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Students at the University of Cincinnati enjoyed a sneak peak showing of Let's Talk About Sex on Tuesday April 5th as part of the Reel Sex Film Festival sponsored by Ohio Advocates and the Cincinnati Advocates Quick Response Team. But if you missed the event you ca catch it when it airs this  Saturday April 9th on TLC at 10pm (9pm Central)!

LET'S TALK ABOUT SEX presents an innovative and empowering new vision for shifting our culture's approach to young people and sexual health in the United States.

At the University of Cincinnati event attendees enjoyed the film over dinner and then discussed the type of sex education that they all received (or didn't receive) in middle and high school. The film ignited a conversation about attitudes about sex and sexuality in the US and students began to look into how you go about changing societal attitudes.

Join this conversation this Saturday April 9th at 10pm (9pm Central) on TLC!

Catch the rest of the Reel Sex Film Festival starting this Tuesday April 12th with Shortbus at 7pm in Rec Center Room 3210 sponsored by GenderBloc.

Today is not only Valentine's Day, but February 14th also marks National Condom Day! At the University of Cincinnati the UC Wellness Center commemorated this important day and promoted sexual health by tabling in the student union.

Students could spin the wheel to answer fun trivia questions such as
How many quarts of milk can fit in a condom? (4)
What time of lubricant should you use with a latex condom? (water-based)
What percent of condoms are purchased by women? (44%)

Students received information, had fun and could grab a couple condoms from Captain Condom himself.

Check out this video to see more of what we didi! 

Get out the vote! Go and vote, it's not that hard!

I was a guest on this week's Alternating Currents, American's second-longest-running LGBTQ radio show. Watch below to see my interview about GenderBloc and the Ohio Advocates Youth Council. 



Become a fan of Alternating Currents on Facebook here, and tune in here every Saturday from 3pm-5pm here to listen to the show live streaming. 

For more information on GenderBloc check out genderbloc.org, and go to amplifyyourvoice.org/ohio for more information on the Ohio Advocates Youth Council.

HIV and porn stars -- or rather the adult film industry -- as this article refers to it, is an interesting issue. There's been a recent concern in San Fernando Valley, CA, which Deia de Brito notes is the nation's largest porn hub, when a performer tested positive as reported in this article.

As a result the industry has pseudo shut down and is working to locate and "quarantine" the infected performer's partners. Brito cites a few previous cases of an HIV infection in the California porn industry in the past and explains that performers are tested for HIV by requirement every month. However that is not enough to keep HIV out of the porn industry.

Brito does point out the positions of some advocates in California that porn performers should be required to wear condoms, and some interpret a California law to enforce that.

"The California Division of Occupational Safety and Health Administration requires "protective equipment” to protect workers from blood-borne pathogens but does not specifically mandate condom use in the adult-film industry. That could change when state officials converge in Oakland on Oct. 25 to discuss an amendment to California law."

Personally I think that all porn stars should use protection in their movies. Possibly including everything from condoms to dental dams to latex. Not only would it protect these performers, but it would set a precedent for viewers. If the people acting out your fantasies are protected, don't you think you would be more likely to use protection as well? I think it would work to improve condom use across the board.

Also, I am not sure how I feel about the porn industry's response to the positive HIV test. It seems like it is almost a witch hunt, to seek out HIV positive performers and remove them from the industry so that they can go on having their performers engage in risky behaviors without protection for the entire world to see.

What are these, now HIV positive, performers supposed to do now that they are banned from their employment? Well if the porn industry enforced the use of protection then these performers, may not have tested positive in the first place, and if they had they would be able to stay in their industry and continue to work (of course managing disclosure to their partners might be tricky but its still doable.) Overall I think federal legislation should be passed to enforce porn performers to always use condoms. What do you all think?

Read more here.

Students at the University of Cincinnati's response to the recent suicides of LGBTQ youth. 
Check out our video for the It Gets Better Project:



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=haODiMUyQHM

Thanks to stuffqueerpeopleneedtoknow.wordpress.com for putting it together and getting it online. 

Spoiler alert!

Last nights episode of The Office addressed some pretty complex issues in the typical ridiculous manner that the characters do. Last night Michael Scott got herpes. A quick rundown of what happened. Michael Scott gets a mysterious lesion on his lip, which his offices-mates identify as a cold sore. Upon learning that cold sores are herpes Dwight insists that Michael go on a rampage of contacting all his previous lovers to notify them and identify the “culprit” who may have infected him. At the same time Meredith announces to the office that she has genital herpes, which ignites a quiet wave of disgust and upset across the office.

This episode addressed a lot of common concerns; reactions and misunderstandings people have about herpes. So here are a few facts:

• Herpes is a sexually transmitted infection (STI) spread through skin-to-skin contact.
• Herpes is a viral STI, meaning like other STIs that start with an H, you have it for life. (The other H’s are HIV, HPV and Hepatitis). While herpes cannot be cured it can be treated with antiviral medications that can shorten and prevent outbreaks and reduce the likelihood of transmission.
• There are 2 strains of herpes. Herpes simplex 1 appears most often as cold sores on the mouth and approximately 70% of Americans have cold sores. Herpes simplex 2 is genital herpes and approximately 1 in 6 Americans are infected. Both herpes simplex 1 and 2 can be contracted in either the mouth or genitals.
• How do you get herpes?
  • Herpes Simplex 1 cold sores are most often contracted not through sexual contact. May children become infected in daycare, by an infected adult kissing them, or from sharing drinks or utensils with someone who is infected.
  • Herpes, either simplex 1 or simplex 2 can occur in the genitals through skin to skin contact with an infected person. This can include oral sex, anal sex, vaginal sex and in some cases could possibly include digital sex (fingering).
• Due to aviral shedding herpes can be transmitted even when an infected person is not having an outbreak. Which means that if a person has ever had a cold sore on their mouth they could transmit it to their partner during oral sex, even if they are not currently having an outbreak. However that likelihood is fairly low.

So back to The Office, Michael may have seemingly done the right thing by notifying his previous partners of his herpes infection (although it was fairly pre-emptive since the diagnosis was done by his office-mates).

However, based on questions I hear many people asking, for an STI with relatively mild but however permanent symptoms should individuals disclose their status to previous and future partners? Especially since such how percentages of the population may have already come into contact with the virus?

This issue was addressed in Dan Savage’s Savage Love Cast Episode 195, released on July 13, 2010. At approximately the 11 minute marker into the podcast a caller discusses his concern of disclosing a herpes status to partners. Dan acknowledged that disclosing by negatively impact individuals’ sex lives, and pointing out that “Herpes is not a big deal!”

I want to know what you think? Personally I think that disclosing STI statuses is very important. But how do we as safer sex advocates work to fight the stigma present against people who have STIs. The issue of stigma was very present in this week’s episode of The Office, and Andy even tried to address the issues of stigma against people with STIs while still encouraging safer sex? A lot of times I think the message we put out there is have safer sex to avoid the big, bad, scary STIs. But what sort of message does that put out there about people with STIs?

And considering that when having vaginal-penile intercourse condoms may not even fully protect against herpes because it is transmitted via skin-to-skin contact.

What sort of message should we put out there about herpes? And other STIs with fairly mild side effects? Is Dan Savage right, is herpes no big deal?

Overall, I think for Michael Scott it probably would have been important to got to a doctor first to ensure that the sore on his lip was herpes, however the show while entertaining as usual, brought up some great issues and really got the people thinking about important issues like safer sex and STIs.

Bowling Green, Ohio is working to pass an ordinance in their city that would repeal ordinances that protect citizens from discrimination in housing and work based on sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, and HIV status. The below article explains that 6 other cities in Ohio have similar ordinances as well as 13 states. 

While legislation like this seems like common sense to many, some Bowling Green citizens deny that any discrimination could be occurring in their city and use that as reason to repeal these protective ordinances. 

Read more here.

My thoughts -- I doubt that there is actually no discrimination occurring. But even if this person believes there is none, then why not pass it, it's not going to effect you! 

Since the development of new drugs to treat patients with HIV/AIDS, HIV has transformed from a death-sentence to a chronic condition, explained Mary McCarty in the Dayton Daily News. Now patients who have had access to these life-saving drugs could be forced back decades to a time when HIV meant death. The Ohio HIV-AIDS Drug Assistance Program (OHDAP) of the Ryan White program has been helping Ohioans to receive their life-saving drugs for several years. Until recent cuts ended drug provisions for Ohioans above a certain income level. And those who are eligible are forced onto a currently 232 person long waiting list to get back into the program and receive their necessary medications. This could be a matter of life or death for many Ohioans. Read more here.

In a time when bullying and suicide of LGBTQ youth is on the rise Focus on the Family tries to dispute it. 

Focus on the Family -- an organization claiming to help families thrive is actually an organization that promotes hate. Strong opponents of same-sex marriage and supporters of reparative therapy for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer individuals. I like to describe this organization as "anti everything that's good." 

You'd think that an organization claiming to promote and support families, would be reaching out a helping hand to the families of the LGBTQ youth who recently took their own lives due to increased LGBTQ bullying. Instead their response is to deny that LGBTQ bullying is even a concern and to accuse GLSEN (The Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network) of "introducing homosexual themes into schools as a means of indoctrinating children." 

This blog outlines the details. 

I was also unaware that these hateful acts against LGBTQ youth had hit so close to home. Violence against LGBTQ students whether it be physical, mental or emotional is affecting all of America right now. This week a boy from Ohio had his arm broken when he talked about wanting to join the cheerleading team. 

And too bad for Ohio, down here in Cincinnati we have our own organization that promotes the same negative values as Focus on the Family. Citizens for Community Values claims to have been protecting families since 1983. On their page for key Ohio legislation they list different proposed bills and write either good or bad next to each one to make it easy for their supporters to know what to support. They have bad next to HB 176: The Equal Housing and Employment Act which would protect LGBT Ohioans from discrimination in housing and employment. It just baffles me that anyone could be against something so basic. If adults can support an organization like this one that actively fights against Americans gaining equal protection under law for no other reason than their sexual orientation or gender identity and expression, it's no surprise that young students are following in their parents' footsteps and bringing that hatefulness into schools which has recently caused the deaths of 4 LGBTQ students. 

Some of the other legislation Citizens for Community Values (CCV)  are denouncing are HB 316 Act for Our Children's Future and HB 333 the CARE Act. These are pieces of Ohio legislation working to comprehensive, medically accurate, abstinence-inclusive and age-appropriate sex education and access to emergency contraception for survivors of sexual assault and rape, both are pieces of legislation that the Ohio Advocates Youth Council are actively supporting.