What You Need To Know About Chemsex

Mainstream awareness about "chemsex,” a little-discussed public health issue in the gay community, is on the rise. Programs like BBC Radio 4’s July segment on chemsex in London and Vice Media’s upcoming documentary on chemsex in England and Ireland shed light on what some say is a growing phenomenon of men using hardcore club drugs to fuel hours- or days-long sex sessions.

Chemsex generally involves taking substance like GHB, crystal meth or mephedrone (known as meow meow) to enhance or prolong sexual activity, primarily among a subset of city-dwelling gay men. Crystal meth and meow meow stimulate sexual arousal and euphoria, while GHB removes inhibitions.

Researchers suspect that the practice could be driving London’s rising HIV rates among young men, but the practice is so covert and the population of participants so small that not enough research exists about the topic.  Read more via Huffington Post

UK: Making business the frontline in the fight against HIV

In the UK, HIV represents one of the most serious health conditions; there are an estimated 107,800 people living with HIV, one quarter of whom are estimated to be unaware of their infection. The main routes of transmission vary, but infection rates remain stubbornly and disproportionately higher in some key populations such as men who have sex with men, migrant populations, injecting drug users and sex workers.

One way to reach those who either don’t want to or don’t feel able to use sexual health clinics is to deliver services where those who need them are--creating opportunities for healthier “settings”, or more supportive environments for health. A bar, club, or sauna can be developed into a healthy place to reach target populations.

In recent projects business owners successfully engaged with HIV prevention and other health promotion interventions. They provided customers with access to condoms and lubricants, HIV/STI information on prevention and treatment, and offered HIV/STI testing. In some cases, business owners went even further. Important changes were made to workplace policies to support HIV issues. Staff got sexual health training so they were better able to support customers, while staff and clients were assured non-disclosure and non-discrimination through supportive policies and practices. Read more via The Conversation 

France to lift ban on gay men donating blood

France will lift a ban on blood donations by gay and bisexual men starting next year, officials announced, joining a growing list of countries that have loosened or scrapped such restrictions, which many see as outdated vestiges of the 1980s AIDS crisis.

“Giving one’s blood is an act of generosity and of civic responsibility that cannot be conditioned by sexual orientation,” the health minister, Marisol Touraine, said. “While respecting the absolute security of patients, it is a taboo, a discrimination that is being lifted today.”

Gay advocacy groups in France welcomed the end of the ban but criticized new provisions that would continue to treat homosexual and heterosexual blood donors differently. Some critics, while welcoming the lifting of the lifetime ban, say that a 12-month deferral period is not medically justified, mainly because the so-called window period for HIV is much shorter than 12 months. They assert that the restriction amounts to a de facto lifetime ban for many gay men, since it requires that they be celibate for a year before being able to donate blood. 

Read more via the New York Times
 

Netherlands: Ban lifted on gay male blood; advocates critical of new restrictions

A permanent ban on blood donations from homosexual men was lifted in place of new restrictions that state gay men may only donate blood if they have not had sex with another man over the last 12 months. The decision was announced by Edith Schippers, the Minister of Health, after she made her department’s research on the subject available to members of Parliament.

Because the ban still restricts sexually-active gay men from donating blood, even if they only practice safe sex, LGBT advocate Tanja Ineke found the new policy “very disappointing.” In an interview with broadcaster AT5, Ineke, the head of non-profit COC Nederland, said, “The policy is only of practical importance for bisexual men in long-term monogamous relationships with a woman.”  Read more via NL Times

US: New PrEP campaign targets men who like to 'party'

A new series of public service announcements is aimed at getting effective HIV prevention into the hands of those who are most at-risk of contracting the virus: men who enjoy recreational sex and drug use, but may be ashamed to address those habits with a doctor. 

As creator Kenny Neal Shults explains: "When we sat down to consider the best audiences for the campaigns we knew only one thing for certain: We wanted to address gay men who might fall under the puritanical 'Truvada Whore' classification. That is, we wanted to reach men whose sexual and recreational drug behaviors both put them at a greater risk for both contracting HIV and being stigmatized for even considering going on PrEP." Read more via the Advocate

'Transformational' HIV injection every eight weeks could replace daily pills

An injection every 8 weeks could replace the current HIV treatment of daily pills, experts have revealed.
A combination of two long-acting HIV medicines – rilpivirine and cabotegravir – injected every four or eight weeks have been just as effective at suppressing the AIDS-causing virus as a daily oral regimen of three HIV medicines in phase 2 clinical trials.

If successfully developed and approved by regulators, the new treatment could offer people living with HIV who are virologically suppressed the option to switch from the standard daily regimen of three-drug therapy to a long acting all-injectable regimen that could potentially maintain viral suppression with just six or twelve shots of each drug per year. Read more via Gay Star News

Tanzania: Fighting social stigma to prevent HIV spread

Staggering AIDS death toll has forced conservative Tanzania to help gay people long rejected by its health system. In a country where obtaining legal rights for gay people is not likely to happen soon, they are using a public health crisis to demand recognition. Tanzania has the 4th-highest number of deaths from AIDS in the world, and the HIV infection rate among gay men is more than four times the national average - yet stigma prevents many from seeking treatment.

As one man said: "In the government hospitals, we face discrimination. Instead of treating us, they'll call people over: 'Come and see, we have a gay here.' Then they'll say, 'We can't treat you. Get out of here.'"

While gay men are rarely, if ever, prosecuted under the law in Tanzania, the social stigma it perpetuates can be deadly. A new program is working to change that. Read more via Al Jazeera

Elton John partners with PEPFAR, will petition world leaders on HIV, AIDS treatment

Rock star Elton John is working to use his global fame and charitable foundations to help overturn homophobic laws around the world. John and his husband, David Furnish, unveiled a new $10 million partnership with the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), to increase access to medication for people with HIV and AIDS in countries that are prejudiced toward the LGBT community.
 
John noted: "We're seeing an alarming growth in infections amongst these communities [where] we find that LGBT people are stigmatized where they live." He added that the stigmatizing laws a relics from the Commonwealth and said, "These laws can be changed very easily by the Queen saying, 'change the law.' I haven't approached her about that yet."  Watch the interview and read more via CNBC

Sweden’s Inclusive Rape Care Model

A hospital in Stockholm is understood to be first in the world to set up an emergency department specifically for male rape victims. The clinic at Södersjukhuset opened as part of a strategy to ensure "gender equal" patient care.

Sweden has the highest rape rate in Europe, a statistic that gained global prominence in 2010, when WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was first accused of sex crimes in the Nordic nation, allegations which he still strongly denies.

In 2014, a study by sexual education organization RFSU suggested that in most municipalities across Sweden, men were uncertain where they could get emergency help following a rape. Inger Björklund, a spokesperson for the group told The Local in June that it was looking forward to the opening of Stockholm's new facility.
 
"There are myths about masculinity that make it difficult for men who have been sexually traumatized to talk about their experiences," she said. Read More via Local

US: Epigenetic 'tags' linked to homosexuality in men

The biology of sexual orientation has been one of the most vexing — and politically charged — questions in human genetics. For the first time, researchers have found associations between homosexuality and markers attached to DNA that can be influenced by environmental factors. 

Researchers looked at epigenetic markers — chemical changes to DNA that affect how genes are expressed, but not the information they contain. These 'epi-marks' can be inherited, but can also be altered by environmental factors such as smoking, and are not always shared by identical twins.

However, several researchers have criticized the study’s methods and some statisticians have said that the study incorrectly presented its results as statistically significant. Study co-author Tuck Ngun has disputed this and other statistical criticisms. He has said he and his collaborators will issue a statement. Read More via Nature 

US: Why is no one talking about meth and gay men besides Danny Pintauro?

Former child star Danny Pintauro recently told Oprah Winfrey of his past crystal methamphetamine use and how it directly led to his HIV diagnosis. While the world tries to wrap its head around the Who’s the Boss? cherub’s hard-core drug dependency, it’s clear our society still fails to see how intertwined gay life and crystal methamphetamine is.

While we would never allow the erasure of the LGBT story from the official reportage about the spread of AIDS, we are passive about the exclusion of the LGBT community from the facts about crystal meth. 

The International Antiviral Society-USA reported in 2006 that the use of methamphetamine is five to 10x more common in urban gay and bisexual men than in the general U.S. population. Counselors at Gay Men of African Descent, a New York-based service agency, say between 20 to 40% of their clients are addicted to the drug. 

Yet depictions of meth on film often portray users as poor, uneducated, and straight. Read More via the Advocate

Australia: My intersex body--more than an object of fascination or repulsion to be ‘fixed’

Cosmetic gender-assigning operations on children with ambiguous genitalia can have devastating long-term implications. As genetic screening of embryos increases, we can expect variations like 5-alpha-reductase deficiency to disappear from the gene pool.

To be clear, intersex is not common, but it’s not as rare as one might expect – the frequency is as high as 1 or 2 in every 100 individuals. In fact, it is now thought all humans start as intersex in utero before typically developing towards male or female phenotypes.   Read More via the Independent