Stonewall Gazette

As part of our mission on Stonewall Gazette to highlight independent blogs that may be of interest to the gay community, I've created the #Blog2BlogLuv column. Today's post features gay writers. If you have a blog suggestion please contact me here. Happy reading!

Shane Smith, Editor, Stonewall Gazette


Visualizing The AIDS Epidemic - A Stunning Collection Of Over 8,000 AIDS Education Posters: Huffington Post

World AIDS Day was first conceived in August 1987 by James W. Bunn and Thomas Netter.
Read the fascinating history at Back2Stonewall

Today Is World AIDS Day, Trump Proclamation Omits LGBT Mention: The Gay Almanac

HIV Is Still Here – And It’s On The Move: Living Gay Brisbane

Just Another Death Sentence: Nonfiction by Hank Trout: A & U Magazine

White House Office Of National AIDS Policy Web Page Blank On #WorldAIDSDay: The Randy Report

World AIDS Day and My Amazing Husband: I Should Be Laughing

Once, When We Were Heroes: Mark S King

UNAIDS Warns That Men Are Less Likely Than Women to Access HIV Treatment and More Likely to Die of AIDS-related Illnesses: The Rustin Times

The World AIDS Day Anthem We Really Need Has Just Arrived: My Fabulous Disease

Horror, Heroes, and Hope - World AIDS Day 2017, the 30th Anniversary: The Out Front

The Personal Is Political, Unlike Coq Au Vin: Mental Musings and Meltdowns

A Long-Term Survivor Speaks Out


Sean McKenna (above) reflects on the urgency of overcoming isolation and depression for people who tested HIV positive before 1996. READ MORE


Research Suggests HIV Treatment May Prevent Accelerated Brain Aging 
Cognitive decline has been a major concern for people living with HIV as they age.

POZ Magazine is honoring the best representations of HIV/AIDS in media and culture. The 2nd Annual POZ Awards kicked off a few weeks ago but you still have until World AIDS Day on Dec 1, 2017 to cast your votes!

Here are the nominees:

People have become infected with HIV from all over the USA. It’s more prevalent in some cities compared to others. And it’s not where you think. Take a look at these cities.

Written by Preston Mitchum


By now, we’ve all heard about Anthony Rapp’s allegations of sexual assault by Kevin Spacey when Rapp was 14 and Spacey was 26. Waking up in the middle of the night to the revelation of Rapp’s story and Spacey’s response felt like a punch in the gut because it doesn’t just happen in Hollywood.

As a black queer man who was sexually abused as a child by a man who now identifies as gay, this Spacey public relations stunt of coming out while addressing Rapp’s allegations saddens me in indescribable ways. We’re in an era where someone can tweet an apology for allegedly sexual assaulting a person then try to escape accountability by owning his sexual identity publicly.

Being assaulted by a man who later acknowledged being gay confused me so much about my own sexuality because I connected my sexuality to being abused. It took years to rework that my sexuality was not borne out of pain. I was not gay because I was abused.

Even though my abuser didn’t “come out” until many years after he assaulted me, Spacey’s response made me relive my entire interactions with my abuser and my own thinking on sexuality and abuse. I was a black boy who was already told that being gay was a problem; imagine adding on top of that the idea that my sexuality was connected to the abuse.
READ MORE



MORE NEWS ABOUT THE KEVIN SPACEY SCANDAL

• Actor Harry Dreyfuss Says Kevin Spacey Groped Him When He Was 18
• Kevin Spacey Flashed Him Outside a Hotel Then Handed Over His Watch to Hush Him Up Says British Barman 
• Three More Men Come Forward With Sexual Harassment Claims Against Kevin Spacey
• Man Comes Forward to Describe an Alleged Extended Sexual Relationship He Had at Age 14 With Kevin Spacey
• Oscar-winning Actor Kevin Spacey Is Seeking “Evaluation and Treatment” After Allegations

Written by Greater Than AIDS


Now is the time to #GetCovered! From November 1 thru December 15 you can buy or switch health plans under the Affordable Care Act, or ACA, aka “Obamacare.”

If you or a loved one is living with HIV, Health Coverage, HIV & YOU has tools to help you navigate your coverage options. You can find answers to more than 75 FAQs, coverage options for your state, the required essential health benefits and more!

Here are five things to know about the ACA & HIV:

1. The Affordable Care Act, or ACA, is still here. Now is the time when you can enroll or change health plans. To have coverage in 2018, you must enroll by December 15, 2017.
2. With few exceptions, everyone is required to have health insurance, or pay a fine. Even if you receive services from the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program or the AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP), you will most likely still need to have health insurance coverage.
3. You cannot be denied coverage or charged more because of HIV. This is an important change for anyone with a pre-existing condition, who prior to the ACA, may not have been able to get affordable health coverage.
4. If you can’t afford it, help may be available. Depending on your income, you may be eligible for different types of financial assistance to help pay the cost of your monthly premiums, deductibles or other expenses.
5. Free help and personal assistance is available in many places. Find people and organizations in your community trained to help you apply, enroll and answer your questions. But, don’t wait until the last minute! There are fewer certified application counselors and a shorter enrollment window this year. Out2Enroll also offers LGBTQ-specific resources and a locator tool to find free in-person help.

To sign up or change health plans, go to HealthCare.gov or your state’s insurance marketplace.

Written by Katie Forster

Image of HIV

A new vaccine-based treatment for HIV has succeeded in suppressing the virus in five patients, raising hopes further research could help prevent AIDS without the need for daily drugs. Researchers combined two innovative HIV vaccines with a drug usually used to treat cancer in the trial, conducted over three years at the IrsiCaixa Aids Research Institute in Barcelona. After receiving the treatment, the virus was undetectable in five out of 24 participants and its spread was stopped by their immune systems, reported the New Scientist. One of them has been drug-free for seven months. Lead scientist Beatriz Mothe said her team was “on the right path” to developing a treatment which could offer an alternative to daily antiretroviral medication (ART). READ MORE

Written by Tony Richens


An Auckland man that is living with HIV and devotes his life to HIV advocacy and community awareness has won the 2017 Mr Gay New Zealand Title. Charlie Tredway won the competition after the ten finalists were put through an extensive array of activities to find out who will represent the country at the Mr Gay World Finals in Spain in May. Tredway, 33, works with the New Zealand AIDS Foundation as a Community Engagement Officer. READ MORE

You can follow Charlie Tredway on Twitter

Check out his shirtless pics!

Written by Chronicle Staff

The San Francisco Chronicle hosts the premiere of “Last Men Standing” at the Castro Theatre in April 2016

“Last Men Standing,” The San Francisco Chronicle’s documentary on long-term survivors of AIDS, is now available online to subscribers.

The film — the first feature-length documentary made by The Chronicle — follows the lives of eight Bay Area men who were diagnosed with HIV in the early years of the AIDS epidemic and never expected to survive much past their 30s, and certainly not into their 50s and beyond. It was part of a yearlong reporting project by The Chronicle that included articles on the men and multimedia features.

“Last Men Standing” premiered to a sellout crowd at the Castro Theatre in April, 2016. It has since been screened at film festivals around the world, including at the Frameline LGBT festival in San Francisco, and was featured at the International AIDS Conference in South Africa in July.

Former Chronicle filmmakers Erin Brethauer and Tim Hussin made the 65-minute documentary over 10 months, first spending hours interviewing the subjects and then following them in their daily lives over many weeks.

The film has been heralded by the community of AIDS survivors for being among the first to acknowledge, and celebrate, their resilience, and to shine a light on their needs.

Long-term AIDS survivors often suffer a host of complications from having lived for decades with HIV. Many are struggling with mental health issues, including depression, post-traumatic stress, long-term grief and isolation. They’re at risk of medical conditions such as cancer, heart disease, liver and kidney problems, and recurring infections. And many survivors are financially strapped from being unprepared to live so long.

Chronicle subscribers can view the film online here.

Written by David France


As movements go, the one Act Up spearheaded against HIV was unique. The virus made its traumatic appearance at different times across the globe – perhaps as early as 1920 in what is now known as the Democratic Republic of Congo. After sporadic cases through the 1970s, the viral epidemic was first reported in New York City and California.

On 3 July 1981, Centers for Disease Control released a report stating that symptoms now known to be typical Aids-related illnesses had been exhibited by 26 gay men. That same day, the New York Times reported 41 cases of Kaposi’s sarcoma – “a rare and often rapidly fatal form of cancer” – affecting 41 gay men in New York and California. Health authorities in the United Kingdom acknowledged the first cases there later that year, and outbreaks reached a handful of European and African nations in 1982. Today, no country has been spared, and 35 million are infected.

But throughout the plague years – when no effective treatment existed, and death was quite nearly guaranteed – New York City remained the epicentre of the disease, and America the main obstacle to research and treatment. It took two years for the city’s mayor, Ed Koch, to acknowledge its existence publicly. President Ronald Reagan waited six. But their words were hollow. Both continued to practise obfuscation, budgetary strangulation, and aggressive apathy even as the number of dead Americans passed 20,000, and 1.5 million more were believed to be infected.

By the end of 1986, the city’s gay ghetto was a tinderbox. Along Christopher Street you could see the dazed look of the doomed, skeletons and their caregivers alike. There was not even a false-hope pill for doctors to prescribe. The estimates we heard were that half the gay men in New York were already infected, and for the rest of us it was simply a matter of time.

Then one morning in December, bus shelters and bank windows in a large part of Manhattan were covered with large, ominous posters, featuring a pink triangle floating against a black background. READ MORE

You can follow David France on Twitter


Note From The Editor of Stonewall Gazette
David France directed the 2012 American documentary feature, "How to Survive a Plague". This outstanding film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature and for Best Documentary at The Independent Spirit Awards. "How to Survive a Plague" won a GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Documentary.

You can purchase the film and book on which it is based here. 

WATCH VIDEO: How To Survive a Plague - Official Trailer

Written by Savas Abadsidi


The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention revealed its latest report on newly diagnosed HIV infections in the United States. The latest data, as shown in the HIV Surveillance Report, shows new diagnoses have decreased through the Black, Latinx, and white communities, but have risen among young adults ages 25 to 29. READ MORE

Written by John Francis Leonard

Protecting My Sexual Health & My Heart’s Desires
The last thing I wanted to do this month was talk, yet again, about a social app interaction. Last week though, I had an encounter that really gave me pause. A simple hook-up, once a matter of routine in my life, made me ask myself some fairly important questions about who I am today and what I am looking for in my interactions with other men. I received a message from a man (we’re both in our mid-forties) with whom I’ve texted in the past, though not regularly (I’ll call him David here). David is a nice guy and we’d never really talked much about actually getting together for sex or anything else. He actually seemed kind of shy, which usually doesn’t really attract me. Well, he seemed to have gotten over his reticence and got straight to the point. “Are we ever going to finally hook up?” he asked. My interest was piqued; I’m a guy who appreciates a direct approach. He definitely had my attention. READ MORE

You can follow John Francis Leonard on Twitter

Via Star Observer: 
Widespread homophobic violence and the exclusion of gay and bisexual men at the top levels of the global response to HIV and AIDS are halting efforts to fight the epidemic, according to experts at the International AIDS Conference in Durban, South Africa. Researchers, activists and health officials said one of the major barriers to halting HIV and AIDS epidemics among men who have sex with men (MSM) is continuing human rights abuses towards gay and bisexual men, particularly in parts of Africa and the Middle East. In much of the world, gay and bisexual men are actively excluded from HIV services, or the fear of homophobic violence means they are unwilling or unable to access those services. READ MORE

Gloria Reuben

Via NBC:
Since television remains one of the strongest forces to educate and inform the public about important topics and issues, the lack of storylines involving HIV and AIDS is relevant. Currently, there are only two television programs on major networks that include a recurring character that is HIV positive - and one of those, HBO's "Looking," is coming to an end this month. The other is ABC's "How to Get Away With Murder." When the NBC drama "ER" broke ground in 1996 by taking one of its series regulars, Gloria Reuben's Jeanie Boulet, and had her contract HIV, the storyline was groundbreaking for a number of reasons. It also came at a time when there was still an abundance of misinformation about people who were HIV positive. However, for all the good "ER" did two decades ago, HIV positive characters and storylines are hard to find on television these days. This would be fine if HIV and AIDS were a thing of the past, but, unfortunately, that is not the case. READ MORE

For a lot of guys, the first time they use a condom, doesn't go so well, so they may get turned off from using them at all. This is why it's important to practice with condoms on your own (or with a friend or two) until you find a size, fit and feel that works for you. There are a number of different brands of condoms to try, so it's a good idea to purchase a sample pack and try out a bunch of different brands and types. Make sure you're using the right size condom or the condom could break or slip off during sex. The better the fit, the better the feel! Length isn't usually the issue with condoms, it's how thick your dick is that ends up being the issue with condom fit for most guys who are above or below average. LEARN MORE HERE

You can follow PrEP Squad on Twitter

Watch Video

"From my experience, the majority of times I came across the term [poz] was on Grindr or Scruff. These soulless apps allow us to hide behind a screen and pretty much say anything we want," writes Ruaidhri O’Baoill. "Over the past few years, it has somehow become an acceptable term we use to communicate with each other so I can understand why most of those who use the word don’t see it as offensive, but I do." READ MORE

Posted by Shane Smith  Editor of Stonewall Gazette


A daily dose of anti-HIV medication almost eradicates the risk of infection for people in a relationship with an HIV-positive partner, a study presented this week in Africa showed, raising hopes of reducing HIV rates among one of Africa’s highest risk groups, Reuters reports. “HIV was virtually eliminated in this population,” the lead researcher, Jared Baeten of the University of Washington, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone. “More than 95 percent of the HIV infections that we expected to see, we did not see.” READ MORE

The Sexpert is not a super cheesy profile name, but an actual trained sexual health expert [in Australia], who is online to answer any questions Grindr users may have about sex. The initiative is spearheaded by New South Wale’s sexual health organisation ACON who for many years have run peer based programs where trained volunteers head out to bars, events and sex on premises venues to answer sexual health questions. “ACON has a pre existing program called Sexperts, where we go out to sex on premises venues and talk to guys about sexual health,” said Thomas Munro, ACON coordinator peer programs and campaigns. “They wear a t-shirt called ‘ask me anything thing’ and answer any questions. “The Grindr outreach is an extension of that, it’s the same volunteers just in the digital space.”
READ MORE

In 2008, one man, Timothy Ray Brown, was cured of HIV. Also known as the "Berlin patient," Brown was considered cured of his infection after receiving two bone-marrow transplants to treat a separate disease he had been diagnosed with a few years earlier: acute myeloid leukemia. The bone marrow he received came from a donor whose genes carried a rare mutation that made them resistant to HIV, known as CCR5-delta 32, which was transferred on to Brown. Traces of the virus were seen in his blood a few years later, but remained undetectable despite him not being on antiretroviral treatment, meaning he was still clinically cured of his infection, according to his clinicians. Despite various attempts on patients after him by scientists using this same approach, including a similar transplant in two Boston patients, Brown remains the only person known about who has been cured of HIV.

But a new study presented Sunday at the 2016 Towards an HIV Cure Symposium -- ahead of the 21st International AIDS conference in Durban, South Africa, this week -- revealed data on a new set of HIV positive patients whose reservoirs of HIV have fallen to very low levels after receiving a range of stem cell transplants similar to Brown's. READ MORE