Hey y’all, just wanted to share a couple new things that have been going on on our end!

First off, we got refunded! Yay! 

Secondly, our wonderful program director Jacquel Clemons just left us for the greener, more familiar, hot hot hot pastures of the ATL. Jacquel has done an incredible amount of work for our organization and for HIV intervention/education in general. Thanks to her invaluable work we set the standard for adolescent HIV outreach and care in NYC! Best of luck to her in all future endeavors!

Thirdly, soon we’ll be starting year 2 of our unique Young Men’s Initiative program in Long Island City. This time around we hope to involve the young men in inter-gender conversations with a focus on arts and documenting their educational process.

Last, but coiiitenly not least, if you’ve noticed there’s occasionally been a -G popping up in the by-lines of our blogs! Say hello to Giselle, Peer Advocate numero dos, who has been picking up my slack in social media land while I get a ton of data entered and filed. Giselle is awesome, she’s an amazing illustrator/graphic artist as well as a fierce advocate, so look forward to her posts!

Love and good juju,
M 

emilyunderscoremarie:

^that right there.

This is not true. This is medical misinformation.

Though their level of risk is not equal to that of their heterosexual counterparts, lesbians, bisexuals, and other women who have sex with women (WSW) are still at risk for HIV and should still be practicing safe sex.

The CDC released this statement in 2006, but in the same study they also acknowledged that there have been several documented cases of WSW being infected with HIV.  Many times this is because of high-risk behaviors such as unprotected sex with men or previous sexual histories with HIV+ men and intravenous drug use. There are also socioeconomic and heterosexist factors, such as an inability to access queer-friendly health care which can lead to less comfort discussing safe sex with health care providers.

Plus one must remember that sexual identity or “orientation” does not always line up with sexual activity. The definition of “lesbian” differs from person to person, and from culture to culture. A woman can identify as a lesbian but still have casual sex or polyamorous sex with a male partner. And where does this leave women who identify as lesbians whose female partners might not necessarily be female-bodied???

The fact of the matter is that women, especially women of color, are the most at-risk group for contracting HIV.  The other fact of the matter is that vaginal fluids do transmit HIV, as does menstrual blood. Though it is much easier to contract HIV via semen/precum and penetrative sex, safe sex is of paramount importance to all communities, be it the MSM community, the WSW community, or just among straight people.

What’s sad is that safer sex techniques for lesbians, bisexual women, and the WSW community are almost never addressed. This is heterosexist. There are many ways that a woman who has sex with women can reduce her contact with fluids that transmit HIV. Using barrier protection when sharing sex toys, not sharing sex toys, using dental dams during menstruation, etc.

One also has to keep in mind that HIV is not the only STI out there. WSW are still very much at-risk for infections such as HPV/genital warts, genital herpes, chlamydia, gonorrhea, etc.

The bottom line is that HIV is a virus. It neither privileges nor discriminates based on gender or sexual orientation.

For more information about HIV risk among WSW, click through!!

let-it-stand:

ok, so let’s stop saying “these people are fucking stupid and gross” and let’s think about why some people think that getting “the gift” would be a good thing — as queers who are marginalized by our sexualities we are taught that we will eventually get HIV or something else and we deserve it and there are a lot of fucked up conversations surrounding this and we need to start by not critiquing the person, but culture at large, who make us believe this shit, and educating and PROTECTING (not just sexually, but i’m talking emotionally and mentally here) our fellow queers. 

^^^^^FROM THE ROOFTOPS

The only time I’ve ever heard substantiated stories about “bug-chasing” have been in serodiscordant relationships that are, frankly, abusive - where one partner feels guilty or desires that solidarity with their partner when seroconcordancy doesn’t necessarily have to be the answer, but rather proper health care, better access to and information about resources such as ARVs and low-income/queer-friendly clinics, and mental/behavioral/relationship support.