| Safe-sex activist Bob Bowers |
By Matthew E. Pilecki -
Not a Death Sentence: Mixed Blessing
"I don’t think folks really view it as a death sentence anymore, and that’s good in some regards, but then that lends for an incredible amount of apathy and complacency around it," Bowers told EDGE. "I really break down this term of chronic and manageable and I show [students] my medications, the handful of pills I take daily. I guess then they really start to grasp that this is not a cake walk and that there really are some grave challenges. I think one of the most often asked questions is how much the medications are. Without being complicated, I expressed to them it’s one thing to know your status but what good is it if you don’t have access to the medication."
The images in the media surrounding HIV/AIDS have changed dramatically over the past twenty years-from the Grim Reaper bowling over stacks of skeletons to the healthy face of Magic Johnson. But Bowers believes that there needs to be a better balance of both images to better portray reality.
"I think we have a responsibility to not only show the beautiful faces but to have the faces that we witnessed in the 1980s out there as well," Bowers said. "Not for the sake of fear but for the sake of reality. That’s kind of just the tip of the iceberg. You’re only seeing the beautiful people that have a movie or have an angle but that’s not representative of everyone whether they are gay, straight, black or white."
By empowering students through knowledge about HIV/AIDS, Bowers is confident that he can encourage better choices and end some of the stigma surrounding those that are HIV positive. As a heterosexual man, Bowers asserts that the disease can affect anyone and by the end of his presentations he feels as though students understand that it is not just a gay disease. But when Bowers mentions that he still has a healthy sex life with his wife, students begin to question.
"While they may be accepting and supportive you can just see it," Bowers said. "I have a good time with it too. I’m like, ’Hey man I hit it more than you do. What are you talking about? I ain’t dead yet.’ It really helps to burst a lot of that stigma and it shows me that there’s still an incredible amount of stigma. That while they will support someone with AIDS, they definitely wouldn’t sleep with them. The irony is that my first wife felt better knowing what she was coming home to than those out there not knowing. And that’s them-they don’t know. People cheat and lie all the time. Who’s going to tell you the truth about HIV?"
In the first part of this series, Matthew Pilecki spoke to experts about the alarming statistics that show younger men who sleep with men are seroconverting to HIV at far higher rates than other age groups.
Part of the problem may be young people fetishizing unsafe sex. at the end of Part I, Paul Morris, the founder of Treasure Island Media, perhaps the largest producer and distributor of barebacking gay videos, explained that his films don’t influence sexual behavior any more than violent films or video games turn viewers into serial killers.
Arguing that it is the job of porn producers to document all types of sex practices, Morris considers bareback sex a subculture that is "not only insane, it is also essential."
"If you’re looking for a ’culprit’ behind trends in young men engaging in unsafe practices, whether sexual or otherwise, I’d suggest that you look critically at a gay culture that has allowed itself to be stultified by fear-by epidemiological fear and by fear of not being accepted by a dominant world that’s increasingly ’straight,’ uneducated and reactionary," Morris asserted. "The straight world wants gay men to be terrified, to be careful, to be obedient."
Morris is currently producing a series of videos that only features men who are openly positive.
"They’re having sex exactly in the way that they actually have sex in their daily lives," Morris said. "As I’ve said before, being negative is our contemporary virginity; being positive is the new closet. My aim is to demolish that closet. There is no reason not to be proud and open about being [HIV positive]."
Bob Bowers’ website dons a similar pirate theme; his message however, is one of HIV prevention and awareness. Bowers, Wisconsin-based HIV/AIDS educator and activist, uses the pirate persona as a lesson to youth that perceptions often differ from reality. With his built-up physique, Bowers appears to be the epitome of health even though he was diagnosed with HIV over 25 years ago after contracting the virus through intravenous drug use.
Since then, it has been his mission to educate others, especially youth, on HIV prevention methods and to act as a voice for the HIV/AIDS community. Over the years, Bowers has noticed a shift in the attitudes of youth towards HIV/AIDS. While he feels as though his audiences are receptive, he doesn’t feel the same sense of urgency as he did in the height of the HIV epidemic.
Part of the problem may be young people fetishizing unsafe sex. at the end of Part I, Paul Morris, the founder of Treasure Island Media, perhaps the largest producer and distributor of barebacking gay videos, explained that his films don’t influence sexual behavior any more than violent films or video games turn viewers into serial killers.
Arguing that it is the job of porn producers to document all types of sex practices, Morris considers bareback sex a subculture that is "not only insane, it is also essential."
"If you’re looking for a ’culprit’ behind trends in young men engaging in unsafe practices, whether sexual or otherwise, I’d suggest that you look critically at a gay culture that has allowed itself to be stultified by fear-by epidemiological fear and by fear of not being accepted by a dominant world that’s increasingly ’straight,’ uneducated and reactionary," Morris asserted. "The straight world wants gay men to be terrified, to be careful, to be obedient."
Morris is currently producing a series of videos that only features men who are openly positive.
"They’re having sex exactly in the way that they actually have sex in their daily lives," Morris said. "As I’ve said before, being negative is our contemporary virginity; being positive is the new closet. My aim is to demolish that closet. There is no reason not to be proud and open about being [HIV positive]."
Bob Bowers’ website dons a similar pirate theme; his message however, is one of HIV prevention and awareness. Bowers, Wisconsin-based HIV/AIDS educator and activist, uses the pirate persona as a lesson to youth that perceptions often differ from reality. With his built-up physique, Bowers appears to be the epitome of health even though he was diagnosed with HIV over 25 years ago after contracting the virus through intravenous drug use.
Since then, it has been his mission to educate others, especially youth, on HIV prevention methods and to act as a voice for the HIV/AIDS community. Over the years, Bowers has noticed a shift in the attitudes of youth towards HIV/AIDS. While he feels as though his audiences are receptive, he doesn’t feel the same sense of urgency as he did in the height of the HIV epidemic.
"I don’t think folks really view it as a death sentence anymore, and that’s good in some regards, but then that lends for an incredible amount of apathy and complacency around it," Bowers told EDGE. "I really break down this term of chronic and manageable and I show [students] my medications, the handful of pills I take daily. I guess then they really start to grasp that this is not a cake walk and that there really are some grave challenges. I think one of the most often asked questions is how much the medications are. Without being complicated, I expressed to them it’s one thing to know your status but what good is it if you don’t have access to the medication."
The images in the media surrounding HIV/AIDS have changed dramatically over the past twenty years-from the Grim Reaper bowling over stacks of skeletons to the healthy face of Magic Johnson. But Bowers believes that there needs to be a better balance of both images to better portray reality.
"I think we have a responsibility to not only show the beautiful faces but to have the faces that we witnessed in the 1980s out there as well," Bowers said. "Not for the sake of fear but for the sake of reality. That’s kind of just the tip of the iceberg. You’re only seeing the beautiful people that have a movie or have an angle but that’s not representative of everyone whether they are gay, straight, black or white."
By empowering students through knowledge about HIV/AIDS, Bowers is confident that he can encourage better choices and end some of the stigma surrounding those that are HIV positive. As a heterosexual man, Bowers asserts that the disease can affect anyone and by the end of his presentations he feels as though students understand that it is not just a gay disease. But when Bowers mentions that he still has a healthy sex life with his wife, students begin to question.
"While they may be accepting and supportive you can just see it," Bowers said. "I have a good time with it too. I’m like, ’Hey man I hit it more than you do. What are you talking about? I ain’t dead yet.’ It really helps to burst a lot of that stigma and it shows me that there’s still an incredible amount of stigma. That while they will support someone with AIDS, they definitely wouldn’t sleep with them. The irony is that my first wife felt better knowing what she was coming home to than those out there not knowing. And that’s them-they don’t know. People cheat and lie all the time. Who’s going to tell you the truth about HIV?"
Rod McCullom, political columnist for The Advocate and founder of the popular blog Rod 2.0, has written extensively on the subject of Black and Latino MSM youth and HIV/AIDS. Earlier this year, he reported from AIDS 2010, an annual global health conference that was held in Vienna.
While McCullom supports HIV/AIDS international outreach, he believes the U.S. government and media lost focus with the battle at home.
"In the 2000s, during the Bush administration, a greater emphasis was placed on treating HIV/AIDS around the world as opposed to at home," he said. "The Bush administration did a great thing as far as amFAR, the emergency plan for HIV/AIDS relief, which helped a lot of people in Africa and Asia. But on the other hand, HIV was neglected at home. The media often looks at AIDS in term of Africa or Eastern Europe as opposed to Harlem, Brooklyn, or Newark. Or in Washington D.C., which has an HIV rate of 3.4 percent which puts us on par with Kenya and Uganda."
Even though the CDC continues to release reports that HIV rates are skyrocketing among MSM Millennials, little attention has been paid by gay media circuits. Rather, political issues of gay marriage and ’Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ have been sweeping headlines. McCullom believes that the lack of coverage in gay media outlets reflects a larger consensus that HIV/AIDS is passé.
"I think in many ways, HIV isn’t seen as sexy anymore," McCullom told EDGE. "In terms of gay media, a lot of the opinion leaders aiding media may not necessarily be that those are affected most by HIV. They might know survivors but a lot of them aren’t necessarily younger and a lot of them aren’t necessarily Black or Latino, which have the highest HIV rates. So it might not be seen as much of a pressing issue. In terms of black and Latino gay media and bloggers I think what happens is a fatigue factor since the numbers are so high people get tired of hearing about it."
Getting Messages Where Gay Men (Virtually) Live
The internet has radically transformed accessibility to resources and information on HIV/AIDS. However, sites like Manhunt and Adam4Adam have created forums for MSMs seeking anonymous sex to meet instantly-there are even smart phone applications that speed the process by utilizing GPS technology. With Generation Y on the forefront of technology, it becomes questionable whether these sex sites are playing a part in the escalation of HIV rates.
"I think it’s a symptom of our instant gratification culture -- the Internet, the microwave oven," McCullom said. "Twenty or thirty years ago you had to walk into a bar to meet a guy, and maybe have a drink. Now you can do that on the internet. Now you can sit at home and you can get on Manhunt and you can filter through all of the profiles- someone tall, someone short, someone black, someone white. Technology has obviously helped our community and helped the nation but it’s also been a hindrance in many ways. Just like we can order in Chinese food no we’re can go online and find a six-foot tall blonde top."
Portrait of a Young Activist
Matthew Stewart, 20, a junior at American University majoring in sociology and French, is actively involved with his school’s GLBTA community. He has rallied 438 people to participate in this year’s AIDS Walk and is in the process of pledging to Delta Lambda Phi, a national gay fraternity.
Growing up in Virginia Beach, Va., Stewart was subject to abstinence only sex education. As the token gay kid in his high school, he turned to reading and the internet to understand his sexuality. At just 14 years old, Stewart came out to his mother, and while supportive, she immediately raised concerns over his health.
Stewart learned that his mother had lost several friends at the height of the AIDS epidemic, and in hindsight, he is grateful for his mother’s ability to talk about HIV/AIDS.
"At the time I was like ’Shut up! I just came out to you and you’re talking about my health and my sex life?" Stewart told EDGE. "But I think that has a lot to do with the problem. Sex education is extremely important but we’re still not talking about it in America the way we should be-especially how we relate it to homosexual sex. Without getting into the nitty gritty of it, the fact of the matter is it’s much more easily transmittable through anal sex. We still can’t talk about it. It’s like a shameful thing to talk about. We can talk about HIV-we can talk about how sad it is how many people have it. But we can’t talk about how it’s transmitted? That has always dumbstruck me."
As an HIV/AIDS advocate, Stewart reaches out to his peers to educate them on safe sex practices and HIV/AIDS. More times than not, Stewart is met with complacency with some students even responding with "That’s so ’80s." Stewart admits that raising awareness has been exhausting, but he feels it is worth fighting for especially in Washington, D.C., with some of the highest HIV rates in the nation. He adds that if his efforts save one life then his work has paid off.
"I think a lot of it is trying to distance ourselves from the stigma of being at an at risk group," Stewart said. "Especially since a lot of the decision making in community health are still being made by people who lived through [the AIDS crisis] but we didn’t see it. It’s tough because on one side of the coin you don’t want to be completely boxed in to this group of people that are instantly at risk but at the same if you don’t then your needs aren’t being addressed. I think a lot of that has to do with some really good things and bad things concerning gay visibility. Everyone gets upset, and I understand, on national issues about DADT and marriage but that stuff won’t matter if you’re dead."
A Trans Man’s Safe-Sex Awakening
Qui Alexander, 24, works at the Mazzoni Center as a community health educator. He delivers presentations at Philadelphia schools and community centers to youth and adults on the topics of healthy relationships and preventative care.
As a trans man, Alexander’s views on HIV/AIDS have changed dramatically over the years. He told EDGE that transitioning not only opened him up to more conversations with MSMs, but also changed his level of risk.
"It definitely changed more, not because of my personal experiences, but in how I was being perceived in the world," Alexander said. "As I transitioned to male and I was more passable, I saw a lot more gay men interacting with me and being more open to talking about their sexual practices. And because I identify as queer that became a new issue for me. I always identified as queer but I only slept with women. Opening my partners to women and trans folks, that changes my risk. That made me think differently about talking about safe sex practices with the people I choose to be involved with. This is now a conversation I have to have; I have to talk about negotiating with my sexual practices."
Native of Buffalo, N.Y., Alexander was exposed to the realities of HIV/AIDS as a teen through his mother’s social work. Many of the women that his mother helped were HIV positive, forcing him to realize at a young age that nobody was invincible to the virus.
Alexander says that a false sense of hope has made Generation Y particularly vulnerable.
"It sucks that you have to show people suffering to get the idea across but that’s the only way people are relating to the message today," he said. "I think it’s especially true of our generation but I also think it’s the technology we have-the things we see on TV. If they can find a cure to all these different diseases then we’re on our way for HIV. I think that’s the way people think. It bothers me because it’s real-there are still people every day being diagnosed with HIV. Every nine minutes someone in the U.S. is diagnosed with HIV. "
-end-
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