Time Tuesday, February 22 · 7:00pm - 10:00pm
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Location Artspace
1685 3rd Avenue
Prince George, BC
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Created By PrideUNBC, Marli Leibovitch
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More Info How does it feel to have your gender identity included in the
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders? Find out when
thirteen transgender and genderqueer scholars, artists, and activists
explore the impact and implications of the Gender Identity Disorder
diagnosis on their lives and communities. "Diagnosing Difference"
...explores the many complexities of the diagnosis from the perspectives
of those it affects most directly and personally. It is a
groundbreaking film that explores the impact of Gender Identity
Disorder diagnosis on people who identify on the trans spectrum in
their own words and images.
With support from the Canadian Medical Association, "Diagnosing
Difference" is the second of three films in the "Framing Health" film
series hosted as a collaboration between the UNBC Pride Centre and
Northern Medical Program medical students.
The event is free and refreshments will be served.
For any further information contact: anamariadotrichardson@gmail.com or pride@unbc.caSee More
Saturday, February 19, 2011
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Valentine's Hangover Winter Dance
me Saturday at 9:00pm - Sunday at 2:00am
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Location Okanagan Mission Community Hall
4409 Lakeshore Rd
Kelowna, BC
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Created By Okanagan Rainbow Coalition, Brian McArthur
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More Info 19+
$10 for members, $20 for non-members
Get your $25 1-year membership here:
http://member.gayokanagan.com/application
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Location Okanagan Mission Community Hall
4409 Lakeshore Rd
Kelowna, BC
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Created By Okanagan Rainbow Coalition, Brian McArthur
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
More Info 19+
$10 for members, $20 for non-members
Get your $25 1-year membership here:
http://member.gayokanagan.com/application
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Problems with Man Count & HIV Discussion
DISCUSSION #4
To add on to the issue of man count here is some more math. Man count (2008) claims that 18.1% of the MSM population is infected with HIV. However, according to the Health Canada website roughly 65,000 people, in general, are infected with HIV (http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/hl-vs/iyh-vsv/diseases-maladies/hiv-vih-eng.php#hivc). ((33,143,600/2)*.02)*.181 = 59,989. If Man Count was correct, this would mean that infections amongest MSM would consist for 92.29% (59, 989/65,000) of all HIV infections in Canada. This is just ridiculousness to believe and is not supported by government information: "Of all prevalent HIV infections at the end of 2005, an estimated 51% were attributed to men who have sex with men (MSM)." (http://www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/aids-sida/populations-eng.php#men.)
(Canada 2008 population statistics -- http://www.statcan.gc.ca/daily-quotidien/080327/dq080327d-eng.htm)
----------
DISCUSSION #3
On the Health Canada website it states in regards to NEW INFECTIONS (of the combined homosexual and heterosexual populations) “3% were men who have sex with men and use injection drugs” (http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/hl-vs/iyh-vsv/diseases-maladies/hiv-vih-eng.php#hivc) this should not be taken to mean that just 3% of MSM who are infected have used drugs.
Instead, the number of MSM who are newly infected that have used drugs are approximately 15.5%. That is, to get the above “3% were men who have sex with men and use injection drugs” 6.8% of the “44% were men who have sex with men” must have used drugs or otherwise 15% of the total newly infected MSM population: 0.068*44 = 2.99; 6.8/44 = 15.45%.
In turn, this mean that the chances for a MSM being infected can be reduced up to 15% by avoiding the use of drugs as well as potentially even reducing the odds further (more than by the aforementioned 15%) by also avoiding having sex with those that do drugs. Keep in mind, the drug use in question are both drugs done by injections as well as smoking pipes and other equipment that could have others blood/bodily fluids on them.
The Canadian Aids Society says that, “People who use drugs comprise about 20% of the population in Canada infected with HIV and about 30% of new infections“ (http://www.cdnaids.ca/hivandpeoplewhousedrugs) in regard to the general population (homosexual and heterosexual combined). In other words, taking these numbers into account MSM can reduce their odds of becoming new infections by perhaps up to 15-30% by avoiding using drugs or having sex with those that do.
It would also appear that for some reason Health Canada is missing the same numbers for WSW, or has included them in the heterosexual category. Perhaps, it need less to say that women can gain aides from having sex with women as well as from drug use.
-----
DISCUSSION #2
As Submitted to: http://mancount.ca/whatis.html
"#2 Be advised that some of your locations that testings were done also may have lead to a higher HIV positive rate than random sampling. For example, the AIDS Walk and Gay's Men Heatlh Submit both may have participates that would be more likily to be infected than the general populations. What are the actual test results for these events?..."
on the behalf of OC Pride Group.
http://glbtmyokanagan.blogspot.com/
P.S. Since then I have found out, according to their website, that those that took part in the study did not recieve the test results. It read: '#1 It would seem that you did not count for that there might be a possibility that those that believe they are HIV/AIDS negative are less likely to get tested out of believe that there is no need to get tested (or out of fear finding out otherwise). Whereas, those that tested HIV/AIDS positive and who already knew of their status (approx. 86% according to your data: 100-14) were less stressed at finding out, because they knew what the results were going to be (presumably because of priori testing), and in turn might have felt more comfortable to participate. In turn, if the above is correct then those that already knew their status may feel more comfortable to participate, and this would lead to a higher percentage of those testing positive amongst the sample(s) of your studies population as compared to an unbiased random sample of the general population."
P.P.S. There are at least four (18% of the total) locations that blood samples were taking from that would likily have higher than normal positive results: the above two and two other locations. Risky sex practices are associated with greater likilyhood of infections, and some of the locations (the other two out of the four) in the study cater to persons that participate in these higher risk practices.
-----
DISCUSSION #1
There are approx. 58000 people (of all walks of sexuality including straights/heterosexuals) infected with AIDS/HIV currently living in Canada. 27% of people that are infected are unaware that they are infected. 51% of those that test positive for AIDS/HIV are males that have sex with other males. (source for all the above: http://www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/aids-sida/populations-eng.php#men.) There are approx. between 2300 and 4500 new cases in Canada of HIV/AIDS each year (http://www.avert.org/canada-hiv.htm, please note the reliability and validity of this source was not verified). Population of Canada is 33,873,357 of which 49% are males. 2% of the male population identifies themselves as gay or bi-sexual (this is a conservative estimate often stated): the larger this actual number is the lower the infection rate will be under these following calculations.
Very rough calculations:
33,873,357 x .49 = 16,597,944.93
16,597,944.93 x .02 = 331,958.8986
58,000 x .51 = 29,580
29,580 x .27 = 7,986.6
7986.6/331,958.8986 = 0.024059002
0.024059002 x 100 = 2.4059002%
There are several problems with this figure, a main problem with this figure is that because of the use of drugs many people can live many years while being infected and these figures are overly accumulative and therefore makes it seems statistically that all of the the 29,580 are currently sexual active in the gay and bi populations while in fact they (i.e., some to many) may not have been for years or decades. Another main problem is that it assumes that even if all this 58,000 are still sexually active (and there are no unknown cases) that only those unware that they are infected would continue to have sex (and those who would know either wouldn't have sex or would have sex with those that are also already infected).
Using the figure of 2,300 new cases per year (to attemp to reduce the accumulative affect):
2,300 x .51 = 1173
1173/331,958.8986
0.003533569 x 100 = 0.3533569%
The problem with using the number of new cases is it it presumes that these individuals will still continue to be sexually active (something hopefully doubtful) and it assumes time has remained constant (not going forward and the numbers of infected persons do not accumulated or infected persons do not die: needless to say, both assumptions being wrong). And, in reality if they stop being sexually active there would still be those that are unaware that they are infected and who are sexually active. It also presumes that all past infected people are known and 100% have stopped being sexually active with non-infected people (common sense would say this is, sadly, doubtful). What needs to be asked is 'on any random snapshot day how many infected gay or bi-sexual men are sexually active with non-infected men?' (what is meant by this is who are or will be sexually active for the present and statistically presumably the future).
It would seem that given the two data above would give a range of potentially still sexually active AIDS/HIV gay or bi-sexual males (who will have sex with non-infected males) maybe between 0.3533569% (this would be 1 out of approx. 284 partners) and 2.4059002% (approx. 1 out of 42 partners). However, you could also use (29,580/331,958.8986)x100 = 8.910741699% but the problem with this number is it assumes that ALL infected MSM are having sex with ONLY non-infected MSM (approx. 1 out of 11 partners). Therefore, it is probably most reasonable to assume that the potential range of infected partners, who a non-infected MSM could have is between 1 out of 284 (0.35%) to 1 out of 11 (8.9%) partners.
Interesting Reading:
http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2009/11/24/f-aids-hiv-global-epidemic.html
http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/hl-vs/iyh-vsv/diseases-maladies/hiv-vih-eng.php#hivc
Yearly increases by cases and rates by Specific Geographical Areas and other demographics:
http://www.bccdc.ca/util/about/annreport/default.htm
*1 in 40 gay men in Vancouver study unaware of HIV status: CBC News
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/1-40-gay-men-vancouver-study-unaware-hiv.html
To add on to the issue of man count here is some more math. Man count (2008) claims that 18.1% of the MSM population is infected with HIV. However, according to the Health Canada website roughly 65,000 people, in general, are infected with HIV (http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/hl-vs/iyh-vsv/diseases-maladies/hiv-vih-eng.php#hivc). ((33,143,600/2)*.02)*.181 = 59,989. If Man Count was correct, this would mean that infections amongest MSM would consist for 92.29% (59, 989/65,000) of all HIV infections in Canada. This is just ridiculousness to believe and is not supported by government information: "Of all prevalent HIV infections at the end of 2005, an estimated 51% were attributed to men who have sex with men (MSM)." (http://www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/aids-sida/populations-eng.php#men.)
(Canada 2008 population statistics -- http://www.statcan.gc.ca/daily-quotidien/080327/dq080327d-eng.htm)
----------
DISCUSSION #3
On the Health Canada website it states in regards to NEW INFECTIONS (of the combined homosexual and heterosexual populations) “3% were men who have sex with men and use injection drugs” (http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/hl-vs/iyh-vsv/diseases-maladies/hiv-vih-eng.php#hivc) this should not be taken to mean that just 3% of MSM who are infected have used drugs.
Instead, the number of MSM who are newly infected that have used drugs are approximately 15.5%. That is, to get the above “3% were men who have sex with men and use injection drugs” 6.8% of the “44% were men who have sex with men” must have used drugs or otherwise 15% of the total newly infected MSM population: 0.068*44 = 2.99; 6.8/44 = 15.45%.
In turn, this mean that the chances for a MSM being infected can be reduced up to 15% by avoiding the use of drugs as well as potentially even reducing the odds further (more than by the aforementioned 15%) by also avoiding having sex with those that do drugs. Keep in mind, the drug use in question are both drugs done by injections as well as smoking pipes and other equipment that could have others blood/bodily fluids on them.
The Canadian Aids Society says that, “People who use drugs comprise about 20% of the population in Canada infected with HIV and about 30% of new infections“ (http://www.cdnaids.ca/hivandpeoplewhousedrugs) in regard to the general population (homosexual and heterosexual combined). In other words, taking these numbers into account MSM can reduce their odds of becoming new infections by perhaps up to 15-30% by avoiding using drugs or having sex with those that do.
It would also appear that for some reason Health Canada is missing the same numbers for WSW, or has included them in the heterosexual category. Perhaps, it need less to say that women can gain aides from having sex with women as well as from drug use.
-----
DISCUSSION #2
As Submitted to: http://mancount.ca/whatis.html
"#2 Be advised that some of your locations that testings were done also may have lead to a higher HIV positive rate than random sampling. For example, the AIDS Walk and Gay's Men Heatlh Submit both may have participates that would be more likily to be infected than the general populations. What are the actual test results for these events?..."
on the behalf of OC Pride Group.
http://glbtmyokanagan.blogspot.com/
P.S. Since then I have found out, according to their website, that those that took part in the study did not recieve the test results. It read: '#1 It would seem that you did not count for that there might be a possibility that those that believe they are HIV/AIDS negative are less likely to get tested out of believe that there is no need to get tested (or out of fear finding out otherwise). Whereas, those that tested HIV/AIDS positive and who already knew of their status (approx. 86% according to your data: 100-14) were less stressed at finding out, because they knew what the results were going to be (presumably because of priori testing), and in turn might have felt more comfortable to participate. In turn, if the above is correct then those that already knew their status may feel more comfortable to participate, and this would lead to a higher percentage of those testing positive amongst the sample(s) of your studies population as compared to an unbiased random sample of the general population."
P.P.S. There are at least four (18% of the total) locations that blood samples were taking from that would likily have higher than normal positive results: the above two and two other locations. Risky sex practices are associated with greater likilyhood of infections, and some of the locations (the other two out of the four) in the study cater to persons that participate in these higher risk practices.
-----
DISCUSSION #1
There are approx. 58000 people (of all walks of sexuality including straights/heterosexuals) infected with AIDS/HIV currently living in Canada. 27% of people that are infected are unaware that they are infected. 51% of those that test positive for AIDS/HIV are males that have sex with other males. (source for all the above: http://www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/aids-sida/populations-eng.php#men.) There are approx. between 2300 and 4500 new cases in Canada of HIV/AIDS each year (http://www.avert.org/canada-hiv.htm, please note the reliability and validity of this source was not verified). Population of Canada is 33,873,357 of which 49% are males. 2% of the male population identifies themselves as gay or bi-sexual (this is a conservative estimate often stated): the larger this actual number is the lower the infection rate will be under these following calculations.
Very rough calculations:
33,873,357 x .49 = 16,597,944.93
16,597,944.93 x .02 = 331,958.8986
58,000 x .51 = 29,580
29,580 x .27 = 7,986.6
7986.6/331,958.8986 = 0.024059002
0.024059002 x 100 = 2.4059002%
There are several problems with this figure, a main problem with this figure is that because of the use of drugs many people can live many years while being infected and these figures are overly accumulative and therefore makes it seems statistically that all of the the 29,580 are currently sexual active in the gay and bi populations while in fact they (i.e., some to many) may not have been for years or decades. Another main problem is that it assumes that even if all this 58,000 are still sexually active (and there are no unknown cases) that only those unware that they are infected would continue to have sex (and those who would know either wouldn't have sex or would have sex with those that are also already infected).
Using the figure of 2,300 new cases per year (to attemp to reduce the accumulative affect):
2,300 x .51 = 1173
1173/331,958.8986
0.003533569 x 100 = 0.3533569%
The problem with using the number of new cases is it it presumes that these individuals will still continue to be sexually active (something hopefully doubtful) and it assumes time has remained constant (not going forward and the numbers of infected persons do not accumulated or infected persons do not die: needless to say, both assumptions being wrong). And, in reality if they stop being sexually active there would still be those that are unaware that they are infected and who are sexually active. It also presumes that all past infected people are known and 100% have stopped being sexually active with non-infected people (common sense would say this is, sadly, doubtful). What needs to be asked is 'on any random snapshot day how many infected gay or bi-sexual men are sexually active with non-infected men?' (what is meant by this is who are or will be sexually active for the present and statistically presumably the future).
It would seem that given the two data above would give a range of potentially still sexually active AIDS/HIV gay or bi-sexual males (who will have sex with non-infected males) maybe between 0.3533569% (this would be 1 out of approx. 284 partners) and 2.4059002% (approx. 1 out of 42 partners). However, you could also use (29,580/331,958.8986)x100 = 8.910741699% but the problem with this number is it assumes that ALL infected MSM are having sex with ONLY non-infected MSM (approx. 1 out of 11 partners). Therefore, it is probably most reasonable to assume that the potential range of infected partners, who a non-infected MSM could have is between 1 out of 284 (0.35%) to 1 out of 11 (8.9%) partners.
Interesting Reading:
http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2009/11/24/f-aids-hiv-global-epidemic.html
http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/hl-vs/iyh-vsv/diseases-maladies/hiv-vih-eng.php#hivc
Yearly increases by cases and rates by Specific Geographical Areas and other demographics:
http://www.bccdc.ca/util/about/annreport/default.htm
*1 in 40 gay men in Vancouver study unaware of HIV status: CBC News
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/1-40-gay-men-vancouver-study-unaware-hiv.html
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
"Paul Cameron, a former University of Nebraska assistant professor who now heads a group called the Family Research Institute, claims that gay men have an average life expectancy of 43 years.1 He and his co-authors calculated that figure by checking urban gay newspapers for obituaries and news stories about deaths. But as Walter Olson pointed out in Slate last December, this method produces an unrepresentative sample that includes only those who die; gay men of the same generation who live longer aren't in the sample at all! The sample also is biased toward urban gays who have AIDS and have come out of the closet."
Citation: http://www.columbia.edu/cu/21stC/issue-3.3/ross.html
Citation: http://www.columbia.edu/cu/21stC/issue-3.3/ross.html
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
SFU: Queer News Flash! Discussion Group
Time Wednesday, February 2 · 2:30pm - 4:00pm
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Location OOC Lounge, SFU Burnaby
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Created By Out On Campus, Out On Campus
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More Info The Spring semester's discussion groups are underway! The first discussion group is as follows:
Wednesday, February 2nd, from 2:30-4:00pm in the OOC lounge
Queer News Flash
We'll be taking in the news related to queer issues
and discussing the articles that come. Feel free to
bring an article with you!
See you there! And stay tuned for a schedule of all upcoming discussion groups.
facebook address: under "Queer News Flash! Discussion Group"
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Location OOC Lounge, SFU Burnaby
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Created By Out On Campus, Out On Campus
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
More Info The Spring semester's discussion groups are underway! The first discussion group is as follows:
Wednesday, February 2nd, from 2:30-4:00pm in the OOC lounge
Queer News Flash
We'll be taking in the news related to queer issues
and discussing the articles that come. Feel free to
bring an article with you!
See you there! And stay tuned for a schedule of all upcoming discussion groups.
facebook address: under "Queer News Flash! Discussion Group"