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: New genetic discovery for intersex people questioned by national intersex community group

A new genetic condition has been discovered that will help form another piece of the puzzle when it comes to understanding why some people are born intersex. However, Australia’s peak body representing the intersex community has questioned why the research was done without the support of intersex-led organisations, and criticised it as another example of stigmatising intersex as “disorder”.

People who are intersex have reproductive organs, sexual anatomy, or chromosome patterns that don’t fit the typical binary definition of male (XY) or female (XX). Researchers from the Hudson Institute of Medical Research in Victoria led a study that showed a mutated form of the FGFR2 gene can also cause XY sex reversal.

Morgan Carpenter, the president of Organisation Intersex International Australia, believes the “disordering” of intersex has led to accelerated biomedicalisation: “Resources and funding go to research like this, but not to community-based support or long-term follow up and testing has clear uses to de-select embryos and foetuses with intersex traits.” Read More via Star Observer

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 

Australia: Indigenous community lacks resources to prevent LGBTI suicide

Indigenous-run mental health services are struggling to attract funding for suicide prevention programs, according to Aboriginal mental health workers. Indigenous people are twice as likely as other Australians to take their own life.

In some areas young Aboriginal people take their own lives at 7x the national trend. Mental health advocate Dameyon Bonson said the situation was getting worse for LGBTI communities: "As a gay Aboriginal person myself, I [had] just got used to there not being any resources," he said.

Mr Bonson used crowd-funding to raise $26,000 for the awareness project via donations from the public. Indigenous mental health advocates said grassroots organisations should not be left to do important work without government support.  Read More via ABC

US: Dating apps fire back at billboards linking STD spread

The AIDS Healthcare Foundation is defending an ad campaign in Los Angeles that links popular dating apps with the spread of sexual transmitted diseases. The group has sponsored billboards and bus benches that are aimed at reminding users about the risks of casual sex and offering free STD tests.

"In many ways, location-based mobile dating apps are becoming a digital bathhouse for millennials wherein the next sexual encounter can literally just be a few feet away — as well as the next STD," Whitney Engeran-Cordova, senior public health director for the foundation, said in a statement.

Tinder sent a cease and desist letter claiming the campaign falsely associates the dating app with the spread of venereal diseases: "These unprovoked and wholly unsubstantiated accusations are made to irreparably damage Tinder's reputation in an attempt to encourage others to take an HIV test offered by your organization," a lawyer for Tinder wrote.

The foundation sent a letter to Tinder denying that it disparaged the company and saying it would not remove the reference to the app.  Read More via AP

US: For black gay men, HIV is a perfect storm

Over the course of my career as an HIV/AIDS epidemiologist, my peers and I have documented and helped answer a public health mystery affecting black gay men in the United States. Namely, why are HIV infection rates so high among this population, compared to two other communities that comprise the overwhelming majority of HIV cases in the nation: black Americans and gay men in general?

The statistics are hard to ignore and even harder to fathom. Gay men make up only 1.4% of the total black population in the U.S., yet they account for an astounding 53% of new HIV infections in the black community. And while new HIV infection rates have decreased among black women and injecting drug users, infections continue to rise among black gay and bisexual men. In addition, although gay men are 40x more likely to get HIV than the general population, that figure rises sharply to 72x more likely among black gay men.

There is, of course, no single factor that has led to black gay men being one of the groups most disproportionately affected by HIV in the U.S. Instead, it is a multifaceted “perfect storm” of problems involving social, cultural, and economic forces interacting in a variety of ways. Read More via the Advocate

South Africa: Young sexual minorities face increased HIV risk at university

In South Africa, young men who have sex with men are increasingly exploring their sexuality at university, without always understanding the HIV and other health risks they are taking. Yet there are few programmes and awareness campaigns address that focus on young men who have sex with men to address these issues.

A study across 14 higher education institutions involving sexual minorities, found risky sexual behaviour is increasing the risk of HIV transmission among these population groups. The study found that young gay and bisexual students are coming out of the closet, particularly in tertiary education institutions where they are more likely to meet their counterparts. But it is important to understand that not all men who have sex with men identify as gay. The study found that some men who identify as heterosexual engage in unprotected sex with other men, as well as having unprotected sex with female partners.

Based on its findings the study calls for more programmes at education institutions, and greater involvement of male students who have sex with men in such programmes, to help reduce the risk of HIV transmission. At the University of Western Cape a programme for men who have sex with men, as well as people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or intersex (LGBTI) is improving the lives of many students.   Read more via Key Correspondents

WHO: Treat all people living with HIV, offer antiretrovirals as additional prevention choice for people at "substantial" risk

Anyone infected with HIV should begin antiretroviral treatment as soon after diagnosis as possible, WHO announced Wednesday. With its "treat-all" recommendation, WHO removes all limitations on eligibility for antiretroviral therapy (ART) among people living with HIV; all populations and age groups are now eligible for treatment.

The expanded use of antiretroviral treatment is supported by recent findings from clinical trials confirming that early use of ART keeps people living with HIV alive, healthier and reduces the risk of transmitting the virus to partners. Read More via WHO 

UN: Obama notes LGBT rights in U.N. General Assembly speech

President Obama on Monday made a broad reference to LGBT rights during his speech to the U.N. General Assembly: “In this country, everybody can contribute, everybody can participate no matter who they are, or what they look like, or who they love,” said Obama. “That’s what makes us strong.”

Obama devoted a significant portion of his speech to the Syrian civil war that began more than four years ago. He described the Islamic State — which has executed at least 30 men accused of engaging in sodomy in Syria and Iraq — as “an apocalyptic cult.” Obama also criticized Russian President Vladimir Putin for his support of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and an agreement between the war-torn country, Iraq and Iran to share intelligence about the Sunni extremist group. Read More via Washington Blade

UN: Secretary-General on LGBT rights: “Leave no one behind”

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon addressed a high-level event of the LGBT Core Group at the United Nations, on the theme, "Leaving No-One Behind: Equality & Inclusion in the Post-2015 Development Agenda".

excerpt: "In too many countries, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people are among the poorest, most marginalized members of society. We need more data to get a clear picture – but we already know that gay affluence is largely a myth.

Studies show that gay and lesbian people suffer disproportionate discrimination and abuse. They are rejected by their families… kicked out of their homes … and pushed out of school. Too many of our LGBT brothers and sisters are jobless, homeless and struggling to survive." Read his full remarks