Gay

Your Input Needed! Free Food for it!

PUMA, the Prevention Umbrella for Men who have sex with men the Americas, is a planning project that will lead to a large-scale randomized controlled trial of an HIV prevention package that will include several different prevention strategies.  Examples of the strategies that may be included are: PrEP, circumcision, couples counseling, home testing, and others.

Gaining input from diverse MSM communities about the individual strategies and the overall package will be critical for the success of this project!

Join Kaijson Noilmar, PUMA Community Advisory Committee member, and Project Director for the Legacy Project and Cindra Feuer of AVAC, to learn more about PUMA, and offer input into the community engagement strategy for this effort, and of course, eat yummy food!

When: Wednesday, April 21st at 5:30-7pm  read more »

Hello, my name is Javier Rios and I work in Albuquerque, New Mexico coordinating the MPowerment Project for New Mexico AIDS Services. I have been working for NMAS for almost 5 years with MPower Albuquerque. I am very excited to be attending the HIV Research Catalyst Forum in Baltimore. I am a gay native New Mexican and very proud to represent my communities, having the opportunity to share and collaborate with others from across the United States.

For my first blog I would like to write about homophobia and how I believe it is one of the greatest barriers to HIV prevention in the United States. From my experience working with young gay, bi, and transgender men in my community, prevention messages are not being delivered to or being received by the people most at risk. In New Mexico MSM, men who have sex with men, make up the largest percentage of HIV cases. They are the highest risk group in New Mexico like other parts of the United States and have the least access to appropriate prevention messages. I believe that homophobia, gay stigma, and HIV/AIDS stigma has caused a double speak where MSM risk for HIV is acknowledged, money is provided to target MSM and yet the messages are censored.  read more »