VICE has launched a three-part series titled The Truvada Revolution.
A drug called Truvada is the first the FDA-approved means of preventing HIV infection. If an HIV-negative person takes the pill every day, they're nearly 99 percent protected from contracting the virus. Controversy continues to surround the broad uptake of Truvada, but the landscape of safer sex and HIV-prevention changes fundamentally from this point forward—particularly within the gay male community, the population hardest hit by HIV in America. In this episode of VICE Reports, VICE explores the future of the Truvada and its revolutionary impact on ending HIV/AIDS.
Near the end of the clip below, AIDS Healthcare Foundation head and anti-PrEP activist Michael Weinstein talks about his campaign against the use of Truvada as a daily HIV preventive. See Part 2 and Part 3. The series was produced and directed by my pal (and JMG reader) Eric Leven.
I haven't allowed any self-photos on this here blog in a while, but I don't hate this shot by Father Tony too much. That's superstar DJ Rich Morel on my left, then birthday boy (30!) Eric Leven, then Tony's husband. An amazing night that including an fantastic state-by-state equality countdown on the giant screen. You'd have thought the roof was coming off when New York came up. More of Tony's photos are here.
Another fantastic Blowoff party last night, where I hung out for a bit with Alan Cumming and singer/songwriter Aiden James, and met lots of handsome JMG readers. And Rich Morel even played his smoking remix of Cumming's Next To Me, one of my favorite tracks of the year. Full-screen photos are here. Enjoy the hotties.
JMG reader Moby sent an interesting link last night that I immediately forwarded to Eric Leven, knowing that Eric would do the subject justice. He didn't let me down.
NYC Drag March founder and organizer Brian Griffin explains the history of the march and the plan for this year's event, which takes place Friday, June 26th beginning in Tompkins Square.
Somehow I failed to get any photos of JMG reader favorite Eric Leven at either of yesterday's rallies, so here's a shot from Eric's blog in which we learn that Elmo stands with us in thanking Gov. Paterson. Go to Eric's blog for his thoughtful recounting of a trying and joyous day.
Today a group of LGBT rights and sexual freedom activists gathered just down the block from Mayor Michael Bloomberg's Upper East Side mansion to protest the false arrests of gay men in NYC's adult bookshops. Robert Pinter, a victim of this campaign, gave interviews to a number of local and national newsmedia outlets as two dozen gay men marched with placards denouncing Bloomberg and the NYPD.
On hand were a number of familiar LGBT activists: Brendan Fay, Gilbert Baker, Ann Northrop, Father Tony, Eric Leven, John Weis and journalists Andy Humm and Duncan Osbourne. It was Osbourne's relentless pursuit of this story that brought the entire illegal campaign to light.
Also present were protest observers from the National Lawyers Guild and Susan Wright, the founder and spokesperson of the National Coalition for Sexual Freedom, with whom I had a chat about our mutual enemy, Peter LaBarbera. The NYPD was generally friendly and cooperative, although they did not allow the protesters within 100 feet of Bloomberg's home.
Curious passersby and tourists exiting Central Park took photos of the protest and were handed fact sheets about the action. Many of the men giving interviews to the press stressed that the entire "prostitution" campaign was in fact meant to close the city's adult businesses under nuisance abatement laws.
BELOW: Father Tony gets video of playwright George Tynan Crowley reading his special Valentine's poem to Mayor Bloomberg. Go to Father Tony's site for more on the rally, including photos and more video.
UPDATE: Robert Pinter tells his story to Eric Leven.
UPDATE II: The New York Times has published their coverage of the protest.
Here's the latest safer sex PSA from filmmaker/activist Eric Leven. Possibly NSFW, the clip is short and to the point. Leven: "Amongst the hundreds, if not thousands of bareback videos out there, there might as well be one or two of these."
I'm spending the weekend in Washington DC attending the National LGBT Bloggers Summit, where many gay activism bloggers have gathered to discuss the future of the movement and the role of bloggers in shaping the direction we take. The event is the brainchild of (in)famous outer Mike Rogers (BlogActive, PageOneQ).
Several major LGBT activism groups are taking part in the summit (HRC, Task Force, Victory Fund) and it's been quite fascinating so far. And yesterday I had the pleasure of finally meeting in person some of my personal blog heroes such as Pam Spaulding. I'll provide a fuller recap of the convention tomorrow, but for now below is a slideshow of the first two days. You should recognize quite a few of your favorite bloggers and LGBT activists. Check out recaps already up from Pam Spaulding, Andres Duque, and Father Tony (who is here as part of the Bilerico Project team.)
Via Father Tony, here's 30 seconds or so of my pals Paul Vitale and Eric Leven firing up our boys at Saturday's rally. You'll spot Wilson Cruz and Little David when the camera pans around.
Tonight: Sign Making At The NYC LBGT Center For Tomorrow's Mormon Protest
In advance to tomorrow's marriage equality rally at the Mormon temple on Manhattan's Upper West Side, pre-protest organizing and sign making will take place tonight at the NYC LGBT Center. Via Eric Leven:
We need folks to come help and make posters on Tuesday night at the LGBT Center on 13th Street between 7th Avenue and Greenwich. We have room 410 -- which is on the top floor of the building from 8 - 10 PM. PLEASE invite folks to come and make home-made posters. If you could each please bring supplies (poster-board, markers, anything else) -- as a donation to the cause, it would be appreciated. Bring your friends.
Make sure you click over and read Eric's advice on appropriate wording for your signs.
Eric Leven sends us his video of the spontaneous Obama celebration in NYC's Union Square just moments after the election was called. I love how somebody is up in the Discount Shoe Warehouse flipping their sign on and off.
Well, look at that. JMG reader favorite Eric Leven is the covercub for the second annual New York Leather Weekend, which starts Friday. Lots of events: a bar crawl, a street fair, a dance, etc. I can't vouch for any of it as I was out of town last year. Their site mentions vendors and food at the street fair, but says nothing about drink, so I presume it will be boozeless. That might be a deal-breaker, at least in my soused circle. Anybody know if beer will be available?
I finally found my memory stick from Pride 2008, so here's a quick photo recap of the day. Our gang gathered at the corner of Christopher & Gay, as always, and while the intermittent rainstorms drenched the crowd and the marchers, each crack of thunder only brought a joyous roar from attendees and nobody seemed to flee.
Below are the first few Dykes On Bikes, rainbow flag creator and grand marshall Gilbert Baker coming over to greet us, Eric Leven waving from one end of Gilbert's banner, crowd favorites the gay cops, assorted hotties and flamers, a family photo courtesy of Father Tony, and some baby Dominican dykes having a party stomping in the puddles.ABOVE: Pier Dance was mobbed with its usual 6000 happy men. BELOW: Gorgeous DJ Tracy Young likes to come out from behind her turntables and work the front of the stage.ABOVE: Eric Leven, bookended with handsomeness. BELOW: My longtime pal Mark Fernandez, looking just as he did when we were tearing up the clubs of South Beach twenty years ago, damn him.My buddy Ned and I happened to be trapped against the front of the stage when Pier Dance headliner and Oscar winner Jennifer Hudson closed the day with a three song set including her new single Spotlight and, of course, And I'm Telling You. I got sweated on by an Oscar winner! I think you can spot Ned and I in the clip below that a party attendee has YouTube'd. Hudson seemed to have a great time and turned the mic over to the audience many times.
The perfect day (made more so by the rain, somehow) ended with the usual fireworks show, only this year the fireworks barge began firing shells when it still quite downriver, only finishing the show when it actually got up to the pier. Curious. Thanks to all my pals and all the JMG'ers that I met for such a great day. And here's a couple dozen more pics from the previous night's Blowoff, in case you want to oogle some furry monsters and rock stars.
Guest Post: Eric Leven Self-Destruction And Meth: An Ongoing Problem
Eric Leven of KnuckleCrack, guest blogging for JMG.
Hell I've even said it a few times myself, or maybe just hoped it, "Yeah I don't hear much about Meth anymore. The message is definitely out there so I guess people are finally listening."
I say this despite having lived in LA for two years which taught me that more people are casually using Meth than I thought. I say this despite the fact that I've seen a few friends continue to "recreationally" use even after losing a friend- or friends- in some way or another to Meth. I say this despite the fact that a close friend of mine tried to persuade me that there's doing Meth and than there's doing Meth. To me, doing Meth and doing Meth has always been same thing since nobody begins using Crystal Meth with the hopes they will become an addict.
So why are we still using meth? The answer has to be deeper- it has to go beyond wanting to feel good, or wanting to party or wanting to be uninhibited during sex. There has got to be something within our core, something strong enough that causes us to disregard all the warning signs, all the cautionary tales, and all that we've heard, seen, felt or whomever we've lost. So what it is it then? Can anybody say? Because the truth of the matter is: we all know meth is a terrible, toxic drug yet people who work in the Crystal Meth prevention world haven't seen any decrease in the number of people seeking help from it.
The NY GLBT Center recently held a forum entitled: "Meth Movie Night: Is the Meth/Sex/HIV Problem Over for Gay Men in New York?" and according to the article in Gay City News, "judging by the the comments from the audience and panelists, the answer was an unambiguous no."
Forum: Meth Still a Problem
By: DUNCAN OSBORNE
05/22/2008
Speaking at a town hall meeting, filmmaker Jay Corcoran asked, "Why are gay men of all different types and ages still self destructing?" Corcoran, whose 2007 documentary "Rock Bottom" followed seven gay men as they struggled with crystal meth, was addressing the roughly 50 people who turned out on May 20 at the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center.
"What I couldn't believe is that after everything we have gone through as gay men is that really nothing has changed since the '80s," he said. "It filled me with rage. It made me want to pick up my camera."
With an audience filled with former meth users, others who are recovering from sexually compulsive behavior, and some who are dealing with both, much of the two-hour event was taken up with men discussing their personal struggles with meth or sex and their efforts to end behaviors they are uncomfortable with.
The event was titled "Meth Movie Night: Is the Meth/Sex/HIV Problem Over for Gay Men in New York?" and, judging by the comments from the audience and panelists, the answer was an unambiguous no. Opening the evening, Dr. Frank Spinelli, a physician in private practice, described four of his patients who were dealing with meth. Some were occasional users and others were what he called "functional addicts."
Addiction specialists from the Community Center, the Gay Men's Health Crisis (GMHC), the Addiction Institute of New York, and the AIDS group Positive Health Project (PHP) also spoke. These groups offer harm reduction programs, which aid users in abating the negative effects of drug use without requiring that participants stop using, or abstinence programs in which users stop using. Some, like the Community Center, offer both.
Gay men who use drugs tend to use more than one and that makes the work of these groups more complicated. For many gay men who drink or use drugs, their sex and social lives are entwined with their drinking and drugging. "Some men are quizzical how are they going to meet other men if they give up drinking or using drugs," said Chris Cochrane, GMHC's coordinator of prevention services for gay men and men who have sex with men.
The groups also work in an environment in which public funding for such services is increasingly being cut and some Americans, gay and straight, favor law enforcement approaches to drug problems. "I'm astounded by the lack of resources that are out there," said Terry Evans, PHP's public health outreach coordinator. "We are also dealing with a public climate that believes that certain people are not worth it." Antonio Ruberto, a crystal meth prevention counselor at the Center, said, "There is a dire need for additional money and resources."
While he has not seen a reduction in the numbers of gay men seeking help for meth, Joseph Ruggiero, assistant clinical director at the Addiction Institute, thought the various anti-crystal campaigns have had an impact. "I feel like, as a community, people have a better sense of what is happening around crystal meth," he said. "The word is certainly out there more than it was before and that word has been strong and very controversial."
The evening's most heated moment came when Robert Brandon Sandor, producer of the sex party Brandon's Poz Party, said the problem was HIV not crystal meth. "I guess crystal meth is going to be the flavor of the month tonight," he said. "I can look you all in the eye and say you're wrong." Sandor, whose party caters to gay men who are HIV-positive, is a proponent of serosorting, or the practice of organizing sex partners by their HIV status. His comments were not well received in a room filled with former meth users and those still battling against the drug.
As audacious and bold as Robert Brandon Sandor's comment was, I have to say I can't help but think he might be onto something. Until reading this article, until seeing that quote I never put the two together- that crystal meth lends a hand in helping us forget, at least temporarily, that we live in a time of the incurable sexually transmitted disease, HIV. Maybe that's what it is? Maybe it is just that which pushes us beyond the warnings, dangers and examples and into using meth with a shrug, or a smile, or a sigh, or a slam. Who is to say? Who is to argue him?
Is it so far-fetched to think those who choose to use meth, despite the ubiquitous dangers, do so because it helps us forget who we are, the time we live in, the risks associated with sex and helps us become the uninhibited, sexually charged, sexually relaxed, sexually empowered people we so yearn to be?
Here's the audio of Eric Leven's appearance on Michelangelo Signorile's show on Sirius OutQ yesterday in which Eric talks about his HIV/gay youth activism. He's got some great ideas. Eric has a wonderful radio voice, maybe Sirius should offer him a show too. Eric gives me a kind shout-out at the 9:30 mark.
Young NYC-based gay activist, writer, and filmmaker Eric Leven will appear on Michelangelo Signorile's show on Sirius OutQ today at 3:30PM. Tune and hear about Eric talk about gay youth and HIV activism.
UPDATE: Courtesy of my favorite Sirius insider, here's a pic of Eric and Michelangelo in the studio today. I'll have audio of Eric's interview later.
Big hugs to all my sweet peeps who came out for last night's final installment of Reading For Filth at Rapture Books: Little David, Dr. Jeff, Eddie, George, Chris, Craig, Wolf and everybody else. Thanks to the lesbian performers last night was easily the filthiest Filth that every filthed. (And usually it's the men who talk about fisting and watersports.)
I read The Mommy Box, a story that appeared on JMG in five episodes in late 2004, but was later taken down for another project. It's a story that is very uncharacteristic of my previous shows: tough material, grim resolution. And while it had a moment or two of comic relief, I had a hard time getting through some of it and my performance suffered for it, dammit.
However dark my piece was, the rest of the performers were a riot and I think the audience had a blast. Kudos to Joe Birdsong and his staff for a great run and here's hoping their plans to move Reading For Filth to a larger venue come to fruition. Rapture is having some great events before their April 24th "transition" (closing), so please drop by while you still can. They've got some major performers lined up over the next week or so.
BELOW: I'm throwing the other photo from the night out to tattooed love boy Jonny Tingle (his real name), who opened the show with his hilarious and erotic story Peter & The Wolf. I know you want a pic of Eric Leven too, but he's feeling overexposed on JMG these days. I kid, I kid.
Next Wednesday, April 16th, I'll be performing again at Rapture Book's Dean Johnson's Reading For Filth: Queer Writers Read About Queer Sex series. Joining me will be your favorite hairy hottie Eric Leven (left) in our fourth show together.
Sadly, this will be the last installment in the series for now, as Rapture Books will be closing on April 24th. Owner Joe Birdsong has promised to seek other venues for the unique shows that made Rapture a vibrant community space in its mere two years of existence. I'll announce the rest of the show's bill when I know it. Please consider attending.
