I knew who I was this morning….
Julie Bracken posted a photo:
But I’ve changed a few times since then.
~Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland
Makeup and styling by the talented Kelayla of www.transvista.co.uk/
IMG_7253
8 Aug 18
Monthly Archives: January 2019
‘Chemsex First AID’ Book Is A Harm Reduction Approach To Treating Addiction
‘Chemsex First AID’ Book Is A Harm Reduction Approach To Treating Addiction
The harm reduction book is meant to give plain advice for those that “party and play” to help prevent HIV.
Chemsex — or the use of GHB, methamphetamine or mephedrone in sexual settings in the queer and trans community — provides a means for many to experience intimacy that is otherwise hindered by shame and stigma. But chemsex encounters bear risks and potential harms, exacerbated by this stigma, which are most often addressed — if at all —with a focus on prevention.
That’s why two London sexual health professionals wrote Chemsex First Aid, a booklet that spells out “how to react when things go wrong in a chemsex session,” according to one of its authors, Ignacio Labayen de Inza. Along with co-author David Stuart—who also provides ChemSex support services in London and who first coined the term “chemsex” in the early 2000s — de Inza identified a need for Chemsex First Aid because many chemsex-related care providers knew “what to do to prevent problems, but there was practically nothing until now about what to do when things are already going wrong.”
The booklet takes the harm reduction approach of recognizing that queer men practice chemsex, and will continue to do so. Three in 10 HIV-positive UK men who have sex with men (MSM), for example, engage in chemsex activities. Many who engage in chemsex find it a means to cope with the conflicts queerness poses for “toxic masculinity” and some “religious or cultural attitudes,” says de Inza. “Getting high on the right drugs can seem a great ‘solution’ to these problems. Chems provide a great disinhibition from these issues.”
The guide has four sections, respectively addressing: GHB/GBL-related emergencies; methamphetamine- and mephedrone-related emergencies; other emergencies that occur in chemsex environments; and a summary of first aid situations.
Many of the interventions proposed for chemsex drugs are similar to those suggested for opioids. For example, the booklet advises bystanders to look for problematic breathing and “firmly squeez[e] their trapezius muscle,” when assessing whether someone has fallen into “G-sleep,” a state of unconsciousness that could lead to death—similar to “nodding” in a potential opioid overdose. Working at “a sexual health clinic that has thousands of gay men who engage in chemsex every month coming through its doors,” de Inza has seen “hundreds who overdose monthly” from chemsex drugs.
The guide also considers withdrawal, particularly from GHB/GBL, and the risks of intravenous drug use, such as intravenous infection, HIV infection or introducing a large amount of air into a vein.
But chemsex also features unique risks and harms. Consent during a meth/meph high can be problematic, because of the drugs’ tendency to null inhibitions and ability to calculate risk. Additionally, meth and meph carry the risk of drug-induced psychosis. The guidelines advise that both issues require active support, and a negotiation between an individual’s agency and the harms caused to themselves or others.
Other chemsex situations potentially requiring first aid interventions include “lodged objects” in the anus, HIV infection, priapism (long-lasting, painful erections), and allergic reactions to substances cut into drugs.
For de Inza, Chemsex First Aid is a part of queer men’s “long history of activism… of sharing information and stories, and of looking out for each other.” The booklet joins a harm reduction ecosystem of both institutional resources and the “word-of-mouth amongst guys that engage in chemsex.” De Inza aimed “to highlight the best tips and advice for the most extreme of circumstances, the most potential[ly] fatal.”
“This was the inspiration behind this resource,” de Inza continues. “There are some seriously complicated judgement calls to be made in dangerous chemsexenvironments, that many health organizations struggle to get right. We had to create this resource for our communities.”
This article was originally published by Filter, a magazine covering drug use, drug policy and human rights. Follow Filter on Facebook or Twitter.
Written by By Sessi Kuwabara Blanchard
The post ‘Chemsex First AID’ Book Is A Harm Reduction Approach To Treating Addiction appeared first on Towleroad Gay News.
Rare Footage of New Order From The Early 80s Found: WATCH
Rare Footage of New Order From The Early 80s Found: WATCH
New Order was an indelible part of most queer kids’ lives who grew up in the 80s and 90s. Its music was such a part of the DNA of life in the 1980s that it’s hard to think of either existing without the other.
Hit songs like Bizarre Love Triangle suggested a different kind of love then the heteronormative one we knew.
New Order’s music was quick moving beats, layered with ballads distorted via electronic synthesizers–electronically amplifying their already haunting voices. In fact it was New Order’s innovative integration of post-punk with electronic and dance music that made them one of the most acclaimed and influential bands and producers.
Bernard Sumner, Peter Hook and Stephen Morris formed New Order after the 1980 suicide death of Joy Division lead singer Ian Curtis.
According to NPR, “The first of those [New Order]singles, ‘Ceremony,’ was actually written with Curtis prior to his suicide. It popped up as a single in advance of New Order’s 1981 debut album, Movement, which is about to receive the deluxe-reissue treatment; to commemorate the occasion, the band is circulating a little-seen performance of ‘Ceremony,’ recorded live at Manchester’s CoManCHE Student Union.”
Recorded on Feb. 6, 1981, the footage includes haunting footage of Curtis having previously been written, performed and demoed as Joy Division before his death.
“It’s a marvelous document of New Order’s early years — steeped in tragedy but alive with possibility” said NPR.
Watch it below.
The post Rare Footage of New Order From The Early 80s Found: WATCH appeared first on Towleroad Gay News.
Dr. Ruth Cites AIDS Crisis in Condemnation of One-Night Stands
Dr. Ruth Cites AIDS Crisis in Condemnation of One-Night Stands
While the 90-year-old sex therapist condones dating apps, she is taking a stand against one-night stands.
www.advocate.com/love-and-sex/2019/1/28/dr-ruth-cites-aids-crisis-condemnation-one-night-stands
Troye Sivan introduces the world to his ‘new BF,’ but is it just a showmance?
Troye Sivan introduces the world to his ‘new BF,’ but is it just a showmance?
Troye Sivan’s love life has Internet sleuths working overtime today.
Chadwick Boseman, Madonna, Alan Cumming, Pink, a Sneak Peek At The New Harley Quinn, and Dido’s New Single Is To Die For: HOT LINKS
Chadwick Boseman, Madonna, Alan Cumming, Pink, a Sneak Peek At The New Harley Quinn, and Dido’s New Single Is To Die For: HOT LINKS
PETTY AF “Are we going to need a congressional bouncer to keep Trump from delivering the State of the Union in the House chamber next week?” Trevor Noah asks.
PRESIDENT’S BLEND Former Starbucks’ Howard Schultz told 60 Minutes: “I am seriously thinking of running for president … I am not … in bed with a party,” says Schultz, who is considering running as a “centrist independent.”
Schultz would be America’s first Jewish President if elected.
YOU DIDN’T KNOW YOU NEEDED Dido until you listen to this live acoustic version of ‘Give You Up’, the first single from her upcoming album, Still On My Mind (out March 8th, 2019). It’s everything you need to end Monday on a high note.
UP AND CUMMER In honor of Alan‘s 54th birthday, he hosted a Studio 54 themed party and got totally decked out in a leopard print suit and wig!
“I had the best Studio 54 themed birthday party at @thewatertowerbar of the @wburghotel last night, and then we headed over to @clubcumming for more japes! ‘Twas a good night!” Alan wrote on his Instagram.
WAKANDA FOREVER Black Panther will be free when it returns to theaters.
Black Panther is first comic book movie to be nominated for a Best Picture Oscar and, as such, the box office phenom will return to theaters for a one-week run next month. Better yet? In honor of Black History Month, all the screenings will be free. They kick off this Friday, February 1, and roll on through February 7 at 250 AMC locations throughout the country. In conjunction with the announcement, Disney has also revealed that it will donate a $1.5 million grant to the United Negro College Fund.
Get more information on the screenings here.
.@theblackpanther takes home the Actor® for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture! #sagawards
Great and moving speech from @chadwickboseman pic.twitter.com/Nw2UGbs712
— TNT Drama (@tntdrama) January 28, 2019
WHERE ELDERS ARE ALLIES LGBT Navajos Discover Unexpected Champions: Their Grandparents “It’s not unusual that Navajo grandparents are accepting of being LGBT while parents are not. Historians say federally run boarding schools and other assimilation tactics taught a generation of Navajos that same-sex relationships are wrong. says NPR.
“We are seeing clearly the aftereffects of what colonialism can look like and how it really shifted our values as Navajo people,” Nelson says. “Whereas at the time, if you were LGBTQ and growing up in Navajo traditional families, families celebrated that fact. They said that we were sacred. They said that we had sacred roles.”
But returning to understandings that predate colonialism has helped the families of LGBT Navajos. Traditionalists believe that the “two spirited,” as they’re sometimes called, are powerful and that not all humans can be classified as male or female.
Navajo historian Jennifer Denetdale says the Diné creation story includes a nádleehí.“Today we take the nádleehí as a being who was what we would call an intersex person today, meaning that this is a person who has sexual organs of the male and the female and is considered to be a third gender in Navajo society,” Denetdale says.
When the first man and the first woman weren’t getting along, it was the nádleehí who intervened.”
GOTHAM ORNITHOLOGY Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) is the upcoming DC film that places Arkham’s most adorable psychotic psychiatrist in the centre of the action. DC and Warner Bros. have been smart enough to know that Margot Robbie’s performance is one of the things about the DCEU that unequivocally worked and deserves to be given room to flourish. With Robbie also producing and Cathy Yan directing, the film has been billed as a vibrant heist movie but little else is known. It is assumed that the story will follow Harley as she joins up with the most famous members of the Birds of Prey – Black Canary, Huntress and Renee Montoya – to save the young Cassandra Cain from the crime lord Black Mask. A very brief sneak peek at the cast offers the shortest glimpses of Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Huntress, Jurnee Smollett-Bell as Black Canary, Rosie Perez as Renee, Ewan McGregor as Black Mask, Chris Messina and his new bleach blonde hair as Victor Zsasz, and of course, more Harley Quinn.
Now she’s dressed in tinsel and ready for Coachella.
POSITIVELY GEEKY Josh Robbins over at I’m Still Josh introduces us to “the most unique HIV advocacy online is a 4 hour show called: Jason Is A Social Scientist.”
It’s like if Adult Swim did a show about HIV.
“People often wonder what my show is about…the premise is deceptively simple…I take my HIV medication live on the book of face in front of friends, family, and strangers…I embrace stigma of all kinds including substance use mental illness and polyamory…hopefully dispelling ignorance and finding support.
If I were to have people take only one thing away from this show…then it would be the knowledge that HIV is preventable…if you are HIV negative there is a once a day pill that works like a highly effective chemical condom it is called #PrEP or preexposure protocol [sic]…and for people who are HIV+ treatment is prevention…by taking my medication everyday and maintaining an undetectable viral load…I am keeping myself and the people around me healthy… undetectable equals untransmissible #UequalsU…you could fuck me bareback all day long and never catch HIV from me…the future is now and it is 1969…free love baby RAmen”
IMPRESARIOPink‘s smash hit 2001 single “Get The Party Started” was originally intended for a different singer: Madonna. Linda Perry, the song’s writer and producer, revealed the surprising news in an interview with Rolling Stone.
“’Get the Party Started’ was just me figuring out what all this stuff does. I came up with that beat, laid it down, found all these weird chords and sounds and put the horns…I picked up a microphone and said, ‘I’m just going to say every clichéd line I can think of.’ And I came up with, ‘Get the party started on a Saturday night’ and wrote a bunch of stuff down. I called up my manager afterwards and said, ‘I just wrote a damn hit.’ It was too easy,” Linda explained of the making of the song.
“I sent it to Madonna and she passed, but a week later, Alecia [a.k.a. Pink] called. She left me this really crazy message how she would come find me if I didn’t call her back. I saw what she looked like — she was a bling-bling girl — and I said, ‘I think you have the wrong Linda Perry.’ She’s like, ‘Is this the Linda Perry who sang ‘Dear Mister President’ in 4 Non Blondes?’ I’m like, ‘Yeah.’ She’s like, ‘Well, I have the right person.’ I had just written ‘Get the Party Started’ and I go, ‘Well, I’ve got something I wrote last week,’ and sent it to her. I guess she sent it to LA Reid and they said, ‘Okay we have our first single.’”
REMEMBER THE GREATEST GENERATION? Tom Brokaw apologized for his comments about assimilation & “brown grandbabies.”
BURNING QUESTIONS “Given Russian interference in the last U.S. presidential election, and given that Bernie Sanders’ campaign was a target of that meddling, one might imagine that Sanders would have spent the last two years leading the charge to prevent further election interference by Russia and/or any other foreign adversaries. He is a sitting Senator, after all. He has the power to introduce legislation to support federal election integrity measures.
And he has way more visibility than the average senator to call attention to and generate interest in and rally support for such legislation” says Melissa McEwan.
OUR COVER BOY Is Yaio-za!
The post Chadwick Boseman, Madonna, Alan Cumming, Pink, a Sneak Peek At The New Harley Quinn, and Dido’s New Single Is To Die For: HOT LINKS appeared first on Towleroad Gay News.
ι enjoy вeιng alone, мy ѕoυl ιѕ aт peace ιn тнe ѕιlence
LGBTQ Asylum Seekers and Refugees Must Be Welcome Here
LGBTQ Asylum Seekers and Refugees Must Be Welcome Here
Post submitted by HRC Foundation Outreach & Research Coordinator Katalina Hadfield
The recent government shutdown highlighted the humanitarian crisis facing asylum seekers at the U.S.-Mexico border, which is part of this administration’s ongoing, disgraceful policies targeting asylum seekers and refugees around the world.
Over the last two years the Trump-Pence administration has more than halved the number of refugees per year it is allowing to resettle in the U.S. and has put thousands of refugee resettlement applications on hold. The administration’s “travel ban” on people from seven Muslim-majority countries has created an uncertain future for thousands.
According to a 2017 report from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), “more people are living today as refugees or displaced persons than at any time since the end of World War II.” Yet, 2017 marked the lowest number of refugees admitted to the U.S. in more than 40 years.
Many LGBTQ asylum seekers are among those seeking safety and shelter in the U.S., which must continue to be a beacon of hope for many around the world.
These three regions are among those that urgently need our support:
The “Northern Triangle” of Central America
El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras have high levels of violence and political instability — and life in this region can be particularly treacherous for LGBTQ people. “I asked for asylum because of prosecution in my country,” said Karolina López, who left Mexico in 2009, in an interview with Remezcla. “A gang raped me and wanted to mutilate my genitals, so I asked for political asylum in the United States.” Traveling through Mexico can be particularly difficult for LGBTQ migrants, who frequently report suffering sexual and gender-based violence while crossing through Mexico.
Chechnya
Earlier this month, a statement from the Russian LGBT Network confirmed reports that anti-LGBTQ violence has resurged in Chechnya, with approximately 40 people detained and two killed in a “new wave of persecution” that started at the end of 2018. Reports of anti-LGBTQ persecution began in 2017. Chechen authorities detained and tortured more than 100 gay and bisexual men in the region, killing as many as 20. While LGBTQ Chechens have been offered asylum in many parts of Europe and Canada, activists state that the U.S. has yet to accept a single Chechen refugee and some Russian advocates have been told that U.S. visas are out of reach for LGBTQ Chechens. In June 2018, HRC joined a survivor of the brutal crackdown and Kimahli Powell, executive director of Rainbow Railroad, to meet with White House and State Department officials to address the ongoing crimes against humanity occurring in Chechnya and to share the survivor’s story.
7/ In June, @HRC interviewed “AD”— a survivor of the brutal crackdown on LGBTQ people in Chechnya. He shared with us that men in police uniforms handcuffed and threw him in the trunk of a car. He assumed it would be his last day alive. #EyesOnChechnya t.co/agSx0PyKye
— Human Rights Campaign (@HRC) July 16, 2018
Kenya
Between 200 and 750 people living in the Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya identify as LGBTQ. The camp was created in 1992 to accommodate South Sudanese refugees fleeing the war, but it has now grown to house refugees from across sub-Saharan Africa, including many LGBTQ refugees who have fled neighboring Uganda. But even in the camp, LGBTQ refugees report rampant anti-LGBTQ violence. In June 2018, LGBTQ refugees were attacked and received death threats after holding a Pride. In December 2018, LGBTQ refugees were moved to safe houses in Nairobi after they were brutally attacked by a mob and by police demonstrating outside a UNHCR office in Kakuma to ask for better protections.
The Trump-Pence administration’s treatment of immigrants, asylum seekers and refugees is shameful. From ripping apart families at the southern border to turning away others fleeing violence and persecution, the U.S. has made itself complicit in the crimes that marginalized people face in their home countries. It is time for Congress to restore this country’s position as a global leader for equality and send a signal to the world that our doors are open to all who seek a better life for themselves and their families.
All Yours
I am proof we are not defined by our past
I am proof we are not defined by our past
I posed for the NOH 8 Campaign because of being bullied as a child. I was either too overweight, or too gay as a child, or never good enough. Later because of the hate I endured I turned to drugs as an an adult to cope. I posed to make my voice heard of the damage hate and bullying can do. I’ve been clean for over a year now and I am proof we are not defined by our past. Love to
www.noh8campaign.com/article/i-am-proof-we-are-not-defined-by-our-past
