ACT UP gets horny for gay pride: Marchers needed!

The Press Release:

COME MARCH WITH ACT UP/NY FOR PRIDE 2008!
Sunday, June 29 - 11:30am
56th Street at 6th Avenue
917-653-7267 (cell)

This year we will be focusing on getting the word out about our exciting new harm reduction campaign that we are launching in print and on the web. Infection rates in NYC are up by 33% since 2001 among young gay and bisexual men under 30 years of age. Prevention efforts are hampered by years of abstinence only teaching, which has affected even AIDS organization's educational materials which often are timid. Our first effort will be published in this weeks Gay City News showing an inviting young man starting to dress himself by opening a condom, with the following text:

"Infection Rates are UP! The only thing you need to wear are condoms!"

The CDC's recently released statistics for 2005 show that, men who have sex with men accounted for 71% of all new HIV/AIDS diagnoses among men. This is another reason we need to mobilize attention to this issue. We need an edgy, gay-sex-positive, safe-sex promotional campaign in response to this alarming rise in new infections among
young gay and bisexual men under 30. That's why ACTUP/NY is creating this new campaign to promote effective safe sex messages targeting gay youth. Our contingent will be displaying our hot new posters, promoting the launching the new campaign website, and of course, distributing condoms to all the parade-goers.

No matter what your age or gender, we need you to march with us. We don't want a tiny contingent, we need a contingent that helps set a tone that safer-sex is a LGBT community standard. Monogamy, domestic partnership and marriage won't solve this problem because, they don't really work among a very large section of young men.

We'll also have vintage ACTUP banners and chants throughout for what promises to be a fierce and fun showing at pride. We hope to see you marching in the contingent!

NYC Health Commissioner: The Times "misrepresented" comments on circumcision

[NOTE: This statement was sent out to community activists in .pdf form earlier today. I have not been able to find a direct link to the statement at the Health Department's site but the LifeLube blog also received the document and has uploaded and made it available for download here]

THE CITY OF NEW YORK DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND MENTAL HYGIENE
Michael R. Bloomberg, Mayor
Thomas R. Frieden, M.D., M.P.H., Commissioner

nyc.gov/health

April 9, 2007

Dear Community Member:

Recent media reports misrepresent the Health Department’s response to recent studies showing that circumcision significantly reduces HIV transmission in some contexts. We do not yet know what impact circumcision could have on HIV transmission in New York City, and we have not suggested or planned any initiative or campaign. Quite to the contrary, I indicated in an interview with the New York Times (the source of the misrepresentation) that I very much doubted that even 1% of men at high risk in NYC would undergo the procedure.

As a result of rigorous studies, we now know that circumcision reduces risk of female-to-male spread of HIV by about 60%. There is some evidence, but no proof, that circumcision may reduce male-to-female transmission. There is also some evidence, but again no proof, that it may protect men who engage in insertive anal sex from male-to-male transmission.

Our goals are the following:

• Inform the community of the facts regarding what is known and what is not known about circumcision’s effects on HIV transmission;
• Promote discussion among community groups and health care providers to explore how circumcision may be relevant in New York City;
• Increase access to circumcision for men who want the procedure.

The need for new effective prevention methods is urgent. But even if circumcision is as effective in preventing male-to-male transmission as it is in preventing female-to-male transmission, it does not by any means eliminate the risk of becoming infected with, or spreading, HIV. Any new approach, including circumcision, needs to be seen as an addition to our existing portfolio of proven HIV prevention strategies, including reduction of unsafe sexual encounters and consistent condom use.

There will be a community forum in the next few weeks to discuss these issues and we hope you can attend.

Sincerely,
Thomas R. Frieden, M.D., M.P.H.
Commissioner

Brazil: Circumcision not an HIV prevention tool for gay men

If it wasn't for Vivir Latino on my blog roll, I might have missed this tidbit from Spain's 20 Minutos.

Turns out that even before NYC health commissioner Thomas Frieden spoke to The New York Times on plans to promote circumcision as an HIV prevention method for men "at high risk" of HIV transmission in the city, the head of another health department a few thousand miles away had pretty much rejected that same idea based on the same studies that Frieden used to support his push.

On March 28th, the World Health Organization and UNAIDS released a joint statement recommending that "male circumcision should be part of a comprehensive HIV prevention package."

In the statement Dr. Kevin De Cock (love the name), Director of the HIV/AIDS Department at WHO, said:

The recommendations represent a significant step forward in HIV prevention. Countries with high rates of heterosexual HIV infection and low rates of male circumcision now have an additional intervention which can reduce the risk of HIV infection in heterosexual men. Scaling up male circumcision in such countries will result in immediate benefit to individuals. However, it will be a number of years before we can expect to see an impact on the epidemic from such investment.

In addition the statement warns that before implementing the plan among other populations further research was needed:

In countries where the HIV epidemic is concentrated in specific population groups such as sex workers, injecting drug users or men who have sex with men, there would be limited public health impact from promoting male circumcision in the general population.

Not heeding those caveats, the Times says that Frieden told them that "it is logical to assume that circumcision would offer protection in some types of gay sex."

Enter Brazil: Known for their groundbreaking HIV prevention programs, particularly in gay populations, Mariángela Simao - the technical advisor of the Brazilian health ministry - told news agency EFE that the studies did not provide any data that circumcision reduced the risk of HIV transmission among gay men.

She also pointed out that the recommendations only were applicable in countries where HIV incidence reached more than 15% of the population which would leave out every Latin American country.

Simao expressed concern that circumcised men might get the message that it is OK for them to have unprotected sex without any risks of HIV transmission and said that she feared that, based on the recommendations, developed countries would now devote current international HIV treatment funding towards circumcision surgery procedures instead of proven methods.

In other words, Brazil has officially rejected circumcision as an HIV prevention method amongst gay men - until specific studies are done - and says that they would rather concentrate their prevention funding on promoting condom use and the free availability of HIV treatments for those that test positive.

Updates: In his statement to the New York Times Commissioner Frieden said that he had consulted gay rights and helth service organizations before speaking to the Times but in the April 6 edition of The New York Post, Tokes Osubu, Executive Director of Gay Men of African Descent says "For anyone to think there is going to be a long line of men in their 20's lining up to have part of their anatomy chopped off, it's ludicrous" and Michael Robinson of People of Color in Crisis says "I can't imagine us going around encouraging adult men to have adult circumcision. It's just too painful."

If these are the reactions of two top gay African-American leaders in the city I wonder which gay advocacy and health service organizations the Commissioner did reach before speaking to media. An April 7 New York Post editorial criticized Dr. Frieden for the proposal (but it should be said that the Post has previously assailed Frieden for some of the City's sound health policy projects including the indoor public space smoking ban and a proposal to ban trans-fats from being used in restaurants throughout the city).

On April 6, the New York Times printed a follow up article in which Mayor Michael Blooberg seemed to distance himself a bit from Frieden's statements.

The Agenda blog also points out that the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene posted a brief response to some of the criticism that sprung over at the New York Times political blog, The Empire Zone (read comments here).

In the brief statement Geoffrey Cowley, a spokesman for the Department of Health, denies that agency is ready to launch a campaign to promote circumcision as an HIV prevention tool in New York City but says that, considering the results of the research in Africa, the possibility is worth exploring.

The Department of Health has also said that they will be organizing community town-hall meetings on the issue to get some feed-back.

Uncut men of New York: Your foreskin is in danger!

Let's say that earlier yesterday I had an interesting con- versation with someone that read somewhere that few people in Colombia, my home country, were circumcised. This in light of a report earlier this week from the World Health Organization and UNAIDS recommending that "countries with rampant AIDS epidemics should begin offering free or subsidized circumcisions in hopes of preventing millions of new infections and deaths" (according to the Washington Post).

The person, who shall remain anonymous, expressed interest in "discussing" whether it made sense to formulate campaigns in Colombia to make people aware of the HIV transmission risks for uncut men and encourage them to get circumcised or, pushing it a bit, whether there should be campaigns to get Colombian immigrants in the United States on the same path to circumcision.

Let's just say that I thought this person was kidding.

"But the research shows...!" the person said, and I knew it wasn't a joke.

Let's clear up some things: No, I am not circumcised. No, I don't have anything against people who are. No, I don't get why some fret so much about not having foreskin. And no, I don't get people who seek foreskin reconstruction either. In plain terms, dick is dick! Enjoy what you have and don't fret so much!

But it turns out that the person who made the comments is also indirectly related to the New York City Department of Health which now makes me wonder if he knew more than he was letting on: Today the New York Times reveals that "New York City Plans to Promote Circumcision."

Hm. All of a sudden it does not seem as random a conversation. Still, I am aghast that the NYC DOH would seek to promote invasive surgical interventions for adult males as an HIV/AIDS prevention strategy.

Yesterday I tried to argue that there were other variables such as country-specific hygiene practices and HIV prevention strategies that had to be taken into account. Colombia might have a high number of uncircumsized men but it lags behind some African and Asian countries in terms of HIV incidence.

But when it comes to public policy and HIV prevention sometimes a bad idea just captures the imagination and becomes, for lack of a better word, "fashionable" to fund. As with other bad ideas, this one will probably take a couple of years to run its course before a new hot topic arrives.

In the meantime, where are those other prevention dollars? No need to get rid of foreskins. Just fund programs that make men at risk - and particularly gay or bi men (whether uncircumcised or not) - feel that they are worth something which is at the core of a person's ability to protect themselves from HIV/AIDS.

UPDATE: Joe.My.God readers have left a few choice comments as well here.

My New York: Subway Condoms - New York to the core?

So, with much fanfare, the New York City Department of Health launched a free condom initiative today which happens to be St. Valentine's Day. I'm not so sure they were inspired by this but kudos to them.

Find out where to get some here.

The City, it must be said, had already instituted a free condom give away program, but they say that this is the first time that a city has commissioned its own condom brand. As for their claims that the condoms are "New York to the core?" Hm...

The Gothamist already pointed out that the letter coloring does not match all the true subway line colors (they also got some YouTube action of this morning's launch).

But proof is in the packaging: Turn the condom package around and you see that the "New York to the core" condom is actually a product of... Malaysia?

Cool thing is, I got 'til 2011 to use it! Yay!