Source:- psychologytoday.com<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s talk about drugs\u2014specifically, drugs that keep HIV-positive gay men like me \u201cundetectable,\u201d and the drugs used in PrEP\u00a0(pre-exposure prophylaxis) that, when taken daily, can prevent HIV-negative gay men (and others) from becoming infected.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s essentially the theme for this year\u2019s\u00a0 Gay men’s HIV\/AIDS Awareness day \u2014today, September 27\u2014\u201cThe Conversation About HIV Is Changing: Talk Undetectable. Talk PrEP.\u201d<\/p>\n
But if we only talk about drugs to prevent and treat HIV, and don\u2019t talk about the trauma behind gay men\u2019s high-risk sexual and drug-use choices, we\u2019ll see that same trauma continue to play out in our disproportionately high rates of crystal meth abuse, alcoholism, and other potentially harmful sexually transmitted infections besides HIV.<\/p>\n
There is no question that today\u2019s HIV drugs have dramatically changed the conversation about HIV. From the terrible illness and death that almost inevitably followed a positive HIV test 30 years ago, those of us living with the virus today can expect to live a virtually normal lifespan \u2014so long as we adhere to treatment.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a movement with the slogan \u201cU = U\u201d to emphasize the momentous shift in thinking about what it \u201cmeans\u201d to have HIV because of studies demonstrating that those of us living with HIV who keep our virus suppressed cannot infect someone else.<\/p>\n
Knowing we don\u2019t put our partners at risk is a huge relief. Educating those who don\u2019t have HIV to understand this fact should help ease the stigma that too many still attach to HIV. If there\u2019s nothing to be afraid of from an HIV-positive person, there likewise should be no reason to rule out sex\u00a0play or a relationship with that person\u2014or to treat him like a pariah.<\/p>\n
Steve Gibson, the founder in 2003 of San Francisco\u2019s gay men\u2019s sexual health clinic Magnet\u2014in 2016, it was blended into Strut, on Castro Street, the city\u2019s one-stop-shop for gay men\u2019s health and well-being\u2014told me in an interview for my book Stonewall Strong that PrEP is transforming how gay men relate to one another across what has often been called the HIV \u201cviral divide.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we\u2019re seeing in San Francisco now,\u201d said Gibson, \u201cis very good public health attempts to encourage disclosure around serostatus. For the first time in my 25 years in public health, the conversation is changing around how positive and negative gay men are talking to each other about terms like \u2018clean\u2019 and \u2018dirty\u2019 and the stigma we internalized as a community. We know that viral suppression is highly effective and that PrEP is highly effective. So we can have a conversation about our desires.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s a part of the conversation we really need to have if we are serious about supporting gay men\u2019s health. As important as the HIV drugs are, this conversation has to be about more than providing drugs to prevent or treat HIV. In fact it goes well beyond HIV.<\/p>\n
We need a conversation about the extraordinary traumas of gay men\u2019s lives beginning when we first become aware of being \u201cdifferent.\u201d We need to talk about the damaged self esteem that leads so many of us to engage in risky sex or medicate our lonoliness\u00a0and psychic pain with alcohol and other substances.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1973,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[52,1869,1962,1960,1961],"class_list":["post-1972","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aids-hiv","tag-hiv","tag-hiv-aids","tag-hiv-testing-center","tag-hiv-transmission","tag-signs-of-hiv"],"yoast_head":"\n