Sex & Drugs

Online/Offline Resources - Sex

HIV-Related Services

Access the HIV Services Directory at www.tpan.com or AIDS Connect to learn about other HIV-related services available in metropolitan Chicago.

And the Rest

Barebackhealth.net Health tips to reduce the risk of sex without condoms.

"Dancing with Tina" by Terry Oldes (pictured right). This is the entire manuscript - updated and revised in 2010.

"Estimating the proportion of HIV transmissions from main sex partners among men who have sex withmen in five US cities" by Patrick S. Sullivan, Laura Salazara, Susan Buchbinder, and Travis H. Sanchez in AIDS, May 2009.

"Gay Men and HIV" An Urgent Priority" from Gay Men's Health Crisis recommends innovative and expanded approaches to reduce HIV infection among gay men. The report, released July 12, 2010, also examines HIV incidence rates and factors contributing to HIV's disproportionate impact on gay and bisexual men, and offers a critical review of HIV prevention programs from the 1980s to 2010.

"Gay, Sexy and Healthy: Strengthening Prevention for Men Like Us" was a special FREE speaker series held in Chicago featuring Dr. Ron Stall (left) and the CDC's Greg Millett (right) who discussed the social and cultural factors that influence gay men of all colors. Download Ron's slide presentation - "Improving Safe Sex Interventions for MSM". Download "HIV Infection Among Black and Latino MSM" by Greg.

The Global Mapping of Pleasure is a directory or organizations, programmes, media and people who eroticize safer sex. It is a treasure trove for many audiences, including everyone who is tired of hearing the same-old prevention messages – that sex is dangerous, something to be feared, and that safer sex is un-sexy or anyone looking for a new, exciting and sexy approach to safer sex and sexual health.

HIV SeroAdaptation Presentation At the February 8, 2007 meeting of the San Francisco Prevention Planning Council, UCSF's Jeff McConnell made a fascinating presentation on serosorting and other related risk reduction behaviors being employed by gay men - "HIV SeroAdaptation: Selecting Sexual Partners, Practices, and Positions in the Midst of an Epidemic." Click here for the LifeLube blog posting on this subject.

"HIV Transmission during sex between men: who’s failing, what’s failing?", by Ford Hickson, Sigma Research (University of Portsmouth, UK) CHAPS 12th Annual Conference Plenary Address, Brighton, March 2009.

How I Roll is the ssssexy new site launched by porn star Steve Cruz with the help of friends over at Stop AIDS, filled with tips, facts, helpful info and nice visuals. "I am not here to wag my finger in your face. You have to figure out 'How You Roll'. If nothing else I am here to remind us all that safer and hotter sex is still happening… " says Steve - and we believe him!

In Spot Need some help telling that guy you may have passed along a little something extra the other night? Click on this site for info on STDs and assistance in letting him know.

IRMA International Rectal Microbicide Advocates - a global network of advocates, policy makers, researchers and funders committed to the research and development of safe, effective and acceptable rectal microbicides. A rectal microbicide could be a gel, lube, douche, or enema that provides protection during anal intercourse.

My Sexy City This innovative website engages you in true-to-life situations in which you make virtual decisions on behalf of an animated character. Various scenes include the streets, a club and an apartment complex. Along the way, you receive info about HIV transmission, sexually transmitted infections, substance use, coming out and relationships.

Oral transmission of HIV, reality or fiction? This article from Oral Diseases, 2006, will tell you the what's what.

PrEP Watch is a comprehensive information source regarding pre-exposure prophylaxis for HIV prevention, launched by the AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition. Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) refers to an experimental HIV-prevention strategy that would use anti-retrovirals to protect HIV-negative people from HIV infection. Along with AIDS vaccines and microbicides, PrEP is one of the experimental HIV-prevention strategies being tested in clinical trials today. PrEP Watch features a regularly-updated table of planned and ongoing trials as well as current information including scientific findings, advocacy documents, and meeting reports.

"Race-Based Sexual Stereotyping and Sexual Partnering Among Men Who Use the Internet to Identify Other Men for Bareback Sex" by Patrick A. Wilson, Pamela Valera, Ana Ventuneac, Ivan Balan, Matt Rowe, and Alex Carballo-Diéguez in The Journal of Sex Research, March 31, 2009.

Safer and Healthier Sex Gay Men's Health Crisis and AIDS Project Los Angeles pulled together these "10 Tips for Gay Men." Tip #4 - "Take any symptoms on your penis or anus seriously." May seem pretty obvious, but a lot of us like to blow these sorts of things off, hoping they will go away. And while the symptoms sometimes do in fact disappear, the underlying cause is still there...

The Sexual Health of Gay Men and other MSM: HIV/STD Prevention Plus Conference was convened by The Fenway Institute to discuss current knowledge about the sexual health of American gay andMSM and implications for HIV/STD prevention programs and further research in April of 2010. Click here to read the conference agenda and download presentations.

Status Seekers: The fuss over "serosorting" Article from POZ Magazine (Feb/Mar 07) that asks, "Is exclusively picking sexual partners of the same HIV status, a tactic called serosorting, the safe way to condomless pleasure and freedom from transmission worries... or is it risky self-segregation?"

Sex and Sexual Health GMFA's sex and sexual health website, designed to answer all of your questions about gay men's sexual health. Very cool, from the UK. How risky is? - GMFA's page from their Sex and Sexual Health website which provides info on the riskiness of various sexual acts. Reducing the risk without using condoms - GMFA's page from their Sex and Sexual Health website which provides info on reducing the risk without using condoms.

Sexual Chemistry - Sex, Drugs and Gay Men What this booklet from the South Beach AIDS Project attempts to do is to have a full and frank discussion about the often complex and varied relationships between drugs, sex, and sexual health for gay men.. It's non-judgmental and realistic about drug use and risk-taking in the gay community.

Shotworthy.com A very "keepin' it real" kinda site about STDs, HIV and the relative risks of all kinds of sex. So, is that dude you are about to get it on with "shotworthy?"

The 6 Secrets of Gay Anal Sex, on About.com: Gay Life.

SM Safely Think of this as a “starter kit” for perverts (said lovingly) that translates lingo, speaks frankly about erotic play and gives tips on how you can play safer even when you feel like being a little piggy.

STDCheckup Frequently intimate, frequently test... Sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) are pretty common among gay men and other men who have sex with men (MSM). This nicely done site addresses this situation iin a straightforward way by educating both medical care providers and gay/MSM about the appropriateness and importance of routine STD testing if you are sexually active.

Unlimited Intimacy - Reflections on the Subculture of Barebacking
Barebacking—when gay men deliberately abandon condoms and embrace unprotected sex—has incited a great deal of shock, outrage, anger, and even disgust, but very little contemplation. Purposely flying in the face of decades of safe-sex campaigning and HIV/AIDS awareness initiatives, barebacking is unquestionably radical behavior, behavior that most people would rather condemn than understand. Thus the time is ripe for Unlimited Intimacy, Tim Dean’s riveting investigation into barebacking and the distinctive subculture that has grown around it.

Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity, and Patient Care, Virtual Mentor, American Medical Association Journal of Ethics, August 2010, Volume 12, Number 8: 603-695.

What's Safe to You Safer sex can mean different things to different people and can be smart, fun and involve other options beyond condoms. This hot little pamphlet from Gay Men's Health Crisis and AIDS Project Los Angeles helps negotiate the realities of "safety" in a world that forgets about intimacy, love, desire and pleasure between men.

Without Condoms: Unprotected Sex, Gay Men and Barebacking
2005, by Michael Shernoff.
"For the last quarter century, the AIDS epidemic has forced upon gay men a horrible entanglement of sex, love, intimacy, and death. Our response to this situation has too often offered rationalistic prescriptions that uncannily ignore the complexity of human emotional life. Michael Shernoff has managed to step well outside such rote response and return the subject to the complex, sensitive analysis it desperately requires." - Walt Odets, clinical psychologist and author of In the Shadow of the Epidemic: Being HIV-Negative in the Age of AIDS.

Unsafe at any speed? Gay.com interview with Michael Shernoff Therapist and author Michael Shernoff talks about sexual harm reduction, including strategies like "serosorting," "strategic postioning," and "negotiated safet." that make some uncomfortable but are indeed reflective of the reality of gay men's lives.

“Yes, There is a Gay Agenda: The need to re-conceptualize HIV prevention in the epidemic’s third decade”, was presented On Oct. 20, 2010, by AIDS Foundation of Chicago's Jim Pickett in a plenary presentation at the Australasian HIV/AIDS Conference in Sydney, Australia. part of the session titled “Re-Thinking Prevention.” Pickett discussed HIV prevention in the United States and provided insights into the U.S. Gay Men’s Health Agenda, Chicago’s “How are you healthy?” campaign, the U.S. National HIV/AIDS Strategy, sexual health, and biomedical prevention.