Preventing HIV: More Than a Condom
– © 2005 by Bill Burleson

Twenty-five years ago, before HIV was known, how often did gay and bi men use condoms? Let’s do the math: carry the one…OK, the answer is pretty much never. Only a few years later and continuing to today, we see a completely different picture. Condom use is now the norm. I’d guestimate 80-90% of gay and bi men not in relationships practice safer-sex and use condoms. That’s a huge, huge change. Twenty years ago we – both as a community and as individuals – stepped up to address the problem; we need to give ourselves credit for that.

But obviously the work is not done. Those of us in HIV prevention work have to ask ourselves: what can we do to reach that last 10-20%? Or, more accurately and more usefully, what are the barriers some people face that keep them from taking better care of their sexual health?

One barrier is poverty. Just ask Sean Dyer, formerly Health Education Coordinator for Pillsbury House at 35th and Chicago. “Whatever their needs, we try to meet them,” Dyer says. Some of his clients “don't have money to pay rent or they just lost their job or their child doesn’t have milk or food.” To address this need, “We have food shelves, we have clothing, all things to service unmet needs of clients. We also have economic assistance programs here too.”

How do food shelves, clothing distribution, and economic assistance reduce the risk for HIV? Perhaps the best answer is another question: how can a person put a priority on their sexual health when they are hungry, cold, and/or homeless?
Barriers may exist not only for gay and bi men, but also for anyone who is sexually active. Take for example a young woman who is a sex worker. How much control does she have over whether she practices safer sex? “Many of the sex workers I work with experience oppression, abuse, addiction, and exploitation,” says Mary Jo Meuleners, coordinator of the Youth Intervention Project (YIP). Meuleners works with many women who sell or trade sex for money, shelter, and other basic needs. “If a young woman is selling sex to curb her addiction or to satisfy a pimp, practicing safer sex may be a low priority. Several young women have shared with me the demand and increase in money from customers for sex without condoms. A young woman confronted with these circumstances face huge barriers to keeping herself safe.”

In my work with gay and bi men at the Red Door Clinic, one common barrier I see is internalized homophobia. I talk with many men who believe they are defective, broken, less than others. Homophobia teaches us we are all of this and less. If a person simply doesn’t believe they are worth it, why would they take care of themselves?

What do we need to do to overcome these and so many other barriers?

First, as individuals, we need to know that we all deserve good health, and we all deserve to take care of ourselves. If you find yourself in a situation where that is difficult for any reason, call Pillsbury House, the YIP Program, the HIM Program, or another sexual health program for assistance.

Second, as service providers, friends, and relatives we need to meet people where they are at, both literally and figuratively. As Dyer says, “You have to know where the people are.” Everyone is different, and everyone has their own experiences, culture, and family history impacting their definition of health. We must see HIV prevention as not merely telling people to abstain from sex or to slap on a condom. Instead we need to address the whole person complete with their myriad of skills, needs, and barriers.

Lastly, as a society, we need to remember that all of us are important, and no one deserves to be forgotten. We ought to keep in mind how hard it is for many in our society to get by, to live well, and to stay healthy. We need to leave our judgement at home. We must do what we can for everyone-homeless people, sex workers, gay and bi men, not to mention thugs, drug addicts, and millionaires alike — if we are to put an end to this epidemic.

Meanwhile, don’t forget a condom.

Contact Pillsbury House, (612) 824-0708 ext 117, Mary Jo Meuleners and the YIP Program at (612) 348-3307, or the HIM Program at (612) 348-6641

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The Men’s Center/Pride Liberated
– © 2005 by Jerry Olson

The Pride Festival, June 25 and 26, 2005

The Pride Festival, located at Loring Park, is in it’s thirty-third year and was attended last year by around 400,000 people. This year’s Festival theme, “Liberation in Progress,” reminds us that although some injustices have been overcome, the GLBT civil rights movement is “in progress,” with a long way to go before GLBT have achieved full equality in our society. Pride is a celebration of the history and accomplishments of the GLBT rights movement, and serves as a rallying cry to the community in the pursuit of challenging discrimination. We hope you have a happy and safe Pride season this year!

Pride Festival’s many diverse organizations and the Men’s Center’s 10 different support groups have much in common. Both of the above organizations allow their groups to work side-by-side granting each other equal rights. With the help of Webster’s New World Dictionary, the word or term “Pride” is defined as: “proper respect for oneself; sense of one’s own dignity or worth; self respect.”

We respect our differences as we would our numerous body appearances. The denial of the respect does not allow our civilization to reach a higher form of society in its truest form, on our planet Earth. Lower forms of animal life completely eradicate “the different” through starvation, and/or outcast them from the group. This has never happened between the Pride Festival and the Men’s Center. There’s your Liberation factor in progress!

The medical research people have yet to come up with a cure for being straight, bisexual, gay, lesbian, or transgender or for that matter any of our other differences.

GLBT = Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender. There are those among us who are not “in the know” about what those initials stand for. The people those initials represent are very much human. The physical, social and psychological basic needs are the same for all of us.

My sensitivities levels are documented by the fact that of being born different and accepting myself. (It didn’t happen over night!) Yes, I was born on New Year’s Day a few years ago. So were my brothers. No, we are not triplets! It was a birth sequence never known to the world before – it was the only known birth sequence known to mankind of three males all born on New Year's Day two years apart. Our births were announced to the world and it’s media in 1947 through Ripley's Believe it or Not! newspaper column. My brothers and I, of course, are very diverse.

Every one of you is diverse. Something you just accept and move on with life. Accept the diversity that you are surrounded by in the world. If you appreciate your equal rights, well, then, allow the next person their equal rights also. What’s wrong with fair play? The alternative is to fight over it like in the animal kingdom. What a civilization I have been born into! Tomorrow will be better, provided each of us take part in making it happen!

BELIEVE IT OR NOT!