Big Pharma is indeed NOT funding research and development into new prevention technoloigies - this is not an opinion, this is a fact. It is not in their interest , and that is proven by the lack of investment. While companies like Gilead (how is that for a face and a name) are allowing some of their products - such as Tenofovir - to be used in pre-exposure prophylaxis trials and topical microbicide trials - by and large no one else is kicking in with anything, namely cold hard cash, to find ways to protect ourselves from HIV. This is fact - not opinion.

As for an “almost slam” against the south - I was attempting to dispel the notion that there is more HIV/AIDS prevalence down there because the natives are just getting jiggy with it much more frequently. In FACT, that is not the case. And it is a FACT to say that a big reason there is higher prevalence of HIV in some populations in the south is because of lack of access to healthcare. This is not opinion - and you may not like it. But it is a fact that many, many vulnerable folks - from all over the country - access healthcare by going to the ER only when they are very very sick. Many of them don’t find out they have HIV in the ER, they find out they have AIDS. This is not a moral faling of these people - it is a moral failing of our healthcare infrastructure that allows about 49 million people to be uninsured, and millions more to be under-insured.

I am not attempting to “vilify” anyone or anything - my words and actions are about speaking the truth I know , speaking it loudly, frequently, and to power - and working to affect change every single day. The world I envision is one where all people have equal access to quality healthcare (it is my view that this is a universal human right) and where we stop blaming individuals and groups of people (like black gay men, for instance) for high rates of HIV and other STDs and truly address the syndemic, structural issues that put into place the toxic ingredients that cause such disparities.

Homophobia, racism, poverty, mental health and substance abuse problems, childhood sexual abuse, partner violence, lack of access to health care - these are some of the syndemic issues that help HIV continue to destroy lives in gay communities in this country - and among gay and other men who have sex with men around the world. According to UNAIDS - only 10% of the world’s gay and MSM population received HIV prevention services in 2006 - yet in much of the world, it is our populations who are bearing the brunt of this nasty, brutish disease.

Back in the land of freedom, milk and honey - It is a GD crime that so many gay men (black gay men, white gay men, latino gay men, API gay men, native gay men) are infected with HIV in our country- and the fault is not so simple as pointing at their individual weaknesses as human beings. The CDC has 49 approved and recommended evidence-based interventions for HIV prevention targeted at different communities/populations. Guess how many are specifically designed for gay men? 4. Guess how many are specifically designed for black gay men? 0.

What’s wrong with this picture?

What’s wrong with a picture in which folks are encouraged ad nauseum to be tested for HIV and know their status - but there are a lack of services for those that find out they have HIV? What’s wrong with a picture that is all too happy to provide prevention services to those who have acquired HIV - to stem the tide - but ignores the HIV negative people at highest risk?

What is the overall percentage of gay men in our country? Maybe 3 or 4 percent? And yet we make up about 50% of the epidemic. This disparity is what I vilify - it is this lack that I want to call to attention and make some change happen around. It is absolutely not acceptable. In some cities, one in two black gay men are infected with HIV - [see the recent CDC study of MSM in 5 urban areas] - it is this startling, horrifying statistic - one of the very worst stats in the global HIV epidemic, rivaling the very worst in Southern Africa - which I vilify. And which I am committed to change.

None of this has to do with my personal bias.

If all populations in this country had equal, unfettered access to good, quality healthcare - if our systems were not absolutely controlled by insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies - we would be in a much better place.

If you would like to continue your learning - please join me in reading the excellent book called “Unequal Opportunity - Health Disparities Affecting Gay and Bisexual Men in the United States.” And you may also be interested in Elizabeth Pisani’s book - “The Wisdom of Whores - Brothels, Bureaucrats and the Business of AIDS” - which critically analyzes the billions of dollars poured into the global AIDS.inc - and finds some serious deficits in the accounting and allocation.

Ahhhhhhhh…….

And to the “sexual diversity community” in Chicago - I hope to see you all at Sidetrack next week to talk about the powerful role of alcohol in all our lives - for good and for not so good - and how we all can have a healthier engagement with it - as individuals, as community members, as organizations, as businesses. The Windy City Times did a fantastic story on this very topic in this week’s issue - which, alas, is not yet online. Title is “”Alcohol - Use or Abuse” and the writer Amy Wooten interviews a whole host of folks, including Sidetrack owner Art Johnston, substance abuse and mental health professionals from Howard Brown, Center on Halsted, Valeo - really good stuff. And a really great way to kick off a discussion this community has never had - and will need to continue having over the coming months and years if it is going to be more than “just talk.”

MWAH

*The fact:* some “large” pharmaceutical companies aren’t funding/following prevention/cures and instead funding/following detection/treatment of AIDS
*The opinion:* That this makes them negligent, profiteering, “evil”, and people who question this notion are undereducated about AIDS prevention efforts and the challenges they face.
*My thoughts:* I’m sorry that you aren’t getting the money you want, I appreciate what you are trying to do, but still I don’t think that big pharma is “at fault” rather than just “not interested”. Furthermore… I don’t think “throw money at it” is the solution to the problem, at least not pharma money. The government definitely needs to re-up and over-up the amount of funding going to universities and independent clinics for aids research (all the great vaccines and medical discoveries were from little shops that just happened to discover something by accident)… but ultimately the Big Pharma companies are going to be the one to turn one cure into a billion when it comes about, and that’s what they are better at.

*The fact:” There is a prevalence of HIV/STIs in “the south” compared to “the north”
*The assumed fact (opinion states as fact):” This is due to the lack of health-care infrastructure in “the south”
*Possible other facts:* Lots of “down low” due to more oppressive anti-homosexual sentiments in “the south” leading to riskier behaviors; Lack of prevention education (although this may be part of the health-care infrastructure);
*The opinion:* That global health-care would solve all this.
My Thoughts: I think global healthcare would make a doctors visit like a DMV visit, and while it may issue some PSA type education about STD prevention, there need to be cultural and educational changes to help fix things and the US government is just not efficient at bringing those things around. I’d wager that most gay black men aren’t even willing to admit they are gay until HIV or some other STI forces them to.

*The opinion*: None of this has to do with my personal bias.
*My Thoughts*: You’ve just described a crusade, that has everything to do with personal bias.

I appreciate your message but your semantics are muddled. That’s what bugs me, you tend to throw out the evidence that supports your opinion and then label it as some sort of self evident reality when I know (and you probably do to) there are other factors. They are over-simplifications held with zeal run-amok and any other opinions or facts are thrown out because they don’t support the theory you hold dear.

It’s the closed minded preaching for open-mindedness. It’s the cemented demanding flexibility.

Thanks Pete!

epolonius, you sound like your suffering from AIDS hysteria. Get over it and move on.

It is endlessly fascinating how a stranger can read my mind - and ascribe all kinds of bullshit to what I say and write. Hear hear for the Second Amendment - and the right to be nuts!

Oh lord and here i was thinking to come here and say that i find Pickett so handsome and i read all the drama, lol……oh well, some crush for u Pickett :oP

*sigh*

It’s endlessly fascinating how people on this site assume I am attacking them and not their opinions.

It’s endlessly fascinating that by the second round, people on this site start ignoring what I said and start attacking me personally, after saying I attacked them personally.

IEF that I always manage to ferret out the one thing people hate to hear, and more often than not no-one can refute what I’m saying… only repeat what I originally questioned, louder.

Thx Valhum! It’s nice to feel good energy…

Anytime Jim

Fausto,
I just got back from a concert where they played music out of his bell tower (carillon) and you sit on the grass around it and listen. Most of it sounds pretty atrocious, but then I heard a familiar tune.
It was that Robert Schumann song that you made your own words to, the whole time I just kept thinking :
Wake up
Wake up
Wake up wake up wake up
get out of bed you sleepy head
get up get upp

all rise all rise
and rub your weary eyes

etc.etc….

I still have the episode where you sang that on my ipod and listen to the first few minutes just for that song : )

Gonzalo Lopez. My magnificant mexican. Why do you ask? lol

LOL! Maybe cuz you mention him in every post?

I wrote the lyrics to bother my sister when we were teens… ah the cleverness of a young persons mind!

We TORTURED each other with it.

Pass on the love-

Alternate Lyrics to “The Happy Farmer” by Robert Schuman
by Fausto Fernós, age 12 (estimated age)

Wake up! Wake up!
Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!
Get out of bed, you sleepy head,
get up, get up!

Arise, arise,
and rub those weary eyes!

Wake up! Wake up!
Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!
Get out of bed, you sleepy head,
Get upppppppppp (scream real loud here)
Get up!

Big MWAH to you RCKTMAN! Glad you will be at the forum next week We would love to put some ofy your pics on LifeLube - that is, if you are planning to bring your Instamatic…

*huggles teh hedgehog*

I love how in the New Yorker picture there is bacon cooking in the background

Google “hypacritical”, the first find is a Latino Pride site. I rest my case.

I know exactly what racism is. I think you misunderstand my point.

I’m not calling Faulsto racist, just a ill thought out comment. I doubt he is capable of that. Think about it: If you pull a black man aside to see if his pants are hanging off his butt its likely seen as racist by the black man. But if it was done to the white man, its not.

My point more is: Non white ethnicities can do something, and get away with it, but if a white person did that same thing, its racist.

A Polynesian choir is diverse and a celebration of culture. A caucasian choir would be seen as racist. I know what racist is, a lot of people don’t. Understand what I am saying?

Spelling…errors…………destroying credibility. Must….proofread………!!

I totally got the sarcasm and I think I even laughed out loud (literally) when you said it, Fausto. I don’t understand what the big deal is.

Congratulations on winning the Black Pride Award!
lol you don’t have to be African American to win the award, i’m glad you guys won, you are def. more deserving then some black queens I know!

barbieboy07 - darling, are you old enough to come to our booze forum on wednesday?

That’s a damn shame. So yeah, put in your two cents on the podcast - and anytime you want on LifeLube’s comments as well. There is a post up right now promoting the forum - you could share a cent or two right there right now if you wanted….Your perspective as a young person is really important.

input your comment here…

Marc - I agree with you about 95%. I do think my beef is with a specific minority of people who are racist on whites and feel everything done to them is racist. Which is no one on this podcast. Honestly, it’s only a problem I have REALLY seen in Utah. And a little bit in the rap music world. But I greatly dislike rap music. Anyway, no harm no foul.

Re: Baggy Pants and the Police, Words can’t begin to describe this situation:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbLYf_tmWYE

And I LOVE doggy chow!

i think it requires more hands on experience stevenvanl

i think the cover is just like sherly phelps
its soo radical that mainstream america will just see how close minded people really are and move away from them
so technically this can actually help, in a weird kinda way