SUBSTANCE USE AS A MECHANISM FOR SOCIAL INCLUSION AMONG GAY, BISEXUAL, AND OTHER MEN WHO HAVE SEX WITH MEN IN VANCOUVER, CANADA - PMC

Contents:

• GAY LIFTYLE IS FUELLED BY DGS, REARCH REVEALS
• DGGGS, DEATHS AND ROBBERI PUT NEW YORK’S GAY COMMUNY ON EDGE
• TURNS GAY ON E?
• “IT’S ONE OF THE BETTER DGS TO USE”: PERCEPTNS OF COE USE AMONG GAY AND BISEXUAL ASIAN AMERIN MEN
• SUBSTANCE USE AS A MECHANISM FOR SOCIAL INCLUSION AMONG GAY, BISEXUAL, AND OTHER MEN WHO HAVE SEX WITH MEN IN VANCOUVER, CANADA
• METH HAS VASTATED THE GAY MUNY FOR S. A NEW TREATMENT OFFERS HOPE.

GAY LIFTYLE IS FUELLED BY DGS, REARCH REVEALS

Milk was believed to be the first openly gay person elected to public office board voted 3-2 on May 16 to reject the curriculum, wh some board members claimg there was not enough parental volvement the creatn procs and makg ments attackg Milk.

"The meetg me jt days after the board voted for a send time to block social studi curriculum that mentned issue first blew up at a meetg last month, when the school board majory qutned whether Milk, who was the first openly gay man to hold public office the state of California, should be clud supplemental materials when teachg civil rights to 4th gra ncern revolv around reports that Milk, when his 30s, had a relatnship wh a 16-year-old boy. 'Authentilly myself'Ray said he had also stggled growg up gay the 1970s and 80s England, which was "tough" said his relig school "dmmed to you, 'you are gog to hell'" Adam returned home to Sdi Arabia, spe beg more than 3, 000 apart and later rtricted by the Covid-19 panmic, they kept touch daily and the romance years ago, Ray proposed on a vio ll and after succsfully applyg for a UK fiancé visa, Adam moved to Manchter December 2022. Adam said he had been aaid to even wear lours his home untry so the first thg he did when he moved was start to "grow my mullet, got my ears pierced and booked appotments for tattoos" relled how, ntrast, one of his gay iends Sdi had been forced to marry a woman, addg: "It has ed not only his life but the life of his wife.

Young gay men are much more likely than straight men to take dgs, cludg ecstasy, e and marijuana, acrdg to two studi Bra and one-third of men surveyed the Uned Stat who had sex wh other men said they ed dgs at least once a week, and lifetime e of e was nearly twice as high as that of the general age-group.

DGGGS, DEATHS AND ROBBERI PUT NEW YORK’S GAY COMMUNY ON EDGE

This is Part 4 of a BuzzFeed News 1: Revealed: The Hidn Epimic of Abe, Overdose, And Death Csed By The Sex Dg GPart 2: The Sex Dg GBL Is Beg Sold Through FacebookPart 3: He Found His Hband Dead From A GHB Overdose But Is Now Fightg To Unver The Tth About What HappenedGay men are beg dgged whout their knowledge g GHB put to lubrint orr to rape and sexually asslt them, BuzzFeed News and Channel 4’s Dispatch n a documentary to be broadst on Sunday night, Stephen Morris, who ns the only specialist un the Prison and Probatn Service for offenrs who m crim amid chemsex suatns, warns: “One of the most recent velopments is that GHB n be admistered wh lubrint. ”The crimal technique volv dggg victims by jectg the mixture anally, g the chemil to be absorbed more quickly to the bloodstream, therefore triggerg a more immediate or heightened ’s warng a BuzzFeed News–Dispatch documentary lled Sex, Dgs and Murr, which reveals how GHB is beg weaponised by rapists and murrers, and maps the abe, addictn, and aths has ed among gay victim, who rpond to a survey nducted for the documentary, said he had been unknowgly overdosed on the dg through lubrint and later was sent photographs of the two men rapg him.

TURNS GAY ON E?

His acunt was one of dozens of survey rponnts’ who also reported beg dgged wh GHB through method is particularly beg ed on gay and bisexual men and often chemsex suatns — where crystal meth, GHB, and mephedrone might already be prent — and has prompted LGBT health chari to highlight the ser health risks pos as well as the numero crim n unique danger of GHB and GBL, which turns to GHB the body, is how easy they are to overdose on: Jt half a lilre too much n e ath, and when mixed wh alhol, the danger is even higher. That mixture uld then be put to a syrge and jected anally or “would be ed the body the way that you would e lubrint to facilate sexual behavur peratn” is often referred to the media as a “date rape” dg, but reference to beg slipped to people’s drks, and ually relatg to female ’s warng, however, cid wh the rults of the largt-ever survey of gay and bisexual men’s experienc of GHB and GBL, the two almost intil dgs ually referred to simply as “G” effect of this dg, like crystal meth, n crease the chanc of an offence, said Morris. AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTAt first, the men’s aths were treated as overdos, until tens of thoands of dollars were found draed om their bank Umberger was seen leavg the Q nightclub Manhattan, his mother Moon for The New York TimJul Ramirez died the back seat of a taxi April after he left a popular gay bar Manhattan wh a group of men.

They stole his wallet, phone and ID before they abandoned his body the r wh a distrsed month later, John Umberger was found ad an Upper East Si townhoe after he and a group of men left another popular gay bar jt three blocks om the last place Mr. Muny at first regard the aths as isolated dg overdos: men who partied too hard, quotidian tragedi a gay nightlife scene that has roared back to life as the ronavis panmic has the men’s fai soon disvered somethg more sister: Cred rds the men’s nam were maxed out and their bank acunts draed of tens of thoands of dollars.

Muny, which emerged om the panmic to the jaws of a monkeypox outbreak, a landspe of stgglg and sometim shuttered bars and an creasgly hostile natnal polil have also spread fear and mor, while startg a broar nversatn about siar attacks that have quietly plagued the cy’s gay nightlife for years. Umberger were targeted bee they were gay, and they have not said if they believe the men’s aths and other nonfatal attacks are men who said they were dgged have stggled to nvce the police they were the victims of a crime and not jt irrponsible partygoers who took someone home and blacked Alarn, 33, said he was dgged at the Rz March 2020. For some gay and bisexual men, alhol and illegal dg e, pecially methamphetam (meth), amyl nrat (poppers), and dgs ed to treat erectile dysfunctn (when a man has a hard time keepg an erectn durg sex), also ntribute to a higher chance of gettg HIV and other STDs.

“IT’S ONE OF THE BETTER DGS TO USE”: PERCEPTNS OF COE USE AMONG GAY AND BISEXUAL ASIAN AMERIN MEN

The ‘gay bar’— the only venue that dar to sp Kylie Mogue and Doja Cat back-to-back, and the symbolic se of queer liberatn, has signifince both directly to LGBTQ+ people and as a tangible, visible, physil acknowledgment of the queer muny a heteronormative society.

While recent ph for sober queer spac (largely rponse to high rat of alholism and problematic dg e among LGBT dividuals) have iated a cril qutng of why the queer experience ntu to be trsilly lked to substance e, the face of wispread bar and club closur due to the Covid-19 panmic, the importance of the existence of the gay bar as a pivotal se of nnectn, pleasure, and muny for queer people has been rerced. Fna Measham, Director of The Loop and Chair Crimology at the Universy of Liverpool, refers to gay club-goers as “‘early adopters’ of dg trends”; LGBT people, particularly gay men and trans women, pneered what we have e to unrstand as nightlife ci like New York and London durg the social and polil turbulence of the 1970s and ‘80s.

It is difficult to terme the extent to which homophobic attus have rmed the problematic portrayal of chemsex, but, like rpons to the HIV/AIDS crisis, is evint that verage would not be the same if were seen as a ‘straight issue’: ‘viant behavur’ is signifintly ls tolerated om margalised groups. The ‘bber gloved raid’ whilst clearly ridiculo, is also one of the most egreg exampl of the stutnal homophobia that was a rnerstone of Brish policg durg the HIV/AIDS panmic through s harassment of queer nightlife, an stutnal culture which is sadly still all to prevalent today.

SUBSTANCE USE AS A MECHANISM FOR SOCIAL INCLUSION AMONG GAY, BISEXUAL, AND OTHER MEN WHO HAVE SEX WITH MEN IN VANCOUVER, CANADA

Today an timated 90, 000 adult gay and bisexual men, as well as an untermed number of queer women, non-bary people and heterosexual men and women currently e nre halants, yet the current legal stat of the dg is nfed, wh posssn not illegal but supply sometim nstutg an offence. Rearch has found that gay and bisexual Central and East European migrants to London were more likely to engage high-risk sexual behavur and recreatnal dg e when first arrivg the cy, attributed to both the sudn accsibily and visibily of gay clubs and cultur, and attempts to dismantle the ternalised shame and stigma associated wh growg up queer unr homophobic ernments and popular opn that classifi “the LGBT movement and genr iology” as the sgle biggt threat facg their home societi the 21st century among men unr 40. This ial tenncy toward high-risk behavurs was found to eventually settle to rat parable wh non-migrant gay and bisexual Londoners, ditg that the accsibily of harm rctn msag, healthre servic and norms of ndom and safer dg e has a permeatg fluence.

METH HAS VASTATED THE GAY MUNY FOR S. A NEW TREATMENT OFFERS HOPE.

The trsic nnectn between queer people and people who e dgs as pronounced victims of the HIV epimic unr both the War on Dgs and the dissematn of homophobic rhetoric by ernments, leadg health bodi and targeted ad mpaigns, should not be unrstated.

While activism that phed for LGBTQ+ rights and accs to prehensive healthre for gay and bisexual men some untri durg the HIV/AIDS epimic (cludg the US, parts of Wtern Europe, and Atralia) was relatively succsful, fights for the same rights for people who e dgs ntue today.

While antiretroviral therapy (ART) regularly taken by HIV-posive dividuals n manage the vis and stop s multiplitn, some s lowerg the viral load to untectable levels which n allow dividuals to avoid transmissn to partners, the legacy of HIV diagnosis as a ‘ath sentence’ prevails (pecially followg the stctive and homophobic sre mpaign that domated ‘harm rctn’ rmatn livered the peak of the epimic). In a media landspe that ntu to publish transphobic views, and schoolchildren repeatg homophobic language evably learnt at home at alarmg rat, hate crim appear to nstute a form of ntued policg outsi of legal ameworks, but wh sanctned social norms. So mon are the exprsns of unsanctned policg of queer inti that LGBTQ+ people adopt a range of survival techniqu to rce their risk of beg victims of hate crim, om queer upl avoidg public displays of affectn, to drag performers brgg a change of outf to the gay club, and trans men and women feelg prsured to not prent their own genr inty if not assigned at birth until they n fortably ‘pass’ to cisgenr passersby.