Taken once daily, the pill Tvada n prevent HIV. It’s safe, effective, FDA -approved, and ually vered by health plans. So why are so few gay men takg ?
Contents:
- ANTIVIRALS LIKE TVADA MAKE POSSIBLE FOR GAY MEN TO LOVE WHOUT A SENSE OF DREAD
- TVADA, A PILL TO FIGHT HIV, STIRS NTROVERSY AMONG GAYS
- WHY AREN’T MORE GAY MEN ON THE HIV PILL?
- WHY SO LTLE UPTAKE OF PREVENTIVE TVADA THE AT-RISK GAY MUNY?
- STIGMA KEEPS MANY GAY LATOS OFF HIV PREVENTN PILL
ANTIVIRALS LIKE TVADA MAKE POSSIBLE FOR GAY MEN TO LOVE WHOUT A SENSE OF DREAD
Gabriel and his iends like to go dancg at plac Chelsea and Hell’s Kchen like Viva and Pacha. One night last wter, they end up at a downtown club hostg a circu party, a huge gay rave wh throbbg, dtrial hoe mic. The [...] * is truvada for gay people *
One of – Peter – me of age durg the early years of the panmic, and is now his fifti; I am whe, and like hundreds of thoands of other Amerin gay men, beme fected by HIV before the vis had a name.
As a young black gay man, I reprent one of the most affected muni today’s epimic and only recently started takg antiretrovirals; my se, I take them to prevent beg fected. Even though rat of HIV fectn are risg aga gay men, pecially young gay men of lor, I rema sadly, we both enunter people every day that have not heard about the scientific breakthrough the fight agast Aids that Tvada that’s not the only important news that isn’t gettg spoken about enough.
TVADA, A PILL TO FIGHT HIV, STIRS NTROVERSY AMONG GAYS
* is truvada for gay people *
A large study showed that those of who are posive n have sex whout fectg our HIV-ee partners, as long as we take effective antiviral therapy that keeps our vis the study, which followed hundreds of gay and straight upl where one person was HIV-posive and the other was not, there were zero fectns after an timated 45, 000 acts of ndomls sexual terurse. That n give gay men a remarkable peace of md that we uld only dream of havg durg the early years of the a public health standpot, the breakthroughs have bee game-changers the fight agast Aids. Natnally, rat of fectn among young gay men and transgenr women have been risg, pecially among Ain Amerins.
Gay men of lor have faced the duel hurdl of homophobia and racism, cludg racism om other gay men, and an historil difference om the gay tablishment. It is past time for younger gay men – pecially men of lor – to be heard and discsn around Prep has offered hope this regard. Its troductn has raised many qutns, around accs, s parative effectivens to ndoms, and how gay men take re of themselv, and each other.
One night last wter, they end up at a downtown club hostg a circu party, a huge gay rave wh throbbg, dtrial hoe mic. Several months after startg the dg, Gabriel says ’s allowed him to be bolr and more unapologetic his sir, to have the kd of joyfully promiscuo, liberated sex that men enjoyed wh one another the or so after the Stonewall rts brought gay life out om the shadows and before the AIDS crisis shroud new, darker on. For the past several years, the nversatn about gay life has been, to a large gree, a nversatn about gay marriage.
WHY AREN’T MORE GAY MEN ON THE HIV PILL?
Data suggt gay Latos are ls likely to take the dg spe high risk for HIV. Advot pot to one big reason. * is truvada for gay people *
This summer—on social media, on Fire Island, at the Christopher Street pier, and certa horts around the untry—what many gay men are talkg about among themselv is Tvada. And jt as the birth-ntrol pill ed sgle women the sixti to wonr whether they’d be seen as “sluts” and to ternalize that real and imaged shame, some gay men wonr how Tvada will play the straight world; sends a strikgly different msage om the one the “Sunday Styl” weddg announcements.
Other gay men worry that the very existence of such a dg is a kd of betrayal: of those who’ve died the epimic; of fealty to the ndom, an object alternately evokg fear and rilience, hot sex and safe-sex fatigue; and of a md-set of sexual pnce that has erned gay-male life sce the early ’80s. Even after treatments for HIV ma a manageable disease for many, gay men have absorbed the msage that a latex sheath is all that stands between them and the abyss. Given that tape loop playg the llective gay-male head, ’s hard to tell whether the argument the gay muny is havg wh self about Tvada is wh the medil facts on the ground or wh the very real mons of history: What are gay men sred of?
For the generatn of gay men who me of age post-AIDS, anxiety has sentially preced lt as a first rponse to thoughts of sex. Sar Golub, a Hunter College psychology profsor, is leadg a study at Callen-Lor that dit that half of gay men thk of HIV all or most of the time durg sex. “The msage om TV shows that was dmmed to as gay boys was that we uld get this disease and die and make our parents very sad.
WHY SO LTLE UPTAKE OF PREVENTIVE TVADA THE AT-RISK GAY MUNY?
Insurers have nied life and disabily verage to men takg Tvada to prevent H.I.V. fectn, say gay rights advot and medil experts. * is truvada for gay people *
At the end of June, durg Pri weekend, Governor Cuomo, who has ma gay rights a strategic part of his platform, said he wanted to make wir accs to the dg part of a new effort to eradite the AIDS epimic the state by 2020. But PrEP has been studied and discsed largely among gay men bee the hight HIV rat rema stubbornly wh that group, pecially among young gay men of lor.
In 2012, the agency reported that HIV rat gay men between ag 13 and 24 rose 22 percent recent years. In an pennt analysis of that data, a top rearcher projected that if HIV fectns ntue at current rat, half of young gay men will have HIV by age 50. ) Andrew Sullivan, who is HIV-posive, wrote on his blog rponse: “Image a scene [ the play] when someone sh to a [Gay Men’s Health Crisis, which Kramer helped found 1981] meetg and clar that there’s now a pill that will make you immune to HIV if you take once a day.
” Michael Lus, the gay-porn mogul who recently swched om beg an arnt ndom advote to a PrEP-taker who now allows bareback sex his films, wrote on the Out-magaze blog: “Larry Kramer is a hero many ways, but this time he’s fightg on the wrong si of history. In a talk this wter at the Strand bookstore to promote his new memoir, Body Counts, Stb, the Poz founr, said of PrEP, “Rather than givg [HIV-negative people] the life skills teachg them how to be healthy about their sexualy … the ia [is unbelievable] that we are gog to put tens of lns of gay men on PrEP and bankpt the enomy to spray people wh Raid. ) “AIDS as a huge crisis for middle-class gay men end the ’90s, ” he says, “but I don’t thk I’m the only gay man my generatn who will never get over .
STIGMA KEEPS MANY GAY LATOS OFF HIV PREVENTN PILL
“There’s somethg really ugly about how some olr gay men who’ve lived through AIDS say to younger guys, ‘After all we’ve been through, I n’t believe you would take PrEP and risk your life for sex. Among sympathetic straight people and most gay men, the first wave of men to get HIV the 1980s got a pass, bee nobody knew was out there or how to prevent .