From: Connected Health Solutions, Inc.  

While recent advances in the treatment of HIV have opened up new possibilities for families, stereotypes and misconceptions still abound.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, an HIV positive mother who is not being treated for her HIV during pregnancy, labor, or delivery has a 25% chance (1 in 4) of passing the virus to her baby. However, women with HIV who take antiretroviral medication during pregnancy as recommended can reduce the risk of transmitting HIV to their babies to less than 1% .

In this new adolescent-made public service announcement, two women with HIV discuss their feelings towards the mothers who transmitted the virus to them and how advancements in treatment changes their future fantasies.

"I wish I could have been one of those babies...[but] I'm going to be the best mom in the world." says one young woman. "For so long I had hateful feelings towards her...my destiny was chosen for me" says the other, but by the end of the film she expresses that "as a positive female, knowing that if I have a kid, that they're not going to be positive gives me hope."

These women also explore the stigma of being an HIV+ woman. "With the dating, comes the disclosure, comes the fear of rejection," says one of the women. The other woman mirrors these fears, "I feel like I won't have a future as far as finding love, starting a family." They both wanted to make this video as part of a competition held by "Youth, the Arts, HIV&AIDS Network" (YAHAnet), which instructed the adolescent contestants to create a "webisode" that addressed HIV and gender stereotypes.

"I am HIV positive. I'm healthy, I'm living, and I'm still going; If you are positive, stay positive," says one of the women who decided to show her face on camera. Though the other was inspired by her friend's bravery, she remained anonymous but took the next step of sharing her voice. The film can be seen below.

YAHAnet recently announced that the film was the winner of the 19-24 year old category.

About: Connected Health Solutions, Inc. is a consultancy for nonprofits, service organizations, and educational institutions. Their premier product, MyMediaLife, is series of group-level workshops that engage with at-risk target populations to explore and problem-solve social issues and find their voice through digital media. The resulting campaigns are highly polished public-service announcements that attempt to inform and change behaviors, norms, and attitudes.

We don’t see as many condom-based campaigns, once the mainstay of HIV prevention, as we once did. Often we’ve gone off in different directions, like focussing on the social determinants of health to effect, hopefully, behavioural changes, or more recently, test and treat strategies which fall under the ubiquitous Treatment as Prevention (TasP)  banner.  But even TasP supporters like myself acknowledge the important place of condoms, so we’ll need to see today’s type of campaign for some time to come.

So . . .from the New Zealand AIDS Foundation comes the Get It On!  social marketing campaign. Three years old now, the campaign “aims to deliver messages regarding the importance of condom use among gay and bisexual men into the mainstream”. Since the condom promotion campaign was implemented in 2010, new HIV diagnoses in New Zealand in men who have sex with men have dropped by more than 20%.

When six months prevention campaign blitzes are often the norm elsewhere (think funding constraints) the New Zealanders seemed to have been able to sustain this campaign well after its launch, with an active program of events and promotions, blogging and changing social media and graphic messaging, in the streets and elsewhere. There's even a TV ad (see below). Says the website “we are building a condom culture across New Zealand."

The website is a good one, nicely designed and packed with novel features like an access point to free condoms and lube by mail, and GPS mapping of where you can pick up condoms in person, near you.

The campaign also  features explicit  (and very NSFW) videos on how to have safe anal sex, wth separate videos for tops and bottoms) and on how to put on a condom/.  No wooden dildo demonstrations here.  Some of the campaign’s posters also have explicit images; one of these is shown below, along with others that caught our eye.

I think the message here is that if you are going to do a condom campaign, do it right.  This one does.

You can follow the campaign on twitter @getiton_nz or on Facebook here.

1. 

Because I was possessed by a demon. 

And because I was pregnant for 22 months with its child. 

That’s why I made ‘THE KEY.’ 

2. 

Last week, a young friend of mine started PrEP.  

He's 24 and heard about it online, has good health insurance, so has it covered.  He told me the news as we were catching up after a recent sex party we were at together. 

His news shocked me. And not because he started PrEP. 

The shocking part was that none of his peers believed him when he told them about taking the pills to prevent HIV. 

They thought he was lying. 

And that’s why I made ‘THE KEY.’ 

3. 

One gay man possessed by a demon and pregnant for 22 months means there’s likely to be others. 

And any Queen worth his weight in taffeta and sequins knows our sacred heritage is a river of blood. 

That’s why I made ‘THE KEY.’  

4. 

Feels like no one is hearing about PrEP. Especially gay boys in Seattle.  

Most are still surprised to hear me tell of a pill that could prevent an exposure to HIV leading to a lifelong infection. 

After 30+ years of exposures leading to infections, you’d think everyone who has stuck around this long in the fight against HIV would be simply gushing about PrEP, overly ecstatic about a new way for these pills that already save millions of lives to save a few thousand more. 

You’d think we’d all be yawping from the roofs of the world about this possibility. 

Yet every day I meet gay guys who have never heard that they could take a pill a day and keep the HIV away. 

That’s a FUCKING EPIC FAILURE in my book. 

That’s why I made ‘THE KEY.’ 

5. 

My young friend’s friends think he’s HIV-positive.  All because he now has HIV meds in his possession. 

Before you start your tsk-tsk-tsking, remember that a bottle of Truvada kept in a medicine cabinet attracts HIV stigma like a lightning rod. 

Both Truvada and a lightning rod protect, but only Truvada has 2 really toxic side effects that make AIDS Healthcare Foundation hit the streets with pitchforks and press releases: 

1) It can cause an African woman to be beaten in front of her neighbors if found in her possession. 

2) It almost always leads to judgments and rejections for the rest of your living days. 

And that’s why I made ‘THE KEY.’ 

6. 

We gotta work through this crap. 

We are gay men rejecting gay men living with HIV.  

And we do it thinking we just dodged a bullet, proud to have drummed away the damaged goods. We believe it keeps us safe. 

We ALL do it. Or have done it. We do it every day. Every hour.

Every gay guy knows this crap we throw at poz guys. 

This is the sour truth that makes most gay guys afraid to test.

They know firsthand the crap we throw at poz guys, the judgments and rejections for the rest of your living days. 

And—suddenly--they realize they might become one of ‘THEM.’ 

Now this crap has become a wall between us and the most powerful prevention tool we have to this day discovered. 

That’s why I made  ‘THE KEY.’ 

7. 

PrEP is the first thing in 30+ years proven to lower rates of infection for the gays –-by 42% --and that was when it was used imperfectly by gay boys, and before it was known to work. 

42% doesn’t sound like a lot. But do the math. 

Look up on Google the number of gay men/trans women newly diagnosed with HIV in your favorite city. 

Multiply that number by .42. 

Now stare at that number, and you’ll get an idea of how many people we might have kept from a lifetime of daily pill-taking -- if we wanted to. 

Hold that number in your mind’s eye, and make a mantra of when it was used imperfectly. 

Better yet, hold your breath and meditate on this: if we wanted to. 

Do this, and you’ll know why I made “’THE KEY.’

8. 

HIV is the most stigmatized disease I know. 

Gay men are the most stigmatized people I know. 

There’s some sick poetry in this correlation between the two. It makes me hear Kurt Cobain singing: 

WITH THE LIGHTS OUT, IT’S LESS DANGEROUS 

These days, it’s my theme song. My mantra. 

In seven words, Nirvana captures a mindset and makes of it an epitaph to lay to rest the results of 30+ years of HIV prevention in the minds of gay men. 

That’s why I made ‘THE KEY.’

9. 

Miss Honey loves her Molotov cocktails, as much as she loves poppers and ass. 

I ran into her Monday night on the 3^rd floor of Club Z, drunk off her ass again. We both had to piss, but she was the first one to pull out her cock and write a message on the carpet: 

THIS AIN’T NO MISS GAY TUSKEGEE PAGEANT 

SO FUCK YOUR VACCINE THAT MADE ME SUSCEPTIBLE 

AND GIVE ME PrEP 

I pissed myself laughing.  She then turned like a Queen back to her room with her cock still out and sang to all the cocksuckers: 

ONE DAY 

MY PRINCE 

WILL CUM! 

And that’s why I made ‘THE KEY.’ 

10. 

‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ is the soundtrack to my sex life, and not because I live in Seattle. 

I meet guys at sex parties who freak out around any talk of HIV and assume if you bring it up that you have HIV. 

I meet guys online who choose sex partners through a terse tango we all quickly learn whose dance steps have accompanying lyrics which can be sung to the melody of “Hernando’s Hideaway:” 

“You clean?”

”Yeah. You?”

“Yeah. Wanna fuck?” 

I meet guys in bathhouses who slam meth and believe that olive oil used as lubricant will kill HIV. 

I meet these guys, and I hear in my head that guitar riff that launched Kurt into the stars with barely the chance to leave behind his letter to Boddah. 

I meet guys, and sometimes that riff becomes a chainsaw. 

And that’s why I made ‘THE KEY.’ 

11. 

You’d think that at least all the gay guys who work in The HIV Biz would be oversharing with all their friends and fuck buddies the good news about PrEP. 

You’d think at least they would be recommending it to their gay clients, supplying all the information they can find about PrEP, dreaming up ways for ALL OF US who can’t afford it to access it. 

With the good news about PrEP, you’d think we would at least be witnessing an orgy of activity on that mythic grassroots level. 

But none of the gay guys working in The HIV Biz here in Progressive Seattle seem to care much for oversharing, let alone recommending, supplying, or dreaming. 

That’s why I made ‘THE KEY.’ 

12. 

Here’s a little secret for you. 

Seattle often refers to herself as Progressive. 

It’s the adjective she’s been in An Open Relationship with for decades. 

You always see them hanging together in those declarative sentences that make our Starbucks warm havens for Microsoft employees. 

However, you should know that it’s not really An Open Relationship. 

Drop by for a drink after work at any of Seattle’s gay bars, and I’ll introduce you to some Queens who can tell you stories about Seattle, if you’ll buy them all a drink. 

Get them a little tipsy, and they can tell you tales of how she’s been stepping out on Progressive with other adjectives, including --but not limited to-- Complacent, Conservative, and Racist. 

And, believe me, these Queens should know. 

And that’s why I made  ‘THE KEY.’ 

13. 

My Candle in the Wind has blown out. 

That’s why I made ‘The Key.’ 

This video originally appeared on Jake Sobo’s blog  “The Time For Debate is Over. The Time to Implement PrEP is Now” here.

About Magpie Suddenly: 

A boy. A faggot. A poet. A singer. An actor. A director. A photographer.  A high school teacher.  A pot head.  A baker of bread. A disease intervention specialist. A videographer. A pornographer. A cashier. A tutor. A shoe salesmen to strippers and drag queens. A sex shop clerk. A partner. An HIV advocate. An amateur sex therapist. A community liaison. A boyfriend. A chair. A trick. An assistant artistic director. A drummer. A wounded healer. A fuck buddy. A faerie. A daddy. A man.

It's all about touch over the internet.  Connect while you are apart. Says the manufacturer of  Fundawear “we positioned the sensors right on the money”  and adds “ way more fun than angry birds>’

Watch the video – the two actors are quite charming –and I think you’ll find it pretty self explanatory about how this vibrating underwear works, but there are two other videos you can see on YouTube which will give you an idea of the technology and how the garments are constructed. 

This is all from something called durexperiment from Australia, with Durex having one quarter share of the global condom market. One doesn’tt get a sense of how much all this will cost the sensation-seeking consumer, or availability. But I’m guessing it's not a cheap way of having safer sex.

Reach out and touch indeed.

Last September I wrote a piece on the talent shows I had been watching - XFactor and America’s Got Talent. I mentioned that I was also following the British and Aussie versions on YouTube and preferred them over the American versions. I still feel that way. The talent is just so different. Many of the contestants bring something unique, distinct voices. The “diva” factor is rarely seen, it doesn’t end up a huge screamfest. 

One of the biggest problems I have with the American versions of these shows is the judging. I think Simon Cowell is a genius, he knows talent and he’ll let you know if you have it or if you don’t. Too bad he’s terrible at choosing the judges he works with. 

For my taste, the second season of American XFactor was brutal, having to put up with Britney Spears. I’m not a fan, I fail to see any real talent there. I take plenty of flack from people around me when I proclaim her to be the “Queen of Lip-sync”. When she isn’t doing it, her music is being aided by voice enhancement technology. The world has no fear of her ever releasing an acoustic album. She was mentor for the youngest of the contestants, kids who have one hundred times the talent. 

Often you would see her with her arms crossed, her upper lip curled up snearing at contestants before they sang because she didn’t seem to like the way they looked. One guy, Vino Alan, had his head tattooed, and a plus sized black lady, Panda Ross; both gave outstanding performances. When they finished she would give them her little one-sentence mousey comment, “I liked it, it was good”. I’ve heard she won’t be back for the next season and if that is true then I will probably watch it. 

There was a couple of bright spots on XFactor. I enjoyed watching Demi Lavato outshine Britney. She’s a very intelligent young lady who knows what she likes. She was very believable in her critique of the performances. 

Being a country music fan I was so glad that Tate Stevens won. He became a long shot when several times they mentioned they were looking for a popstar. Fortunately they chose a recording star; he will sell records and he clearly was the only one worth the 5 million dollar prize, in my opinion. 

And then we have American Idol. Where do I start with this year’s show? Oh yes, Nicky Minaj! I should be able to end right here, the accompanying photo explains it all. I recall a quote from a true Hockey superstar, Wayne Gretzky who said, “no one is bigger than the game”. Nicky, well she thinks she is. Aside from likely a couple of little girls from England, few can name one of her songs. 

A real bright spot of this year’s Idol was “the last man standing” Lazaro Arbos. (below, right and in pre-Idol video below)) A young man not afraid to wear pink and he wore it well. They gave him the nickname “Ricky Ricardo”, because of his resemblance to Desi Arnez (I Love Lucy). I was watching as he auditioned and I had this feeling he was going to impress the judges even though he stuttered very badly when he talked. We can’t be good at everything but the things we are good at, we can excel at . Lazaro was an entertainer, a true inspiration - and he can sing. 

Another thing I don’t like about these talent shows is song selections. The theme nights are just an insane disadvantage to everyone with real talent. Expecting someone who has a talent for Rap or Hip Hop and force them to sing The Beatles makes no sense at all. In one breath they tell them to come out of their comfort zone and then criticize them for trying something beyond their range,  and tell them “do what you do best”. The judges say they want to see what type of star they will become. So let them sing the songs they are comfortable singing, it’s what they will be doing when they are recording artists or no one is going to buy it. 

I have been able to pick the last 6 winners of Idol so my prediction for this year is Candice Glover. It should come down to her and Kree Harrison. Kree will get a contract in country music and Candice will probably be Broadway bound or become competition for Jennifer Hudson fans. 

If asked to recommend one of these shows, it would be “The Voice”. It’s by far the best “talent” show in North America, in my opinion. A favourite mantra comes to mind while watching it is, “It’s not what you are listening to, it’s what you hear”. The judges on this show don’t get to see the contestant unless they choose to turn around, they have only the voice to make their decision on who will be on their team. Each judge selects 12 singers/groups. The next stage of the competition they pit each of their own singers against each other until they are left with one finalist. On the final night of the show, the four finalists sing off and one is chosen as The Voice. 

This year they changed a couple of their judges. Gone are Ceelo Green and Christina Aguilera, replaced by Shakira and Usher. I had never heard of Ceelo until this show and it seemed he was more interested in finding a date. I think the selection of Usher will improve the show, he knows talent, afterall he did sign Justin Beiber. Shakira has been a surprise, I didn’t know much about her but I like her. The interaction between Blake Shelton and Adam Levine has its entertaining moments as well. 

I am having fun watching The Voice. The talent this year is very good but I haven’t picked a favourite just yet. I may have to wait until the final four and choose one. 

One thing they don’t tell any of these participants is that winning doesn’t mean you will be guaranteed to be a superstar. Very few ever become a “household name”. Jennifer Hudson never won but she became an Oscar winner. Blake Shelton’s wife, Miranda Lambert was voted off Nashville Star early but now she is the top selling female country star. 

The only judges any of these singers should worry about is the music-buying population. These producers of these shows need to pay better attention to hire judges who know the music business, not just some “flavour of the month” singer. 

I’m off to surf through YouTube and see if the Brits and Aussie’s are back to work. 

This article originally appeared on the cATIE website here.

Une version française est disponible ici.

We stand at a pivotal point in our response to HIV and HCV. Recent research has enhanced our understanding of the science of prevention, transmission, testing, treatment, care and support –  science that opens up new, innovative avenues for program development and the integration of service delivery.

In partnership with various HIV and HCV agencies, CATIE presents a national, bilingual forum that will bring together stakeholders from across Canada to discuss the implications of recent research for frontline programming and to learn from each other about program innovations based on research findings and already at work in the field.

The CATIE Forum will be an excellent opportunity for frontline staff, healthcare providers, public health professionals and program planners, as well as people living with HIV and HCV, to:

• Investigate the programming implications of recent biomedical research;
• Learn about new approaches to the integration of prevention, testing, treatment, care and support services;
• Enhance understanding of HIV and HCV service delivery within a broader framework of sexually transmitted and blood-borne infections; and
• Strategize on how to develop more integrated approaches to HIV and HCV service delivery.

The CATIE Forum will offer a rich program of keynote speakers, panel discussions, break-out sessions and short-format case-study exchanges providing insights from regional and national perspectives. Live-streaming of many of the key components will also be available to those who cannot attend in person.

We look forward to seeing you at the CATIE Forum this September!

More details about program, registration, scholarships etc. here.