal message of lesser worth overwhelms messages of personal value (which includes health).
Also, be reminded that gay people are not the only American sufferers with HIV who are neglected by the government’s shamefully short shrift on the issue. Black and Hispanic people have much higher rates of infection, too, though not nearly as high as gay men. Black gay men, at the intersection of populations devalued by the general public, suffer most acutely.

Posted: 21 December 2008 at 1:14am | IP Logged

Getting f**ked without a condom by an HIV positive person is a high-risk sexually activity—about 1 in 50 times that will result in HIV transmission.. There is certainly no guarantee that you got HIV,  but there is  a chance. Duration of intercourse, top or bottom position, infectiousness of HIV+ partner, and presence of STDs in either partner are important factors in assessing the risk of viral transmission.

For men who have been f**ked in the past 72 hours without a condom and have had a high-risk exposure, some doctors will recommend PEP, or post-exposure prevention, which is a month of HIV medications to prevent a patient from becoming HIV positive.  You’d have to find out what’s available in your area and again, it works best if taken quickly.

Emptying out your rectum does not prevent the transmission of HIV or any other STDs. Using a condom  is the best way to lessen that risk.

Posted: 27 February 2009 at 1:08am | IP Logged

The epidemiological data speak for themselves. Although HIV infection is present in different segments of the population, men who have sex with men remain the group most affected by HIV in Canada. In 2006, 53% of new HIV infections occurred in men who have sex with men.

The situation is equally worrisome with regards to other sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Increasing rates of STIs among gay and bisexual men are an important indication that high-risk sexual practices are on the rise.

“We are well aware that for some men, HIV and STI prevention efforts must go beyond the traditional reminder that it is important to use condoms,” explains Robert Rousseau, Executive Director of Action Séro Zéro, the organization coordinating the campaign.
"Some situations and some settings can lead men to engage in high-risk sex and to set aside the safer sex rules that they usually observe. It is important to explore the factors that can lead to this. The ‘Do you have what it takes?’ campaign has been developed in order to encourage gay and bisexual men to reflect upon the various scenarios that can lead to high-risk sex. A range of outreach activities will be undertaken at the community level during the run of the campaign in order to enable men to identify the personal strategies, adapted to their own tastes and sexual preferences, that will help them to understand and address some of the underlying factors that can lead to risk-taking during sex.”

“Do you have what it takes?” - the concept

Three different illustrations have been created for this campaign. Each is intended to evoke a scenario related to a search for intimacy or romance, a taste for adventure, or an interest in sensation-seeking.

1. Adam and Steve – this tale of the “original sin,” with its basis in Christianity, was chosen to depict two men at the foot of an apple tree in a suggestive dynamic that evokes seduction and romance. The illustration has been designed for use in settings where it may be seen by the general public.
2. Tarzan and John—a story where the protagonists are in the jungle in pursuit of sexual adventure. This illustration is intended to be more sexually-charged than the first.
3. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs— as with the others, this illustration adapts a well-known story to the gay context, in this case using the Seven Dwarfs to evoke the variety of sexual interests present in the gay community in a manner more explicit and daring than the other two. Given its “dirty but in good taste” flavour, this visual will be used on a more limited basis in certain bars, saunas, and sex clubs.

All of these illustrations are accompanied by the same caption: “Sex, Passion, Romance, Adventure … Do you have what it takes?” By formulating the caption as a question, the campaign aims to encourage gay and bisexual men to engage in self-reflection, striving to do so in an open-minded way that avoids imposing value judgments or making assumptions about a person’s sexual practices. The slogan “Do you have what it takes?” also serves to refer the target audience to the campaign web site (www.what-it-takes.org) for additional information about the campaign, health and wellness tips, and links to local HIV prevention and health promotion organizations that provide services adapted to the needs of gay and bisexual men.

This innovative campaign, developed in collaboration with Inspirato Consulting Services, has been designed to foster self-reflection among gay and bisexual men regarding certain aspects of their sex lives. Going beyond traditional HIV prevention messages that focus on condom promotion, the campaign, and related community outreach activities that will be undertaken over the next several months, aims to encourage gay and bisexual men to identify some of the factors that can make them vulnerable to high-risk sexual behaviours. “Having what it takes,” in this sense, involves more than just condoms.

The campaign will nonetheless communicate the message that condoms remain the most effective way to prevent HIV and STI transmission, but in addition it offers information and tips aimed at supporting members of the target audience to identify situations in which they are more likely to take risks, such as:

· Consuming drugs or alcohol before or during sex
· Being afraid of one’s sexual orientation becoming known
· Having a taste for risk-taking and sensation-seeking
· Having difficulty communicating what one does or does not want

These are some of the key themes that the campaign will seek to address through outreach to gay and bisexual men.

Social marketing on the Internet

Each of the campaign’s illustrations has also been developed into a thirty-second video clip intended to reinforce the campaign through social marketing techniques. To this end, groups have been created on Facebook and myspace.com and an account has also been opened on YouTube in order to encourage “viral” circulation of the campaign’s promotional materials.

Banners are also being placed on various existing web sites in order to increase the visibility of the campaign and its impact as well as to reach men who live outside of major urban centres and are less likely to spend time in gay social venues. In addition, a discussion space has been created on www.what-it-takes.org where comments about the campaign can be posted. Campaign materials can also be downloaded from this site so that they can be forwarded to friends.

“What is different about this campaign in comparison to previous ones is that, in addition to the use of viral marketing techniques, the campaign is being supported by outreach activities that will be taking place at the community level in each region of the country,” explains Dr. Terry Trussler, Research Director at Vancouver’s Community-Based Research Centre and member of the team responsible for evaluating the success of the campaign.

A guide book has been produced to accompany the launch of the campaign in order to assist outreach workers in developing these activities so as to promote the campaign to members of the target audience on a local level.

Representatives from the community organizations who participated in developing the campaign were on hand to support the launch of “Do you have what it takes?”. These organizations were members of the campaign’s national steering committee, and most were also involved in the development of two previous cross-Canada campaigns: “Think Again,” undertaken in 2004, and the 2005 “Gay Men Play Safe” campaign.