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Posts Tagged 'physical'
Follow My Blogs from AIDS2016 in Durban South Africa!
Monday, July 18th, 2016
(UPDATE: My first video from the conference, "Gay Men at AIDS2016 Talk Homophobia, Chem Sex, and HIV Drug Smuggling," is posting today on TheBody.com and MSMGF. It is up right now on Queerty.com. Headed to a protest and then the Global Village today!)
Conference coverage might just be the most enjoyable aspect of blogging for me. There's nothing like capturing a protest breaking out, or the emotions of advocates from struggling countries, or a drag queen on stilts handing out condoms. I've never met an eye-boggling sight that I didn't love – and put on camera.
My coverage of the international AIDS conference (AIDS2016) in Durban, South Africa is happening right now. I am in Durban, scurrying about the conference with other advocates from around the globe, and my primary purpose is to give you the feeling that you are right there at my side.
My AIDS2016 coverage is sponsored by MSMGF.org.
This year I am proud to be sponsored by The Global Forum of MSM and HIV (MSMGF). My coverage can be viewed on the site that birthed my own blog, TheBody.com, and at MSMGF.org. Queerty will step also step in and feature at least one of my video reports.
My coverage can also be viewed right here on TheBody.com.
My Australian camera man Theo Tsipiras and I will capture the human stories that make the conference so compelling. That isn't to say we won't include breaking stories about research. I have no problem rushing a scientist and getting him to explain the latest news to me. I just want to be sure he does it in a way that makes sense to everyone back home.
I will admit to it being exhausting. We're filming morning to evening every day, and then I'm editing footage all night to produce the video for the day. It's a diet of pure adrenaline. But how can I not do this? What a joy and a privilege it is for me to be active and engaged, after so many years, and bringing these people and their stories to life.
Thanks for checking out my video coverage at the links above, and please be well.
Tags: advocacy, aids, conferences, criminalization, culture, gay, help others, hiv, physical, physician, politics, PrEP, research, serosorting, Sexuality, stigma, testing
Posted in Family and Friends, Gay Life, Living with HIV/AIDS, My Fabulous Disease, News, Prevention and Policy | 1 Comment »
There's More Room in a Broken Heart
Tuesday, June 7th, 2016
There's more room in a broken heart.
— Carly Simon, "Coming Around Again"
When Will Armstrong emerges from heart surgery in just a few days, he will have weeks of hospitalization ahead. He will also have expensive new hardware in his chest and a devoted animal waiting anxiously at home.
What he will not have is a pulse.
Will, a 44-year-old living in Atlanta, is having a Left Ventricular Assist Device (LVAD) implanted, and it will push the blood flow through his heart so smoothly that the throb of a pulse will be virtually nonexistent. Unlike a pacemaker, the LVAD needs electricity to function, provided by a battery pack to be carried by Will at all times. With an extra battery always on hand. And a couple more charging at home.
The last year may have been devastating for Will, but the process has had an unexpected effect on his emotional state.
"I'm happier than I was before I got sick," Will says now. Allowing himself to receive the love and support of his wide circle of friends has had an enormous impact. "A lot of people will never know that kind of love while they are alive," Will says. "To be able to know that is an incredible gift."
The bearded weight-lifter has always cut an imposing figure, and he admits he used his physicality as armor while navigating life as a gay man. "I had to project this image," Will says. "It was such a fraud." His intimidating posture kept people at a distance, even as he struggled with life events that called out desperately for support.
Will tested HIV positive twenty years ago. Coming to terms with the stigma attached to the virus is something he managed to resolve some time ago, until he found himself facing another disease that posed a more immediate threat: crystal meth addiction.
Once he began a recovery program for meth addicts, populated largely by other gay men, Will was surprised to learn how many of his fellow addicts were also HIV positive but uncomfortable saying so. "That surprised me," he says, "that people could feel stigmatized for their HIV, even among other gay people in recovery." Will responded by becoming one of the founders of Pozitively Fabulous, an annual retreat weekend for people in recovery living with HIV, now in its fifth year.
As his years of successful recovery passed, however, Will continued to hold tight to his ultra-masculine persona. His social media pages were littered with gym selfies and bicep measurements. It was an unhealthy fixation on self, Will now admits, and it eventually caught up with him.
In May of 2015, after seven years of clean living, Will relapsed on meth for two full weeks.
"I ended up in the emergency room," he says. "I thought I was having panic attacks, but I was in kidney failure. I was in total disbelief when they diagnosed my heart failure. I've never even had high blood pressure."
"It could have been anything, HIV, diet pills, steroids, crystal meth, genetics," Will says. But he knows that, when it comes to addiction, the most obvious answer is usually the right one. "People will sometimes say how ironic it is that I 'escaped drug addiction' and then this happened. No. I didn't escape drug addiction. This is what happened."
What has followed is a year of medical trial and error, as doctors tried to keep Will's heart viable while exploring alternatives. He has been denied a heart transplant due to HIV, and his doctors say there are no heart transplants happening in the United States for people with HIV, anyway (the very few organ transplants that are happening, such as liver transplants, are between HIV positive patients and donors).
"I went through a couple months where I didn't want to live anymore, I was suicidal," Will says. "I didn't want to be here anymore."
And this is where Addie comes in, the "creature more spiritual than anything in my life," says Will.
Addie is the pit bull that is glued to Will's side, constantly vigilant for a hug from him or signs of a treat or a walk. "Addie is the reason I'm still here. I live alone, I'm single, I didn't have a boyfriend or the fabulous life I thought I would have. But Addie forced me to get up every day and take her out. She's the reason I stuck around."
"When I met her at the dog rescue two years ago, they told me she was hard to adopt because she was high strung and not great around kids or dogs." Being a pit bull probably didn't help her chances, either.
It was a match made in shelter heaven. Both Will and Addie might have been outwardly intimidating to others, but what they really needed was some unconditional love. "I connected with her and fell in love," said Will. "When I'm with her, I try to be as happy as she is. She is always right here in the moment, and she believes everything will be okay. She adores me. I've never had this type of relationship with anything."
Will has a team of friends at the ready as he mentally prepares for the five-hour LVAD surgery in a few days, but he wants them to be focused on Addie, who will miss him terribly. "She is too big and hyper to sneak into the hospital to see me," Will said, "but I'll be doing video calls with her."
Will has watched YouTube videos of the surgery ("gruesome stuff") and knows the risks of complications. He understands the LVAD will probably be attached to him for the rest of his life ("batteries are important, but I can plug myself in anywhere, including the car"). Whatever anxiety Will may be experiencing is blanketed by a deep sense of gratitude.
"Today, I look at situations that really should aggravate me, and I'm just not there. All that shit I thought you should think about me doesn't matter. Things like money and romance aren't important to me now, or being super macho so people don't think I have feelings. What is important to me are things I already have."
"My biggest challenges have been readjusting my expectations," Will adds. "Sure, I have a lot of uncertainty in my life, but I've got so much love the last year from my friends and family. And you know what? I allow people to love me. They want to be helpful, and the biggest thing I can do for them is let them love me."
As Will considers his close brush with mortality this year and the recovery process ahead, he sounds like a man who is comfortable, at long last, in his own skin.
"I'm grateful I have been given a year to resolve things, let things go, take care of things," Will says. "If I were to leave this planet, I would be okay with that. I'm okay if it's my time." His affairs are in order, including a new home for his beloved Addie, just in case.
"All that said," Will offers finally, "I don't want to go."
(Will Armstrong's friends have created a GoFundMe page to help him with basic living expenses during this time. Will has been forced to close his computer consulting business as well as the fledgling but enormously popular Burly Bakers, the bakery of his lifelong dreams.)
Tags: advocacy, Aging, gay, gratitude, help others, hiv, meth, physical, physician, recovery, Recreation, Sexuality, stigma
Posted in Gay Life, Living with HIV/AIDS, Meth and Recovery, My Fabulous Disease, News | 2 Comments »
Reclaiming 'Our Golden Years' as People with HIV
Monday, June 6th, 2016
My friend Olivia G. Ford (she got that whole middle initial thing from me, I'm convinced of it) speaks even faster than I do. That's a rare distinction.
Olivia is also an editor. She was my editor during her years at TheBody.com. I am afraid of editors. They know too much. They might even know I'm not the writer people think I am. Not on the first draft, anyway.
A few months ago, Olivia invited me to join her as the guest editors of a special issue of Positively Aware magazine and the result, "Our Golden Years," explores aging and HIV from the viewpoint of people who are already post-retirement age. (Check out the link to read a digital version, or find a copy at your local HIV clinic or pharmacy.)
In our initial conversations about how to approach the topic of HIV and aging – and let's face it, we've all been seeing it in HIV media a lot in recent years – we hit upon the fact that, while there are so many people post-retirement age who are living with HIV, most stories on HIV and aging tend to focus on "the AIDS generation" preparing to age, rather than those who are already experiencing their advanced years right now.
From our editor's letter in the issue:
We believe that the story of aging and HIV must include people who were in their 30s and beyond when the epidemic began, as well as the newly diagnosed who are already over 50 (who now account for roughly 1 in 6 new HIV cases). Those who have surpassed retirement age have been largely absent from the conversation and media coverage of HIV/AIDS.
The more we considered this, the more we became committed to sharing the stories and lived experience of elder people with HIV for this issue, "Our Golden Years."
The idea of featuring the lived experience of older people with HIV got us excited, and led to some terrific pieces on mental health (written by two therapists and longtime survivors), a conversation between generations of black gay men, women with HIV post-menopause, how to address the needs of transgender women as they age, and a frank and revealing piece on sex and dating in later years.
We were really fortunate to have such talented HIV writers and advocates join us for this issue, including David Duran, Kenyon Farrow, Sharon Lee, Rae Lewis-Thornton, Kellee Terrell, David Alain Wohl, and David Fawcett. The issue was overseen by the dynamic duo from Positively Aware, editor Jeff Berry and creative director Rick Guasco.
More from our editor's letter:
So many cultures throughout human civilization have bestowed great honor and value upon their most senior members. We believe it is inherent upon us all, as people who care deeply about a health crisis that impacts us socially as much as medically, to do the same.
Welcome to our golden years.
Being a part of this collaboration with Olivia was truly a delight, and while it may have demystified the role of an editor for me – I've never done this before – it absolutely increased my respect for Olivia and her talents, and for all those people out there who are conceiving and shaping HIV publications and web sites on a monthly basis.
So, while I'm at it, a shout-out to the late, great Bonnie Goldman, the founding editor of TheBody.com, where My Fabulous Disease was born. And to JD Davids, the scary smart editor there now. And then there is the sly and brilliant Oriol Gutierrez at POZ Magazine (with the amazing Jennifer Morton, their very own wonder woman), the lovely Bob Leahy at PositiveLite in Canada, and the nurturing and insightful talents of Diane Anderson-Minshall at PLUS Magazine. And Chris Bull at Queerty has been a real advocate for informative and challenging HIV content on their site. Editors, editors everywhere!
But don't get me wrong. I'm still afraid of them.
p.s. Check out the digital issue of Positively Aware, look for it at your local clinic or pharmacy, or get your own subscription to the print edition right here.
Tags: Aging, aids, culture, hiv, lipo, physical, physician, Sexuality, stigma
Posted in Living with HIV/AIDS, My Fabulous Disease, News | 1 Comment »
Surviving Life Itself: Reflections of a Longtime Survivor
Sunday, June 5th, 2016
The young woman sitting across from me on the bus is in her mid-20s. She turns to her companion and her voice grows serious.
"I know someone who died," she says in the hushed tone reserved for tales of mortality. Her friend looks up from his phone. "He was a good friend of my brother," she goes on. "He was killed in a motorcycle accident a few months ago. It was just awful." As her friend offers words of comfort, my own thoughts produce a rueful smile and a nagging question.
Just one? You know just one person who died?
By the time I was her age, death in my social circle was so commonplace the body count approached the toll of a commercial airline tragedy.
I listen as the woman reverently shares the details of the accident, of the shock waves that surged through the family, of what the dead friend was like and who freaked out at his funeral. And then a bittersweet realization strikes me.
The friend she lost has a story of his very own. It is the chronicle of one tragic death, with all of its intimate details and reverberations. His story will be repeated by the young woman for years, and by her brother and by the remaining loved ones of the absent friend. And they will grieve and remember this individual death and grant it the weight of a rare tragedy.
Already I have indulged in a regrettable pastime that aggravates me when others pander to it. I am counting my lost friends like selfishly guarded chips in a morbid poker game, claiming my grief as if the high tally amplifies the legitimacy of my loss. There is no hierarchy of misery. The death of one person close to you is quite enough.
And yet there are harrowing, undeniable moments from my past, drawn from 30 years living with HIV, that have shaped my attitudes and the senseless tragedies that befall us. I can conjure them but I must do it deliberately, for they are held captive in secluded corners of my mind and I release them with great caution. Perhaps now is the right time to unlock a few of those images.
The fluids in Lesley's dying body percolating like a coffee maker as we stood at his bedside awaiting his last breath. The anguished admission by my brother, Richard, that he helped his critically ill lover swallow a deadly, Seconal-laced cocktail in order for him to die on his own terms and avoid the final indignities of AIDS. My visit to Pablo in intensive care during his pitiful throes of dementia, nodding my head reassuringly as I tried to decipher his final, incoherent pleas.
They are a litany of despair, these heartrending tales, but I feel compelled to reveal them as part of another common exercise: to authenticate my history as a "long-term survivor." I have misgivings about that unsettling designation because it doesn't speak to my other, parallel life experiences and it suggests a dismissal of my relevance in the here and now.
That life has included falling in love, changing careers, teasing my friends, watching my cats wrestle one another, and looking forward to whatever lies ahead with a deep sense of gratitude and joyful anticipation.
And it is this prism—one that includes AIDS as only a segment of my life—through which I view the world today. My status as a long-term HIV survivor does not make me a champion or a museum piece to be examined and admired. I am a man in the prime of his life. My age and maturity guide me, not the virus that has failed miserably to kill me.
The grief-stricken young man I once was held no clue about the mystifying speed with which time passes. The swift interval between the early days of AIDS and merciful treatment breakthroughs confounds me even now. Suddenly I blinked, and when I opened my eyes I was 40 years old and the world was a far different place.
My work in HIV advocacy continued during this time while others retreated to lives away from daily reminders of the epidemic. I did not fault them for that, in fact I envied them, but the army of our earliest activists, forged in the first years of the plague, had diminished.
By then, women and people of color had gained more traction and acknowledgment in the HIV arena, though without the national fervor or the generous support enjoyed by the original, largely gay agencies.
It was a time of such hope and encouraging progress, but if you scratched the surface of these victories you found they were dependent on privilege, money and access. Deaths continued unabated behind a dark curtain of racism and poverty.
The gay community began to avert its eyes from the continued infections of people unlike ourselves, and I joined many other exhausted activists who abandoned town hall forums devoted to HIV for the celebratory relief of the dance floor. Massive circuit party events became a vibrant diversion, summoning revelers by promoting their dubious contributions to AIDS service organizations. After a generation of relentless mortality I felt entitled to the party, to the steroids and the gym membership and the body-thumping beats of house music.
That is, until the festivities morphed into drug-fueled bacchanalias that required ambulances with the same regularity that had once been needed at AIDS hospices. I fell victim to their excesses, and my drug addiction and recovery process removed me from HIV advocacy for the next several years.
They comfort me, these tangible reminders of strife, victory, love and loss. They help me embrace and appreciate my life history. Perhaps I don't find the title of "long-term survivor" so unsettling after all. There are worse things.
Most of all, the trauma that had once consumed me is now shrouded in the fog of a fading dream.
What remains are the wondrous developments of the present, like treatments that have also rendered people with HIV non-infectious and the amazing potential of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), a pill to prevent someone from contracting the virus. The advent of PrEP is the most significant prevention advancement in a generation. It is just the kind of miracle we once prayed for as we sat silently in pews at memorial services.
But astoundingly, these developments have been nearly as controversial as they have been celebrated.
There are thoughtful conversations about the cultural and medical effects of PrEP. What a shame they are being drowned out by clanging arguments about who is using condoms and who is not. The ludicrous chatter about who is a whore, a role model or a rebel foolishly reduces human sexual behavior to a problem that must be solved. Much of it seeks to impose sexual sterility in the way homophobic conservatives once denounced all gay bedroom antics, whether they were risky or not.
I remember what sex was like before gay men started using condoms. It was glorious. It still is. I always thought that finding our way back to enjoying sex without a barrier was kind of the point. Even the popular slang for sex without condoms, "barebacking," evokes some kind of deviant sexual pathology. The entire history of human sexuality would suggest otherwise.
I watch the absurd finger-pointing today, the naïve segregation of positive and negative, the lack of empathy granted to human failings, the tendency of the newly infected to call the police before they call a doctor, the fracturing of the advocacy efforts built over decades, and I weep for the community we once were.
Trying to imprint our life lessons on the young is a fool's errand practiced without effect for millennia. I have never walked up to anyone who served in Vietnam and asked him to sit down and tell me all about it. I may respect the elderly soldiers in Veterans Day parades, but whatever post-traumatic disorders or multiple losses we may share fail to unite us. I watch them roll by in wheelchairs, festooned with medals and shriveled into nothingness, and then I have the audacity to wonder why younger gay men don't consider my life experiences relevant.
Our influence as long-term survivors may be limited, but we can find meaning and engagement as cultural elders and mentors. To whatever degree younger people are receptive, we have so much to offer about the nuances of treatment, the various side effects and the failings of the pharmaceutical complex that we have rallied against so effectively through the years.
Regardless, nothing should deter us from being of service to one another. We must support the emerging networks of other survivors and work to find solace in our shared history. We are a displaced segment of a community that once ministered to us. Our bond is vital to finding solutions to the issues we face as an aging population.
As wearying as our battles have been, as unwelcome as we may sometimes feel in the modern advocacy movement, we have plenty to contribute. We had better do it while we still can.
I am sensitive to the passage of time because I have seen lives with great promise left unfulfilled. I may no longer fear dying, but I am sorely afraid of not taking full advantage of these precious additional years that were once unimaginable. Regrets, the things unsaid and undone, are what frighten me and urge me onward.
The mysteries of life and time will be revealed in due course: to the woman on the bus grieving her singular loss, to those who would howl at the moon over behaviors they do not understand, to survivors grappling with the meaning of tragedy, to young people negotiating the sexual terrain, to you and to me and to all the rest.
Enlightenment awaits. All we have to do is blink.
(This essay appeared in the June, 2015 issue of POZ Magazine and is shared with their permission. Today is HIV Long-Term Survivor Awareness Day.)
Tags: advocacy, Aging, aids, barebacking, criminalization, culture, family, gay, gratitude, help others, hiv, lipo, meth, physical, physician, politics, PrEP, recovery, Recreation, research, serosorting, Sexuality, stigma, testing
Posted in Family and Friends, Gay Life, Living with HIV/AIDS, Meth and Recovery, My Fabulous Disease, News, Prevention and Policy | No Comments »
Checking Privilege at 'HIV Is Not A Crime' 2016
Thursday, June 2nd, 2016
The issues of race, gender and privilege crackled through the recent HIV Is Not A Crime (II) conference like a live wire, throwing sparks at every turn. From the main stage to the hallways, attendees called out white classism, the utter failure of the criminal justice system (unless its purpose is solely to imprison black men), and what it truly means to be an ally of marginalized communities.
It was at turns exhilarating and a little unnerving. White male advocates like myself might have lost our bearings from time to time, wondering why we felt self-conscious at a conference devoted to an issue we care deeply about. No matter. The anti-criminalization movement is largely populated by women and people of color, and their job isn't to make me comfortable (activism rarely is). Changing laws that imprison innocent people living with HIV is the goal, along with condemning the social and legal systems responsible.
If you go with that thesis, then the prominence of women and people of color at HIV Is Not A Crime is as bittersweet as it is triumphant.
Produced by The Sero Project and the activism powerhouse Positive Women's Network USA, the conference served as a "training academy" for advocates working to reform or repeal State-wide HIV criminalization statutes, and the work of organizers is a testament to our common bond: the empowerment of people living with HIV, speaking about ourselves, for ourselves.
The intersections of race, gender, and sexuality were given as much weight as strategy sessions on working with legislators and lawyers, and the program repeatedly drove home the fact that criminalizing behaviors related to specific groups of people is as American as apple pie. Plenary speakers included advocates for women (including transgender women), current and former sex workers, immigration reform and drug legalization advocates, and, most powerfully, people who have been prosecuted under HIV criminalization statutes.
My video coverage of the HIV Is Not A Crime (II) Training Academy provides a glimpse of demographic landscape the conference offered, even if I managed to chronicle remarks by elevated HIV advocate Mary Fisher while not capturing enough of the electrifying words of grassroots activists like Maxx Boykin, Ashton P. Woods, and Marco Castro-Bojorquez, or criminalization survivors like Ken Pinkela and Monique Moree (add them to your Twitter feed anyway). My special thanks to Nicholas Feustel, a Berlin filmmaker who is creating his own film about the conference, for allowing me to tag along during his interviews (and take advantage of his awesome lighting).
It is tough to describe the experience of being on the campus of University of Alabama in Huntsville with these fierce advocates for four days, living together in dorms and taking our meals in the cafeteria. HIV Is Not A Crime may be the most perk-free conference any of us have ever experienced, with no exhibit hall or pharmaceutical sponsors bearing swag bags, and I don't believe we would have it any other way.
For more information on HIV criminalization, and why this continues to be the defining moral HIV issue of our time, I urge you to visit The Sero Project for video interviews with those who have been prosecuted and a state-by-state map of HIV statutes.
Meanwhile, my friends, please be well.
p.s. Speaking of conference coverage, I'm thrilled to announce that I will return to the International AIDS Conference for AIDS2016 in Durban, South Africa in July. My video blog coverage is sponsored by MSMGF and will appear on their site as well as TheBody.com. I look forward to bringing you the sights, sounds, breaking news, and most especially the people that make the bi-annual conference so memorable. Look for more details very soon.
Tags: advocacy, aids, barebacking, conferences, criminalization, gay, hiv, physical, politics, PrEP, serosorting, Sexuality, stigma, testing
Posted in Living with HIV/AIDS, My Fabulous Disease, News, Prevention and Policy | 1 Comment »
The Comfort of Blaming Other People for New HIV Cases
Wednesday, April 27th, 2016
The college student had real concern in his eyes when he asked me a question during a recent presentation at American University. "Isn't it true," he asked, "that the HIV epidemic continues because people who know they are positive keep infecting other people?"
It is a question I have heard before, in one way or another, and it always makes me cringe. Not only does it thrust all culpability onto those living with HIV, it also promotes a narrative that being infected with HIV chemically changes our moral fiber and transforms us into abusive monsters. It is the kind of characterization that is driving HIV criminalization laws and prosecutions, which are jailing people with HIV for the offense of having sex at all, even when we protect our partners.
"That is simply wrong," I responded to the student. "In fact, the largest amount of new infections is due to people who don't know they are positive, who are operating on outdated HIV test results, or who haven't tested at all. They are having sex while the HIV virus is raging in their bodies. They are the more dangerous group."
There are few things more satisfying than projecting blame onto other people, especially when you can sling it across the chasm that exists between those who of us who actually know we are HIV positive and those who do not. There is such comfort in pointing out that nope, it isn't me, it's that guy over there.
And shouldn't people know that those who haven't bothered to get tested lately are responsible for more infections? It's a message advocates like myself have been delivering for years in an attempt to increase HIV testing and, consciously or not, subtly redirect blame.
Except that my answer to that college student isn't true. Not anymore. New epidemiological facts, first brought to my attention last month by Paul Kawata of the National Minority AIDS Council (NMAC), completely discredit my long-held beliefs.
More new HIV infections are now caused by people who know they are positive. That's the truth. And by a wide margin.
Here comes two brief paragraphs of wonky epidemiology. Hang in there. It's very interesting.
A December, 2015, article in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) using data from 2012 shows that a whopping 69% of new infections can be attributed to people who have already tested positive for HIV but are not in care or not receiving adequate care, and only 23% of new HIV infections are due to those who do not know they are positive (a small, single-digit percentage of new infections are attributable to people who are in regular care but are not necessarily undetectable).
This, in contrast to a study published earlier last year in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) but using data from 2009, which states that people who know they are positive are less likely to transmit HIV than those who don't know they are positive.
So, what happened between 2009 and 2012 that produced such conflicting results? Dr. Jonathan Mermin, the Director of the National Center for HIV/AIDS at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), happens to have co-authored both studies in question.
"Saying the epidemic is largely driven by people who think they are negative is no longer a true statement," Dr. Mermin told me. "And this is what has changed over time: The United States is one of the countries where a high percentage of people know their status. We're up to 87%."
In other words, there is now a much larger pool of people who know they are positive, due to the success of HIV testing efforts. And from this larger pool comes the vast majority of new HIV infections.
"The reason these figures have changed," said Dr. Mermin, "is because we know more of the people who are positive. The challenge now is to get those people into regular care."
Since only 30% of those who know they are positive are virally suppressed – a number that has nevertheless grown in recent years – Dr. Mermin strongly believes that the biggest push both clinically and in terms of CDC budget dollars should be devoted to getting people with HIV into care, on treatment, and rendered undetectable (also known as "treatment as prevention").
"Treatment and prevention are now intertwined" said Dr. Mermin. "You can't think of one without the other. We have encouraged our grantees to think about that continuum of care, to think about getting people into care, anti-retroviral therapy, while continuing to help people know the facts about transmission. That comprehensive package has been found to be effective."
The clear evidence after all of this number crunching makes my longstanding habit of assigning blame to "those other people" not only ignorant but ludicrous. There are plenty of HIV infections to go around. This isn't a contest for the title of Most Likely to Infect Someone.
Funny how my attitude becomes more generous, when it is now people who know they have HIV, like me, who are doing the most infecting.
We also can't ignore another important statistic. Only 30% of the HIV positive people in the United States are undetectable, which puts an asterisk on another popular message among HIV advocates: that it is safer to have sex with a person who is positive, in treatment, and undetectable.
That is literally true, yes, but it includes a big mouthful of important qualifiers – not all of which can be properly vetted in every risky situation. Hopeful assumptions are not a prevention strategy.
While I applaud the gay dating apps that have added profile options for HIV status that include "undetectable" and "PrEP," the truth behind these personal factoids should be weighed at least as discerningly as facts presented about, say, their age. Or about their other personal attributes. Ahem.
The growing list of status labels also fractures our community even further, whittling us into subsets within subsets. Suddenly, the new personal failure isn't simply being HIV positive, but now includes not being undetectable. This doesn't begin to address the many social determinants that block people who know they are positive from achieving viral suppression: lack of access and financial resources, HIV stigma, an unwillingness to take medications, having failed treatment regimens, or simply being without the wherewithal to locate an HIV clinic or physician and jump through the hoops required to enter the system.
All of the finger pointing in which I have admittedly participated is a useless exercise. By focusing on the relative safety of someone else we renounce our own responsibility. That is why the arrival of pre-exposure prophylaxis changes so much of the game. PrEP puts HIV negative people in charge of their own protection, without having to make judgments or assumptions about others.
But, until PrEP access and education better reaches communities most at risk, many people will still look outward, relying on guesswork and presumptions about who is a danger to them and who is not. As I have recently learned, sometimes we get it very wrong.
It took surprising new research on current HIV infection rates to get me off my high horse and take me back to basics. We're all in this together. Negative people at risk should maintain HIV testing. Those who test positive should investigate treatment. Barriers should be removed.
And of course, taking action to protect ourselves is our responsibility. It is ultimately ours, and ours alone.
And, under the banner of "Why Mark Avoids Writing Research-Based Essays," this counterpoint from the always insightful Londoner Gus Cairns, editor of AIDSmap. Gus references an AIDSmap article, "Model suggests there are fewer people with HIV in the US than thought, and more of them on therapy," which reads in part:
A study comparing recorded diagnoses of HIV with subsequent records of viral load and CD4 tests suggests that the number of people with HIV in the US could have been overestimated by as much as 45% – and the proportion who are on antiretroviral therapy (ART) with undetectable viral loads could have been underestimated by as much as 50%. There could be a few as 820,000 people with HIV in the US compared with the normally accepted figure of 1.2 million – and up to 55% of those could be on ART and virally suppressed, compared with the most commonly quoted figure of 30%.
The first-ever HIV IS NOT A CRIME conference held last year in Grinnell, Iowa, was the most inspiring conference I have attended in years. Advocates of every stripe were laser-focused on what I consider to be the defining moral issue of our time in the HIV arena.
And now, the second conference is about to be held, this time as the "HIV Is Not A Crime Training Academy," on May 17-20 in Huntsville, Alabama. You gotta love how these committed advocates choose locations to meet where criminalization is either being successfully reformed (Iowa) or where prosecutions continue (the south). I recommend you attend if you possibly can, or at least follow the event's Facebook page or the #HIVisNotACrime hashtag on social media. If you would like to promote criminalization reform, check out their handy social media toolkit for sample tweets and fabulous artwork.
Tags: advocacy, criminalization, culture, gay, hiv, physical, physician, PrEP, research, serosorting, Sexuality, stigma, testing
Posted in Gay Life, Living with HIV/AIDS, My Fabulous Disease, News, Prevention and Policy | 2 Comments »
The Sound of Stigma
Tuesday, April 12th, 2016
Stigma is insidiously quiet. It is conjured in the mind, born of discomfort and fear, and then it is projected at "the other" among us. It judges them and isolates them. And it happens without a sound.
Stigma lets us take comfort in seeing things in others about which, we believe, they must be ashamed. It is a lazy way to feel better about ourselves—and therefore a popular human activity—and gay men are remarkably good at it. So many of us survive childhood taunts that by the time we come of age we have developed fairly lethal claws of our own. We know how to hurt others before they can hurt us.
But when the AIDS pandemic began over 30 years ago, gay men learned that whatever cleverness we possessed was no match for a crisis that questioned nothing less than our existence on this earth. Churches said we were damned. Politicians wanted us quarantined.
Gay men prefer to remember the earliest days of AIDS as a heroic time, and there is no doubt that many of us behaved that way, but stigma also was a fearsome, daily aspect of our lives in the early 1980s. Heterosexual parents were not the only people disowning someone with an AIDS diagnosis. Gay men also were driven by ignorance and fear. We kicked out our sick roommates. We refused to give them manicures or cut their hair. We turned away from their sunken faces at the neighborhood bar, when they had the guts to show up at all.
Once the initial hysteria subsided and the virus and its routes of transmission were identified, stigma between gay men calmed somewhat, if only because there was so much work to be done to care for the dying. Our brothers with AIDS were not so much stigmatized as pitied for their loss of dignity and humiliating deaths. They were tragic victims, exalted as martyrs.
Until they weren't. With the advent of breakthrough treatment in 1996, the dying nearly stopped in its tracks. Patients got up from their deathbeds and rejoined the living. There were cheers all around. Within a few years, even the word "AIDS" had nearly disappeared from the gay lexicon.
Those former patients, and the many gay men with HIV to come after them, had no interest in playing tragedy, or in being wizened and terminal and predictable. They wanted to take their rightful places in our social scene, to date and fall in love, to enjoy the bars and the clubs and the house parties. They wanted to laugh and dance and live.
And fuck.
And that is when, in the deviously quiet way in which stigma operates, all hell broke loose. We built social fortresses to separate Us from Them. We didn't have to bother labeling one another because the disease did it for us, creating an HIV hierarchy that started with "positive" and "negative."
The more HIV treatments improved, the wider the viral divide became. Our mutual resentments and jealousies worsened. As the physical scars of AIDS faded—the skin lesions, the wasted faces—our anxiety level rose as HIV status became less apparent. You can just imagine the frustration of the discerning gay man, no longer capable of telling the positive from the negative. Where's the comfort of stigmatizing someone when you can't tell who they are?
Today, our attitudes about HIV and other gay men range from self-righteousness to outright contempt. From whatever our vantage point, we have shamed and stigmatized everyone else into a corner, and the result is a community in revolt against itself. We are a snake eating its tail.
It might be easy to doubt this gloomy view of the gay community. None of us like to believe ourselves guilty of treating "the other" badly. The only thing we admit for sure is that we have been mistreated and misunderstood. Our self-interest is telling.
Maybe the problem is that, beyond the convenient anonymity of online hookup sites or mobile apps, you don't usually see HIV stigma in all of its black-and-white ugliness. You don't hear its voice.
Listen closely to the ugly words of stigma. A special version even exists for the newly diagnosed.
Gay men who get infected today are out of their minds. They are the failed ones, the grave disappointments, the apathetic, the careless, the irresponsible. They spit upon the memories of our courageous dead. They have no respect for our history, for our monumental tragedy.
We might make motions to comfort them, but it is the kind of patronizing back-patting that we reserve for the truly stupid. We tell them they will be fine, really, and we don't look them in the eyes for very long. Our weary judgment shows.
Never mind that they are guilty of nothing more than being human, of being in love or getting drunk or trusting the wrong person or saying yes when they should have said no. Their weak excuses will be met with furrowed brows, and their dating life will wither. They will be marked and socially downgraded. They should be ashamed, and something inside us hopes that they are.
Do you hear it? Keep listening. There is so much more to say.
Before long, those newly diagnosed will join the promiscuous ranks of sexually active HIV-positive men. They are the unclean ones, the barebackers trolling the Internet, the murderers with tainted blood on their hands, the crystal meth addicts lounging in bathhouses with the door ajar. They are the unrepentant, the whores, the vile merchants of death.
Never mind that these men struggle to disclose their status, that they are routinely rejected socially and sexually, that their waning self-esteem is being strangled by our judgment, that sometimes their lives feel so forsaken they settle on whatever community will have them. The fact that stigma and depression often lead to escapist behavior is of no interest to us. We fear they could be having more sex than we are—hotter sex maybe—and the chance it might not be hurting anyone is infuriating. They should be ashamed, and we will make damn sure that they are.
The lowest rung of the gay HIV hierarchy is inhabited by older gay men who have lived with the virus for decades. They are the dependent ones, the sunken-faced humpbacks cashing their disability checks and wiling away their days sipping coffee in Café Disabilité. They are the aging invisibles and the sexually worthless.
They try to mask their feeble wasting with testosterone injections and protein shakes and facial fillers, but we know the truth. We see. They remind us of our darkest days, these unwelcome relics, and though we ignore them their haunting persists, in the daylight of the grocery store and the darkness of the bars. We avert our eyes and anticipate their extinction.
Never mind that they were among our earliest activists, our courageous long-term survivors, the men who scrawled words like "empowerment" and "advocacy" across the bureaucracies of their time. Forget that they have seen death in obscene quantity, that whatever joy they possess is a triumph of spirit. They should be ashamed, but we don't regard them with enough interest to care.
Do the words sound familiar at all? Do you hear the voice? It isn't nearly done.
Take a hard look at HIV-negative gay men. They are the superior ones, the corrupt morality police, the hypocrites, the gentlemen in waiting. Above all else they are the supremely lucky, because they can't possibly live by the crushing code of conduct they impose on the rest of us.
They reject us as damaged goods. They promote how "drug and disease free" they are. They publicly advertise their outdated HIV results. They tell us we would make better friends than sex partners and then they don't call again. They find clean, disease-free love with other, similarly superior men so they might have a life out of reach of the great unwashed.
Never mind that they have successfully avoided infection thus far, that they have buried friends and comforted lovers, that they withstand the unnerving ritual of HIV testing and worry about whether or not they will pass or fail. And please, pay no attention to the fact that they fear HIV stigma at least as much as positive men do, which is one compelling reason they hold tight to their negative status with such fervor.
None of their circumstances can excuse their indictment of the rest of us. We marvel at their lack of shame, and wonder bitterly if their attitudes might change if they became infected.
At least they don't suffer the same wrath as do HIV-negative men taking Truvada, the HIV medication used as a pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP. They are the traitorous ones, thumbing their noses at their elevated negative status by intentionally dipping themselves in the viral soup of casual sex. They are obviously barebacking infected guys or they wouldn't be popping pills that blunt the consequences of being a poz-loving slut.
And God help those who don't admit they are infected and have sex with a negative person, because they are the criminal ones, the terrorists, the dangerous liars who must pay dearly for what they've done. They belong in jail and off the streets, like drug dealers and rapists.
Never mind that, for reasons we all well know, they can't always bring themselves to disclose, that they may use condoms, that they may be adherent to their meds and undetectable, and that no single case of an undetectable person transmitting the virus has ever been verified. Disregard the fact that conservative lawmakers and prosecutors are more than happy to exploit our thirst for vengeance and lock up some diseased fags who dare to have sex at all. Forget that during the first years of AIDS, when the virus reliably killed you, those who became infected took personal responsibility and called their doctors to start treatment and not the police to press charges.
That is the sound of stigma. It is bitter and rageful and terribly afraid. I can hear my own tones in it, like a voice in a chorus, when it says the words I would never admit to thinking. Do you hear your own?
Gay men have known since the AIDS pandemic began that empowerment is the antidote to stigma, that the more proactively we approach our health care and build support networks, the less stigmatized we feel. The answer lies in our refusal to be marked and shamed. But our own community challenges us at every turn.
Stigma operates exactly like the deadly virus we claim to oppose: It infects pieces of us and then turns those factions against the rest, until the entire body is weakened and vulnerable. We all know how that process ends.
That is what the gay community has become. We are AIDS itself.
When HIV disease is over—and some day it surely will be—our jubilation will be beyond all imagining. We will have finally put an end to the health crisis that has plagued us for generations, a crisis that polarized nearly everyone, most particularly us as gay men. And once the celebrations fade, another equally important moment will come.
We will take a look around at our friends and lovers on both sides of the viral divide—at all of our brothers whom we stigmatized for one reason or another—and our old judgments will be transformed to a deep regret. Hopefully, in that moment, a certain kind of grace will emerge. We will clearly see the deep, private wounds of HIV stigma, and we will finally allow that we are all simply and imperfectly human. And then everyone will have some explaining to do.
It wouldn't be too soon for that moment to happen now.
(This article originally appeared as a cover story in the June, 2013 issue of POZ Magazine but has never been posted on my blog until now. It remains one of my proudest moments as a writer. You can view my remarks about writing this piece, presented at the 2013 International Conference on Stigma, here. Photos: Jonathan Timmes Photography.)
Tags: advocacy, Aging, aids, barebacking, culture, family, gay, gratitude, help others, hiv, physical, physician, politics, PrEP, recovery, Recreation, serosorting, Sexuality, testing
Posted in Gay Life, Living with HIV/AIDS, Meth and Recovery, My Fabulous Disease, Prevention and Policy | 4 Comments »
Packing Up The Man Who Wasn't There
Monday, April 4th, 2016
When the health of my close friend Ron began to rapidly decline in 1987, he made the decision to leave Los Angeles to return home to rural New York to be near his family. "Just long enough to feel a little better," he told me at the time. It was a common trajectory in those days, usually undertaken not long after delivering the news to your family that you were gay and oh, by the way, had AIDS.
I spent an afternoon helping Ron pack his things for the trip home. The chore was fraught with emotion, mortal dread, and the realization that my old friend was swiftly losing his mind.
"Mark?" Ron called from the bedroom. "Did you get a lot of boxes? We're going to need a lot, I think." I was in the living room, sealing the music and video carton.
"Yes, Ron. I told you. I'm going to take all this to the mailing place right down the street. They'll mail it home for you, okay?" I walked into the bedroom.
He sat on the bed, staring at stacks of clothes on the floor around him. They would all be sent along, he had insisted. Clothes for every season. It felt sadly optimistic. His athletic body was shockingly diminished, deflated into near nothingness.
"We need a lot of boxes," he repeated. "You know what, Mark?"
I took a cardboard garment box that was leaning against a wall and began folding it into place.
"What, Ron?" I grabbed packing tape and sealed the flaps at one end. Ron sat staring at the floor, as if he were napping with his eyes open.
"Hey, Ron, what is it?" I called to him. He didn't respond.
I knelt by his bed, collecting a stack of clothes, and looked into his face. His features held no expression, except for his eyes, which darted back and forth in a sort of panic.
"Ron? Are you doing okay?" I squeezed his knee. "Ron."
Don't you dare have some sort of seizure on me, I thought. That I could not handle, buddy. I felt a flash of anger for agreeing to help him, for having to be the sole remaining companion, the one not driven away by the hospital visits and the disfiguring lesions, the one who had to carry out this depressing task for him. And then, of course, I felt ashamed.
Who said you wouldn't have to get your hands dirty, Mark? There's a consequence for inexplicably remaining alive while AIDS punctures your social circle. There's a certain result from being able to function normally and pack boxes while your friends aren't so fortunate. There's a price for your continued good health. And you're looking at it.
"Ron?" I tried again. "Ron, can you understand me?"
He turned his face to mine. "Of course I understand you, Mark. You think I'm nuts?"
I was startled. "Well no, Ron, but you were – "
"I know everything that's going on here, Mark!" He stood up a little too quickly, caught his balance, and began to pace around the piles of shirts and underwear. "I know that I am packing things up here, and you are helping me because I can't fucking bend over without having some kind of stroke. Thank you, by the way. I know that everyone thinks that this is it for me, and that my sister is going to freak out when she sees me." He turned to me. "I know that I don't need my Jane Fonda workout tapes anymore, do I, Mark?"
I couldn't find words. He shuffled to the sink in the open bathroom. I lowered an armful of clothing into the box.
"There are more towels in here," he said. "Give them to that old woman next door. Maybe give her this bathroom stuff too, this soap dish and all. She's old. Maybe she can use this shit."
His burst of exertion suddenly caught up with him and his body slumped. He held on to the counter top with both hands. I watched his face in the mirror above the sink.
"No, I'm not crazy yet," he said in a tired voice. He bowed his head, catching his breath.
I couldn't know what would await him when he made the move home. I had no idea that his panicked parents would soon place my 26-year-old friend in a nursing home, the only available option in his small town, or that Ron's fate would include losing what was left of his mental faculties in a recreation room filled with the elderly. There was no way for me to predict that the increasingly rare phone calls from his sister would include the fact that if his mother had to witness Ron laying in his own feces one more time the poor woman would go quite mad.
Ron lifted his head and caught my gaze in the mirror. I was wrestling with the muscles in my face to keep from crying. His look suggested that it was he who felt sympathy. For me.
"I have to leave for a while, Ron," I said. "Lesley went into intensive care this morning and I promised I would get over there to see him."
Lesley, another close friend of mine, one who Ron didn't particularly like. And now, the two were competing for the time and affections of our social circle as they raced to their tragic finish.
I stood up and began to gather my things to leave.
"This is just like Lesley," he said suddenly.
I stopped and looked back at him.
"It figures he'd wanna die now," he said. "This is just like him."
Artwork courtesy of Alexander Binder.
(AIDS Dementia Complex [ARD] is associated with late-stage AIDS and was especially common in the United States during the early days of the crisis when there were no effective medications. It is believed to be the result of various factors that include a ruined immune system, medications, and infections such as toxoplasmosis.)
For the very first time on this blog, I am asking for a donation — but not for me, for Moveable Feast, the meal delivery HIV/AIDS agency in Baltimore for whom I am participating in Ride for the Feast, a 140-mile bike ride (!). Would you consider making a donation of any amount? It only takes two minutes, and you can make your tax-deductible contribution on my Ride for the Feast page here. If you have ever found my writing or advocacy helpful, this would be a lovely way to show some love. Thanks, my friends.
Tags: A Place Like This, Aging, aids, family, gay, hiv, physical
Posted in Family and Friends, Living with HIV/AIDS, My Fabulous Disease | 2 Comments »
HIV+ Gay Men Have Their Say in "The Infection Monologues"
Wednesday, November 25th, 2015
A variety of gay men spill their guts about their lives and HIV diagnosis. They are bracingly honest, sexually explicit, heartbreaking and hilarious. They are the men of The Infection Monologues, a theatrical event getting a 10th Anniversary staged reading at the Human Rights Campaign this Wednesday, December 2, 2015.
The event is FREE, with food and drinks starting at 6:00pm and the performance at 7:00pm. You can RSVP right here.
Created by the enormously influential gay anthropologist Eric Rofes (Reviving the Tribe), and written by Rofes and writer and advocate Alex Garner, The Infection Monologues provides a snapshot of the lives of gay men living in the epicenter of the crisis, and is based on hours of real-life interviews.
Eric Rofes died far too soon, taken by a heart attack in 2006 not long after The Infection Monologues premiered. Alex Garner has continued a respected career as a journalist and HIV advocate, currently leading a national PrEP education effort for the National Minority AIDS Council.
Alex and I had a chat about the play, the politics of barebacking, gay "respectability," and putting gay sex back into the social agenda.
First of all, Alex, congrats on having this work of art revived after ten years.
Thanks, Mark. We are excited to be able to breathe life into this script again. I always learn something new when I reread it.
Can I give a shout-out to the late, great, gay anthropologist Eric Rofes, with whom you wrote the play? His book Reviving the Tribe changed my advocacy forever. I recently read it again.
I can't say enough great things about Eric Rofes. None of this would have been possible without his insight and vision. His impact is ongoing and his books changed me, too.
I invited Eric to lead a gay men's town hall forum in Atlanta in the mid-1990's. He was the first person I knew to say publicly that bareback sex was critical to his sexual experience. He said it that night, and it was like a bomb went off in the auditorium. I thought the attendees would riot.
Eric was ahead of his time but such a needed voice about gay sex and gay men's health. Those early years of the bareback debate were so raw and emotional — no pun intended.
I'm wondering if the themes in The Infection Monologues have remain constant, or if we've seen any progress at all…
The themes remain constant in so many ways but the world has changed drastically. The themes of stigma, disclosure, dating/relationships, and sex are just as relevant and compelling today but scientific advancements — treatment as prevention and PrEP — have radically changed the landscape.
Does it feel like something is missing not talking about PrEP, then? I think the stigma underscoring PrEP among gay men has really always been there.
I don't think it feels like something is missing. I think it feels like a specific moment in time. The more things changes the more things stay the same. Much of the stigma associated with PrEP is the stigma associated with condomless sex. The bareback debate has simply evolved because of PrEP and unfortunately some PrEP users utilize PrEP as their shield of respectability: "I'm responsible" or "I'm protected so it's ok when I bareback." I have zero interest in respectability politics.
The voices in The Infection Monologues are such complete human beings. Funny, flawed, horny, scared. Tell me the process of how those voices came to be.
Eric was a great researcher and he conducted initial interviews of men who seroconverted after 2000. We used that research, as well as my own lived experience to create the three core characters. The additional characters were developed from writers in Los Angeles who drew from their lived experiences.
I'm all about telling the story of what happened to us — and what continues to happen. But these days it feels like so many of our wounds in the gay community are self-inflicted. Is that a fair observation?
I don't think that is a fair observation. I don't like that term. So much of our struggles are still institutionalized, whether it's around homophobia and stigma, poverty, transphobia and sexism, lack of education, religion, etc. I believe we haven't focused enough on our resiliency. As a community we endured the worst epidemic in modern history yet the lessons from that seem to be unknown. How did we survive? How did we find community, support, hope? How did we lose or find our humanity and how did we decide they were not going to destroy us. Ours is such a struggle of resistance and I think much of that has been understood simply in the modern marriage equality context.
Some advocates draw a straight line from the AIDS crisis to marriage equality. Do you agree?
I do see a straight line but not necessarily in the same way. The advent of anti-retrovirals allowed us to be healthy, presentable, and respectable. The movement could drop the messy, icky part and the part dealing with our sex, and focus on love and respectability. Strategically it was a brilliant move, but the impact was a desexualized movement. We now have the opportunity to make sex, pleasure and intimacy a top priority of our lives and our politics.
In my everyday life, I'm often torn between wanting to "tell the story" at every opportunity of what happened to us, and thinking I should just shut up already. Something about the trauma we experienced comes back to me, in some way, every damn day. So of course, the choice is to keep talking.
Who are we if not a collection of stories? That is art at its core and for those of us who have been marginalized, stories are a way to exert our humanity.
I'm honored I get to read the role of the "older" gay guy in the play. Actually, I'm actually older than the older gay character I am reading. Don't get me started. I'll use concealer that night.
(laughs) The "older" gay man is a very important perspective in the epidemic especially because he seroconverted after having lived through the war years. So much great complex emotion there.
Congratulations, Alex. It's nice having a dialogue about the monologues.
Thanks. And I hope that others will explore creative ways to tell the stories of our complex and fascinating community.
Tags: aids, barebacking, culture, gay, hiv, physical, politics, PrEP, Recreation, Sexuality, testing
Posted in Anita Mann and Acting Gigs, Gay Life, Living with HIV/AIDS, My Fabulous Disease | 1 Comment »
Five Reasons to Take the HIV Test Right Now
Monday, June 29th, 2015
Sometimes it's helpful to get back to basics, and there is no more basic, effective tool to fight the HIV epidemic than to encourage testing. How long has it been for you, my friend? Here are five important facts about HIV testing that I hope will convince you to get busy and get tested — again.
1. You could be HIV positive and not even know it.
According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), one in eight people with HIV in this country don't know they have it. Some estimates are higher. With 50,000 brand new infections every year in the United States, it is absolutely crucial that you know your status.
2. Knowing your status is one of the very best ways to stop the epidemic from growing.
No matter your HIV test results, taking the test means you are already doing your part to protect yourself and others. If you test negative, you will know you haven't put anyone at risk – and it will probably encourage you to keep making smart decisions. It might also be the wake-up call you need to re-assess your risks or to consider pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), a medication proven to greatly lower your chances of becoming infected.
If you test positive, you can take advantage of a variety of medications (with fewer pills and side effects than ever) that can reduce the virus in your body to undetectable levels. Science has proven that people with HIV who have an undetectable viral load are not transmitting HIV to their partners. Getting people with HIV to undetectable levels is a huge factor in slowing the epidemic–not to mention keeping your own body healthy and ready for more action.
Yes, getting testing can be scary. But so is having HIV and not treating it. Ask any gay friend who survived the 1980's, when there weren't effective medications. It wasn't pretty.
3. An old HIV test result is even worse than an outdated Grindr photo.
When was your last test, and how many risky things – unprotected sex, drug or alcohol use, wild nights out – have you done since then? Being confident of your status is about being consistent.
The CDC recommends an HIV test for everyone between the ages of 13 and 64 as part of routine health care. For those at higher risk – that would be gay men like me and those with drug addiction histories – a test at least twice a year is recommended, especially if your bedroom dance card has been full or you've been partying.
4. Getting tested is easier than ever, and you have plenty of choices.
Boys, do you have options. Choose one and get 'er done:
- Visit Get Tested and enter your ZIP code.
- Text your ZIP code to KNOWIT (566948), and you will receive a text back with a testing site near you.
- Call 800-CDC-INFO (800-232-4636) to ask for free testing sites in your area.
- Contact your local health department or HIV service agency.
- Get a home testing kit (the Home Access HIV-1 Test System or the OraQuick In-Home HIV Test) from a drugstore.
5. Everyone can make a difference. We can stop HIV together.
Offer to go with a buddy to support him emotionally as he gets his results. Get tested alongside that sexy beast you've been seeing. Ask friends about the last time they took the test.
You could go the extra mile by sharing this article. Or visit the Act Against AIDS page for free materials, ads, videos, and banners you can share online.
(A version of this article appeared on Queerty for National HIV Testing Day. It is good advice all year long.)
Tags: advocacy, barebacking, gay, hiv, physical, physician, recovery, Sexuality, testing
Posted in Gay Life, Living with HIV/AIDS, Meth and Recovery, My Fabulous Disease, Prevention and Policy | No Comments »


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- Swimmer Ryan Lochte reveals one of his worst dates - US Weekly
- Get the latest on Dr. Dre's arrest - TMZ
- Despite rumors, Eddie Murphy's daughter is not pregnant - Gossip Cop
- The Vampire Diaries star Michael Trevino steps out for a good cause - Just Jared Jr
- Are Blac Chyna and Kylie Jenner on good terms? - Radar
- Blue Ivy is just as stylish as her mom Beyonce! - Lainey Gossip
- This Narcos star confirms he's not coming back for another season of the show - The Hollywood Reporter
01 May 2013 at 1:19 AM
Rachael Leigh Cook & Eric McCormack: Music & Mind Gala!
About this photo set: Rachael Leigh Cook hits the carpet at the 2013 Semel Music and Mind Gala held at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel on Sunday (April 28) in Beverly Hills, Calif. The… Read More Here
Photo #: 2860445
Posted to Eric McCormack, Rachael Leigh Cook
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subset: commoncrawl


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One of our central concerns is the question of how complex dynamics arises in composite quantum systems, such as the helium atom or bosonic atoms in optical lattices; but also decoherence phenomena are on our agenda - not only because of their relevance to transport properties in ordered and disordered systems, but also because of their impact on quantum entanglement.
Besides this we (at least some of us) are famous movie stars.
New Emmy Noether group headed by Stefan Buhmann starts research at Physics Freiburg
Prof. Dr. Andreas Buchleitner: Komplexe Quantensysteme: Zustandsbestimmung, Kontrolle, Informationsgehalt
Mittwoch, 06.07.16, 20:00 (c.t.) KG I, HS 1015
NDR Info - Das Forum - 13.06.2016 20:30 - Frank Grotelüschen (lokale mp3)


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ANN ARBOR, Mich. (July 22, 2014) A plant housed at the University of Michigan for the past 80 years is about halfway through its first and only flowering process and
Matthaei Botanical Gardens horticulture manager Mike Palmer says the American agave has 10 to 14 more days of blooming.
Conservatory workers have been pollinating the agave by hand because its natural pollinators, the Mexican long-nosed bat and different types of moths, aren't available.
Once the flowering process is complete, the 28-foot-plant will die.
Native to Mexico and the American Southwest, the agave has been a hit in Ann Arbor since it started growing rapidly taller in April, an indicator it was preparing to bloom.
Visitor Carol Marantette of Grosse Pointe said she was excited to see a "once-in-a-lifetime" occurrence.


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The New European Fascists
Democratic National Convention Demonstrators Led by Chris Hedges, Cornel West (Multimedia)
If Hillary Clinton Wins the Presidency, This Is the Most Left-Wing Thing She Will Do
Democratic Convention Live Blog: From Boos to Everyone Loves Hillary Clinton
Does Hillary Clinton Understand the Biggest Divide in American Politics?
Chris Hedges $11.96
Joseph Heller's classic, satirical anti-war novel, published in 1961 and based on his experiences as a bombardier in World War II, is sadly relevant today, as Obama's wars, in Afghanistan and beyond, drag on.
U.S. Army National Guard/Sgt. Joshua S. Edwards
The war against terror now being conducted from the White House, with the increasing use of drones, obviously is a self-perpetuating and self-enlarging undertaking that of its nature guarantees that the United States is the creator and perpetuator of the very war it fights.
State Department
If the new, decentralized al-Qaeda is such a threat that 19 American embassies, consulates and other diplomatic posts have to be shuttered for a week, we have a decade of wrongheaded U.S. policy to blame.
"What a dangerous edifice War is, how easily it may fall to pieces and bury us in its ruins," wrote Carl von Clausewitz, the 19th-century Prussian general and military theorist, in his seminal text "On War," close to 200 years ago.
U.S. Navy/MC2 Matthew D. Leistikow
The unforeseen consequences of American Middle Eastern policy since the Second World War are now making themselves apparent.
The National Guard (CC BY 2.0)
For my trouble, on my return to the United States, I was detained at Kennedy Airport in New York by agents of the Department of Homeland Security. Their question for me: Was I planning to fight against U.S. forces in Afghanistan?
AP/David Goldman
This is a fitting moment to recall that 15 months ago, on the weekend of March 22, 2012, all print, radio and TV news was dominated by two seemingly disconnected stories.
meeshypants (CC BY 2.0)
Drone strikes cause 10 times the number of civilian casualties that manned aircraft attacks do, a U.S. military study found, contradicting claims that robotic planes are more precise than their human operated counterparts.
Post-Cold War world military domination has proven not enough for the U.S. Now the Obama administration has been made a laughingstock by the homespun ethical stance of the high school dropout computer geek Edward Snowden.
AP/Rahmat Gul
Reports say four insurgents and three security guards died during an attack Tuesday by the Taliban near the presidential palace in Kabul, Afghanistan.
Photo illustration from an image by Colin Grey (CC-BY)
Last week on Truthdig Radio in association with KPFK: The stock market plunges, Afghan author Qais Akbar Omar reacts to the news that direct talks between the United States and the Taliban have already broken down, Texas wages a war on high school kids and the Supreme Court threatens the happiness of gays everywhere.
Rolling Stone/Blue Rider Press/Penguin
Hastings' death is a loss to readers who would have profited from his continued devotion to telling the stories of American politics and the military with fewer inhibitions than lesser reporters.
isafmedia (CC BY 2.0)
Peace talks scheduled to begin Thursday between the United States and the Taliban faltered after the Afghan government complained that the Islamist political group's newly opened Qatar office would be treated as a government-in-exile.
Christopher Weyant, Cagle Cartoons, The Hill
U.S. Marine Corps/Staff Sgt. Ezekiel R. Kitandwe
After more than 11 years of war in Afghanistan, a country known as "the graveyard of empires" for its inability to be conquered and held, the White House announced Tuesday that it will sit down with the Taliban and try to work things out with words instead of bombs.
White House/Chuck Kennedy
Rather than hyping the terrorist threat, like George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, President Obama has repeatedly framed a calmer—if equally resolute—attitude toward Islamist extremism.
DoD/MC1 Chad J. McNeeley
China certainly is no military threat to the continental United States, or to its security, economy or major national interests.
Jeff Parker, Cagle Cartoons, Florida Today and the Fort Myers News-Press
Rick McKee, Cagle Cartoons, The Augusta Chronicle
Nate Beeler, Cagle Cartoons, The Columbus Dispatch
A note that Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is said to have left on an interior wall of the boat where police found him after the April 15 attacks claimed responsibility for the bombings and described them as retribution for the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, saying the Boston dead were "collateral damage" in the same way Muslims are in the American-led conflicts.
The U.S. Army (CC BY 2.0)
After an extensive examination of government spending data and contracts, I estimate that the Pentagon has dispersed around $385 billion to private companies for work done outside the U.S. since late 2001, mainly in the military baseworld.
U.S. Marine Corps./Gunnery Sgt. Michael Kropiewnicki
On June 30, 1973, a 24-year-old plumber's apprentice became the last American forced into the armed services before the military draft expired.
Tom Janssen, Cagle Cartoons, The Netherlands
U.S. Navy/MC2 Edwin L. Wriston
The present debate in the United States over making policy for a Middle East that has been profoundly changed by the events of the past three years unhappily echoes past policies that failed.
U.S. Marine Corps./Lance Cpl. Juanenrique Owings
For all the armchair generals advocating U.S. military intervention in Syria, I have a few questions.
White House (Archive)
Not so fast, please: There are a few salient questions that George W. Bush (or at least his library) ought to address before the rehabilitation begins.
Jeff Vespa/WireImage
With his new book "Dirty Wars: The World Is a Battlefield," Jeremy Scahill brings the last decade of the American government's clandestine war making into the clearest possible focus.
You are not allowed to honestly discuss the Central Intelligence Agency's concept of "blowback" without putting yourself at risk of being deemed a traitor to country.
In retrospect, George W. Bush's legacy doesn't look as bad as it did when he left office. It looks worse.
AP/Karim Kadim
A British businessman was convicted Tuesday of fraud for selling fake bomb detectors for as much as $40,000. Despite being "completely incapable of detecting explosives," as police Detective Superintendent Nigel Rock put it, the devices are still in use.
Shutterstock photo of recession.
The blood runs cold when one fully appreciates how vulnerable official policymakers and the Western policy community are to slogans and to magical thinking.
In an hourlong special on "Democracy Now!" on Tuesday, author and Nation magazine war correspondent Jeremy Scahill tells the story of the radicalization of Islamic cleric and American citizen Anwar al-Awlaki and the U.S. government's subsequent pursuit and assassination of him and his son.
Nation Books
With "Blowback," Chalmers Johnson aimed to paint a portrait of how America's informal empire and its historically unprecedented garrisoning of the world looked to others, and so explain why animosity and blowback were building globally. Now we have a secret history of 21st-century American war in Jeremy Scahill's latest book, "Dirty Wars: The World Is a Battlefield."
AP/Brendon Smialowski
The horror of Boston should be a reminder that the choice of weaponry can be in itself an act of evil.
U.S. Air Force/Staff Sgt. Dallas Edwards
More than 8,000 interpreters are employed by the United States military, and many thousands of other Afghans are working for the occupiers.
AP/Julio Cortez
"I'm up for us 'All Being Bostonians Today'. But then can we all be Yemenis tomorrow & Pakistanis the day after?" Greenwald's Guardian colleague Gary Younge wrote on Twitter on Tuesday.
Edd Turtle
It didn't take much. No battles. No dead bodies. I spent just three and a half weeks as a contractor in Iraq, when the war there was at its height, rarely leaving the security of American military bases.
Flickr/Cliff (CC-BY)
WikiLeaks has released a new trove of documents, more than 1.7 million U.S. State Department cables dating from 1973-1976 that it has dubbed "The Kissinger Cables."
Shutterstock illustration of a drone.
War is war and murder is murder. The law draws the distinction. The American armed drone is a weapons system of war, not of policemen.
mark sebastian (CC BY-SA 2.0)
Washington has vociferously denounced Afghan corruption as a major obstacle to the U.S. mission in Afghanistan. But none of the relevant documents refer to the single most relevant fact: that the fraud and misconduct originates in Washington itself.
Giacomo Carena (CC BY-ND 2.0)
Consider the plethora of blood-soaked little anniversaries that Americans could observe, if they cared to, from a decade-plus of the former Global War on Terror.
mrbill78636 (CC BY 2.0)
Almost half of the 2.2 million troops deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan report problems on returning home, but the attention and care many receive from the Department of Defense and Veterans Affairs are not enough, a report published Tuesday finds.
AP/Emilio Morenatti
Of the 1.5 million Iraqi refugees who have fled the country, only about 80,000, or 5 percent, have been resettled here in the U.S.
CMYKane (CC BY 2.0)
Picture this. A man bursts into a living room not his own. He confronts an enemy. He barks orders. He throws that enemy into a chair. The invader isn't an American soldier leading a night raid on an Afghan village, nor is the enemy an anonymous Afghan householder. This warrior is just a guy in Ohio named Shane, and he's doing what so many men find exhilarating: disciplining his girlfriend.
By Mr. Fish
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Men/* BEGIN: Block 2 of 2 Greg Add 2013 (Jan 29) */ ?> /* END: Block 2 of 2 Greg Add 2013 (Jan 29) */ ?>
Invincible: Scottish Mountain Climber Takes 1,000-Foot Fall and Tells The Story Minutes Laterby Chris Weiss
Imagine falling off a ten-story building and living to tell about it. And not tell about it after five years of intensive care and rehabilitation, but in the ambulance on the way to getting checked out. That's what this mountain climber did.
Li-Ion Motors To Offer All-Electric Supercar Later This Yearby RagingBull
Electric cars of all shapes and forms are the wave of the future. And that includes the highest performing supercars. The Li-Ion Inizio will be the next hot, all-out performance supercar that bears an electric powertrain.
Jumping Rope For Big Boys: Wilde Seileby Chris Weiss
Wild ropes. Sounds wild. Sounds dangerous. Maybe a little dirty. You should hear it in German.
What's Love Got To Do With It? - Treating Marriage Like a Businessby Jamie Reygle
A new book explains how to succeed in marriage, by treating it like a business.
Got Issues? Map Them - A New Map Making Tool That Anyone Can Useby Jamie Reygle
IssueMap is an easy to use, free map making tool that allows you to map your data quickly and professionally.
Tailgating Made Better: Heated, Folding Chair Keeps You Warmby Chris Weiss
I suppose what they're going for with "Chaheati" is Tahiti for your ass. We'll forgive them for that because a heated, portable chair is a great idea.
Bugatti Going For a New Lookby RagingBull
Recent rumors indicate that Bugatti may be getting bigger in the future. And for once, it's not in the engine. VW's exclusive, ultra-expensive sports brand will be adding a premium sedan to its tiny line.
Easy Feet Is Never Too Tired To Give A Foot Massageby Kim Patterson
The Easy Feet device looks like a sandal, but with suction cups on the bottom and bristles on the inside. The idea behind the product is that once it is suctioned to the bottom of the tub a person can thoroughly wash his/her feet without having to lean over and risk slipping.
Hate Pedaling Uphill? Ego-Kits Turns Your Mountain Bike Into An Electricby Chris Weiss
Want the mountain biking without the mountain? The new German-born Ego Kit has your back.
Relationship Killers: The 5 Worst Valentine's Day Gifts Everby Jill Harness
February is upon us, which means it's time to celebrate our hate love for our significant others by being nice to them for one day of the year. Of course, if you don't buy into the whole "one day of romance for 364 days of loathing," or if you just plain hate your partner, these gifts are sure to get your special day of torment off to a great start.
Push-Up Underwear Options On The Horizon For Menby Kim Patterson
Ever since the Wonderbra first hit the market fashionable women everywhere have been on a quest to have the most up-to-date uplifted look available. I never imagined that there would one day be a male equivalent. Amazingly, push-up underwear for men is a reality! No, I am not referring to butt-lifting underpants; we are talking about men getting a little boost in the front.
Sweatband Headphones For Athletesby Chris Weiss
The perfect set of headphones for athletes. Never choose between music and sports again.
Row, Row, Row Your Bike, Gently Down The Roadby Chris Weiss
A bicycle that you "pedal" with your entire body, the Rowbike is a like a rolling gym, giving you a complete workout while getting you from place to place.
Tennis x Pi: 360Ball Hits From Every Angleby Chris Weiss
An all-new sport that turns tennis right, left and all around, is 360ball the sport of the future?
Sub-Zero Ninja: Talus Cold Avenger Balaclavaby Chris Weiss
Protect yourself from windburn and international assassins. The Talus Cold Avenger Expedition Balaclava is as tough and no-nonsense as its name.


text:
- What other names is Ackee known by?
- What is Ackee?
- How does Ackee work?
- Are there safety concerns?
- Dosing considerations for Ackee.
What other names is Ackee known by?Ackée, Akee, Akée, Aki, Akí, Anjye, Arbre Fricasse, Arbre à Fricassée, Blighia sapida, Cupania sapida, Daki, Ishin, Jakí, Kaha, Ris de Veau, Seso Vegetal.
What is Ackee?Ackee is a plant that produces fruit. It is found in West Africa, the Caribbean, southern Florida, and Central America. Ripe ackee fruit is eaten as food and is considered a dietary staple in Jamaica. However, unripe ackee fruit is very poisonous. Unripe ackee is a frequent cause of poisoning in Africa and the Caribbean. Poisonings may occur as epidemics when the unripe fruit is eaten during times of food shortage. Children seem to be especially sensitive to the toxic effects of unripe ackee. Most ackee products have been banned from import into the US for the past 30 years because of concerns about poisoning from unripe fruit. The US has just recently begun to allow the import of canned ripe ackee on a limited basis.
Some people use ackee fruit to make medicine. It is used as a treatment for colds, fever, water retention (edema), and epilepsy.
Insufficient Evidence to Rate Effectiveness for...
- Colds.
- Fever.
- Water retention (edema).
- Epilepsy.
- Other conditions.
Natural Medicines Comprehensive Database rates effectiveness based on scientific evidence according to the following scale: Effective, Likely Effective, Possibly Effective, Possibly Ineffective, Likely Ineffective, and Insufficient Evidence to Rate (detailed description of each of the ratings).
Next: How does Ackee work?
Report Problems to the Food and Drug Administration
You are encouraged to report negative side effects of prescription drugs to the FDA. Visit the FDA MedWatch website or call 1-800-FDA-1088.
Women's Health
Find out what women really need.


text:
HOME College Tennessee Volunteers Gear Tennessee Volunteers Mens College Jackets (46 items) Product ID: 667407
Main Content
- Material: 100% Satin
- Tackle twill lettering & logos
- Interior slip pocket
- 95% Acrylic/5% Spandex knit trim
- Contrast-colored panels
- Imported
- 100% Polyester filler & lining
- Six snap buttons
- Interior pocket with a hook and loop fastener
- Woven stripes
- Rib-knit collar, cuffs & waist
- Two front welt pockets
- Reinforced taped collar seam
- 100% Nylon shell
- Officially licensed collegiate product
- Full button jacket
- Quality embroidery
- Tag with care instructions
- Imported
- Brand: MTC Marketing
Volunteers Customers also liked:
Special event items are produced by manufacturers only after the outcome of a game or event. These are advanced sale items and will ship immediately after they are received in our warehouse.
Manufacturer direct items are shipped directly from the manufacturer. These items are not available for international or expedited shipping.
Customized items can be personalized with options such as your name, your favorite number, and/or designs. Some options may be limited by league rules.


text:
- Anonymous
- Netherlands, Couple, 41+
- Novice Nomad
- 2 reviews
Translated by
Hard to find location GPS coordinates Hostelworld are not the right, according to description in Blarney but still 20minutes drive, friendly lady and a good breakfast.
- Anonymous
- Germany, Mixed Group, 25-30
- Novice Nomad
- 4 reviews
Translated by
The smell in the room was very uncomfortable, the fragrance plug behind the bed, we have unfortunately discovered only upon departure. Otherwise, the owners were very sweet and welcoming and the breakfast was fantastic?
- Anonymous
- France, Couple, 41+
- Novice Nomad
- 1 review
Charmante hôtesse dans un cadre un peu vintage, confort un peu rustique (sanitaire surtout) paiement en espèces obligatoire demandé au dernier moment
Hostelworld Mobile Apps
Book on the go with the new Hostelworld mobile apps.