AUSTRALIA: Safer Sex Activists Act Out Actual Anti-Gay Letters To The Editor

AUSTRALIA: Safer-Sex Campaign Reinstated After Ad Company Relents

Brisbane's safer-sex ad campaign has been reinstated after widespread outrage across Australia. The campaign had been yanked after complaints from an anti-gay Christian group.

Announcing their backflip this afternoon, the company said it had changed its mind because it did not realise it had been subjected to a campaign from the Australian Christian Lobby to remove the posters. “Following ACL Queensland director Wendy Francis’ acknowledgement that the complaints received by Adshel, Brisbane City Council and the Advertising Standards Bureau regarding QAHC’s campaign have been orchestrated by the Australian Christian Lobby, Adshel is reinstating the ‘Rip and Roll’ campaign," a company press release said. "Adshel earlier responded to a series of complaints by removing the campaign from its media panels yesterday. None of the complaints indicated any liaison with the ACL, so Adshel was made to believe that they originated from individual members of the public.”

AUSTRALIA: Christianist Group Forces Removal Of Safer Sex Campaign

An anti-gay Christian group in Brisbane, Australia has forced an outdoor advertising company to yank a just-launched safer sex campaign. The ads featured a fully-clothed gay couple holding an unopened condom.

Adshel, the company that provides advertising for Brisbane's bus shelters; Goa Billboards; and the Advertising Standards Bureau were targeted in an orchestrated campaign by the Australian Christian Lobby (ACL). Healthy Communities executive director Paul Martin said it was extremely disheartening that Adshel had buckled. "Those of us who have been around fighting HIV in Queensland for a while will remember this kind of reaction from days gone by," he told AAP. "We certainly don't expect it in 2011."

ACL was trying to have gay people "erased from the public sphere", Mr Martin said. "It's an extreme minority of people who are very well organised and are able to launch this kind of action," he said. "The vast majority of Queenslanders support gay and lesbian rights." ACL Queensland director Wendy Francis said she objected to the sexual nature of the ads, not the fact the couple pictured were gay. Ms Francis was last year forced to apologise publicly after a Tweet likening gay marriage to legalising child abuse.

Linda Harvey: End All Safer Sex Education

"This is the statistical face of deviance, out-of-control lust, and desperation. Most of the campaigns in this country to prevent HIV/AIDS do not take a strong stand against these unnecessary behaviors, but instead, talk around them and try to teach people to manage their misbehavior better. The numbers tell the story: it's not working. What is that old definition of insanity? Doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. We are throwing away hundreds of millions of dollars in HIV prevention that ignores the elephant in the room, or maybe throws him an occasional peanut." - Mission America hate group leader Linda Harvey, calling for the complete elimination of safer sex education.

Safer Sex Park

Copyranter tips us to this possibly NSFW animated safer sex clip from France's AIDES.

NYC Women & HIV/AIDS

In observance of this week's National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day, the New York City Department of Health has issued the above infographic, which is part of their NYC Knows campaign to get every city resident tested for HIV.

(Tipped by JMG reader John)

CALIFORNIA: State OSHA Fines Gay Porn Studio For Allowing Barebacking

The California division of OSHA has fined the gay porn studio Treasure Island Media for workplace practices that exposed employees to potentially infectious agents such as semen. The company is appealing the fines, which total over $21,000 for three separate citations. Lyla Katz reports at Xbiz:

"On Nov. 5, 2009, Treasure Island Media had failed to write or otherwise establish, implement and maintain an effective exposure control plan,” the 23-page investigation report said. “Employees were exposed to semen and other potentially infectious materials, due to work activities during filming and set cleaning.” The second serious citation said, “Treasure Island Media does not observe universal precautions during the production of their films. They have not instituted engineering and work practices controls to eliminate or minimize contact with blood and semen, including, but not limited to, the use of barrier protection such as condoms.”

Treasure Island Media's general manager Matt Mason told XBIZ that the company has cooperated with the Cal/OSHA investigation and administrative process. "We have appealed the citations and participated in the informal conference process and expect to take the matter to a hearing in 2011 with an administrative law judge," Mason said. Treasure Island Media has recently signed HIV-positive performer James Roscoe and has been promoting scenes with other HIV-positive performers.

A spokesman for CAL/OSHA said the fines did not arise from the studio's practice of employing HIV-positive performers. "Anybody may be infected, therefore you have to treat everybody's blood and other potential infectious materials [such as semen] as though it can be infectious."

Pope OKs Condom Use For Male Hookers

In a bizarre interview with a German journalist, Emperor Palpatine has decreed for the first time that the usage of condoms is now sanctioned by the Catholic Church in "certain circumstances." The "for example" he uses? Male hookers!

To illustrate his apparent shift in position, Benedict offered the example of a male prostitute using a condom. "There may be justified individual cases, for example when a male prostitute uses a condom, where this can be ... a first bit of responsibility, to re-develop the understanding that not everything is permitted and that one may not do everything one wishes," Benedict was quoted as saying. "But it is not the proper way to deal with the horror of HIV infection." Benedict reiterated that condom use alone would not solve the problem of HIV/AIDS. "More must happen," he said. Becoming simply fixated on the issue of condoms makes sexuality more banal and exactly this is the reason why so many people no longer find sexuality to be an expression of their love, but a type of self-administered drug."

The interview will be published in book form and will be translated into 18 languages.

Totally The Worst Clip In The Entire All-Time History Of Everything

Mark this date. It's the end of the internet.

CDC Reports 1 In 5 Urban Gay Men Are Poz

According to a new report from the Centers For Disease Control, 19% of urban gay and bisexual men are HIV positive but one-quarter to one-half of them don't know it.

Researchers at the CDC studied 8,153 men who have sex with men in 21 U.S. cities. The men were taking part in the 2008 National HIV Behavioral Surveillance System, which looked at prevalence and awareness of the human immunodeficiency virus or HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Overall, they found that 19 percent of gay men are infected with HIV. The study found that 28 percent of gay black men infected with HIV, compared with 18 percent of Hispanic men and 16 percent of white men. Black men in the study were also least likely to be aware of their infection, with 59 percent unaware of their infection compared with 46 percent of Hispanic men and 26 percent of white men. Age also plays a role. Among 18 to 29-year-old men, 63 percent did not know they were infected with HIV, compared with 37 percent of men aged 30 and older, the team reported in the CDC's weekly report on death and disease.

The CDC recommends at least an annual HIV test for all men who have sex with men.

POLL: Two-Thirds Of American Gay Men Support HIV Transmission Laws

According to a poll published today on AIDSmap.com, two-thirds of American gay men support laws that make it illegal for HIV-positive people to have unprotected anal sex without disclosing their status. The pollsters recruited 1725 gay men via social network sites.

“Believing that it should be illegal was associated with HIV-negative or unknown status, less education, having a non-gay sexual orientation, living in a state that was perceived as hostile towards GLBT persons, reporting fewer UAI [unprotected anal intercourse] partners…and feeling greater responsibility”, write the authors. Since 2008, at least 30 individuals in the US have been prosecuted for exposing others to HIV. Penalties vary between states and range from a small fine to a lengthy prison sentence. The impact of such laws on HIV prevention efforts are hotly debated. Moreover, there is uncertainty about the attitudes of the communities most affected by HIV about the criminalisation of HIV exposure. Overall, 65% of men believed that it should be illegal for HIV-positive individuals to have unprotected sex without disclosure, 23% thought it should not be illegal and 12% did not know.

Support for criminalisation was highest (79%) among men aged between 18 and 20, and lowest (56%) among those aged 41 to 70. The investigators note that younger gay men were significantly less likely to have been tested for HIV. Separate research has shown that untested men are more likely to adopt a disclosure-based HIV prevention strategy “that gains credibility by transmission laws.” The overwhelming majority (70%) of HIV-negative and untested men (69%) supported legal sanctions, but only 38% of HIV-positive men endorsed criminalisation. “These differences most likely reflect a shift in orientation toward criminal statues on HIV transmission following seroconversion”, comment the investigators. Men with the lowest educational achievements were most likely to support criminalisation (75%), and those with a degree least likely (58%).

Several notable recent cases have put the issue in the spotlight, including the arrest last month of a Canadian man who is accused of having infected two women after not disclosing his status to them. Also last month, German pop star Nadja Benaissa was convicted of "grievous bodily harm" for having sex without disclosure. Some have been arrested for non-disclosure even though no known infections resulted from their actions.

(Tipped by JMG reader Band)

Bareback In Brazil

The SFist is questioning the appropriateness of the above ad which is now appearing in San Francisco.

LAN Airlines, a "gay-friendly" airline that served as the official international airline for San Francisco Pride 2010, has a new ad campaign popping up at Muni stops all over San Francisco. Hmm. Do you think LAN -- who, we repeat, markets to San Francisco's LGBT community -- knows what "bareback" means, especially to certain folks in the Bay Area? Or didn't they know horse riding without a saddle is a dangerous problem affecting the gay community?

Study Claims Using HIV Meds As Preventive To Infection Is Safe For Negative Gay Men

A study released at the AIDS 2010 conference in Vienna claims that using widely-prescribed HIV medications as a preventive for new infections (PrEP) is safe for HIV-negative men who have sex with men. Please note that effectiveness in preventing infection results have not yet been released on this study.

Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) with tenofovir (found in Viread, Truvada and Atripla) is safe for men who have sex with men (MSM), according to a U.S. study presented Friday, July 23, at the XVIII International AIDS Conference (IAC) in Vienna. PrEP is one of the most promising prevention tools on the immediate horizon. With PrEP, HIV-negative individuals take antiretroviral drugs to prevent becoming infected with the virus. The first PrEP studies are testing tenofovir alone (Viread), while several later studies are testing tenofovir plus emtricitabine (Truvada). Currently, all studies are looking at daily ongoing use of the drugs, but future trials are planned with intermittent dosing. The first efficacy results are expected later this year, but researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta presented findings from a safety study at this year’s IAC.

As always, it's important to look at the size and the methodology of this study before making any decisions about your own health care.

RELATED: An unrelated NYC-based survey released last month indicated that the wide availability of PrEP would cause a high percentage of the most at-risk gay men to abandon safer sex practices.

What Would PrEP Mean For Safer Sex?

PrEP stands for Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis, the taking of a medication in advance of a possible exposure to a disease. Commonly used for decades in travelers to exotic locales, multiple PrEP trials are currently underway to examine to effectiveness of taking an HIV medication prior to exposure. Putting aside the worrisome aspect of long-term side effects, the prospect of a daily pill to ward off HIV is thrilling, to say the least, but even at a very high rate of effectiveness, the risk of contracting HIV and the necessity of maintaining consistent safer sex practices would remain.

But according to a troubling new survey of gay men in New York City, a high percentage of those most at risk indicate that they would abandon safer sex practices were HIV PrEP to become available.

A substantial proportion of gay men say they would reduce their condom use if pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) proves to be effective, US investigators report in the online edition of the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes. The investigators found that the availability of 80% effective PrEP could reduce inhibitions about unprotected sex. Their results also showed that it could lead men to view unprotected sex as having an acceptable level of risk. “A better understanding of the emergent issues inherent in the provision of PrEP will allow for the development of both individual-level interventions supporting PrEP users and community-level interventions designed to increases awareness and acceptability of PrEP”, comment the investigators. [snip]

Little research has been undertaken into the potential impact of PrEP on sexual behaviour. Therefore investigators in New York designed a study involving 180 substance-using HIV-negative gay men who had had at least one recent episode of unprotected anal sex. They completed a questionnaire about their use of club drugs (cocaine, ketamine, ecstasy, methamphetamine, GHB or poppers), sexual risk behaviour, and attitudes towards PrEP. The men also answered questions to assess behavioural disinhibition and risk compensation. Researchers measured risk perception on a five-point scale using seven questions to assess the extent to which condom use was dependent on the participant's perception of risk in each individual sexual encounter. The men had a mean age of 29 and were racially diverse. Only a minority of men (42%) had been to college, and 40% had an annual income below $20,000. The men reported a median of three high-risk sex acts in the previous 30 days, a median of two occurred when using club drugs.

How effective would HIV PrEP have to be before you'd consider raw sex to be an acceptable risk? I think you know what the answer should be, but be as honest with yourself as you can.

DCFUK!T Releases Sex Ed Spoof

Washington DC-based safer sex advocates DCFUK!T have created an instructional film that spoofs 1950's sex education films. The below edited version is possibly office-safe. (Depending on where you work!) The unedited and very NSFW version is here. The clip features porn stars Matthew Rush and Brent Corrigan, the latter of which has recently taken part in several safer sex campaigns to make amends for his starring role in barebacking films.

No Bareback Porn On Sale At IML

The International Mr. Leather convention has followed through on their vow to ban the selling of barebacking porn at their vendor mart. Via Chicagoist:

“For many years, our organization has always preached the importance of safe- sex,” explains [IML coordinator RJ] Chaffin. “It has been on the lips of many people, [the fact that] we speak out on safe-sex, but allow vendors to promote bareback videos. The time has come for us to take a stand on the issue. It affected about three of our vendors and in fact, most vendors were pleased to see us take action on this matter. I would say for every negative e-mail we’ve received, we’ve received 15 supportive emails and letters,” says Chaffin, who has received calls and emails from organizers of similar events to gauge the reaction of attendees to the new policy. “We need younger people to realize that barebacking is not cool and very dangerous.”

The event continues through tomorrow.

Spain Gives The Middle Finger To AIDS

Andres Duque at Blabbeando directs us to the below safe sex campaign from Spain which has just won a coveted Summit International Award for advertising. Andres translates the opening of the clip: "To you, who has fucked us during so many years, who CRUSH us all, young people, older people, women, men, heterosexuals and homosexuals. To you, ABOMINABLE being... we say...FUCK YOU, AIDS!"

A Barebacker Repents

Former barebacking porn star Brent Corrigan has amended his unsafe ways and is apologizing to the to the gay male community by participating in a safer sex campaign conducted by the Washington-based DC FUK!T. Via press release:

DC FUK!T, a Washington D.C. based safer sex advocacy group, released its latest "How to Put on a Condom" video, staring adult performer, Brent Corrigan. Corrigan volunteered his time and "sizable talent" for the group's edgy condom campaign, just as porn icon Matthew Rush did in a similar "how to" video released by the group this past fall. Said one of the group's co-founders: "Although when Mr. Corrigan first entered the adult industry as a teen, he performed in bareback porn films, he has long since become an advocate for safer sex and has very publicly apologized for his past appearances in films depicting high risk and unsafe sexual practices. We believe that Brent's ability to learn from his professional mistakes years ago and change his behavior are what now make him a great spokesperson and role model for safer sex at a time when both bareback porn and HIV are unfortunately making a comeback."

Here's their NSFW website. And here's their very NSFW instructional video starring Brent Corrigan.

NYC Releases Condom Use Study

Gawker tips us to this new study by the NYC Department of Health.

Unprotected anal sex poses well known health hazards for men, but new research suggests that the practice is a significant health issue for women as well. More than 100,000 New York City women engage in anal intercourse each year, according to a new report from the Health Department, and many are not taking the steps needed to prevent HIV and other sexually transmitted infections. Anal membranes are easily damaged during sex, facilitating the spread of infection. Past studies suggest that anal exposure to HIV poses 30 times more risk than vaginal exposure. But the New York City findings suggest that women are less likely than men who have sex with men to use condoms during anal sex. The figure is just 23%, according to the new report, compared to 61% among men who have sex with other men. The full report is available at nyc.gov/health.

Depressing.

AIDS Healthcare Sues Porn Agents For Allowing Clients To Bareback

The AIDS Healthcare Foundation in Los Angeles is suing nine porn actors' agencies for letting their clients bareback in movies. The lawsuit was filed with the California labor commissioner.

“These talent agencies are a pipeline for the procurement of young people for the adult film industry,” said Michael Weinstein, President of AIDS Healthcare Foundation. “It is reckless for these agents to jeopardize the health of their clients by encouraging and profiting from the unsafe, potentially life-threatening behavior of the models and performers they represent. Many of these agents are callous enough to describe the unprotected sexual acts their clients will engage in on a checklist on their websites as cavalierly as if one was ordering off a menu in a restaurant. We are asking the California Labor Commissioner to investigate and crack down on the illegal behavior of these state-licensed agencies.” The talent agencies targeted in AHF’s labor commission complaints include: A List Media; ATMLA; Gold Star Modeling; LA Direct Models; Lisa Ann’s Talent Management; Metro Talent Management; Spiegler Girls; Type 9 Models, Inc. and World Modeling. The agencies represent anywhere from approximately 30 to as many as 140 models and performers each, with a mix of male and female performers, however far more female performers appear on each website.

Weinstein told reporters: "If there were a construction employment agency, they couldn't say John Doe is available to dangle 100 feet over the ground without a harness. That would be shut down instantaneously."