If you haven’t voted yet, please go do so now. Even if you’re in a state that’s clearly going to be won by Obama (like me) – this is an election you want to vote in. We want an overwhelming mandate via the popular vote and the electoral college.

So stand up and be counted!

If your in California you definitely must vote. The battle on Prop 8 is just too close – every vote may count on this one…

This morning I walked past my polling place only to see the line out the door and a considerable way down the block and the Associated Press was there filming the line. This was at 10:30 in the morning! So I went at 2pm and the line for my voting district was quite long and the AP was still there with cameras both outside and inside. Took me 35 minutes to get all the way through the line, but that could have been worse.

The FBI has released it’s hate crime statistics for 2007, and they say there were 1460 hate crimes based on sexual orientation. If you take out the 27 that were anti-heterosexual crimes, there were 1433 crimes against the LGB community last year (transsexuals don’t seem to be included as a category). That’s 3.9 every day…

The FBI statistics reveal that hate crimes against our community are on the rise, whereas other types of hate crimes are going down.

But I’m a little suspicious- the homicide numbers seem low. They say only 5 LGBT people were killed last year. But the video from FightOutLoud.org I mentioned back in early March documented 7 deaths in just the first two months of this year: Shanesa Stewart, Adolphus Simmons, Alexio Bello, Patrick (“Patricia”) Murphy, an unidentified transgender woman in Detroit, Lawrence King, and Simmie (“Beyonce”) Williams Jr. How can only 5 have been killed in all of last year when we had 7 die in just two months this year?

I haven’t been tracking the stats very well since then, but just the other day two elderly gay men were bludgeoned to death in their home – Milton Lindgren, age 70, and Eric Hendricks, age 73. I’m sure there are others as well.

I’m guessing the FBI’s standards for calling something a hate crime are a bit too stringent. Looking at who’s been killed so far this year it’s overwhelmingly black, hispanic and/or transgendered people getting killed. It makes you wonder if those killings are getting handled properly and correctly labeled as hate crimes.

Also, given how the campaigns have gone, it’s pretty clear which presidential candidate will be more likely to A) have the FBI report the data correctly, and B) take meaningful steps to reduce the violence against our community.

I’m swamped with work and it’s making me not so horny… Guys want to hookup and I just never seem up for it. I’ll get back in the swing of things in a couple days, but I thought I’d share a study I found through LifeLube (possibly the only pro-condom site I’ll say good things about).

The gist of the study is that repeated exposure to other strains of HIV maintains a strong anti-HIV immune response in the bodies of guys who are already poz. While super-infection is theoretically possible, it’s extremely rare. What’s more normal is for the poz bottom to actually benefit from the poz cum he’s getting in his ass…

We found that individuals, who regularly engaged in unprotected receptive sexual intercourse with an HIV-1 infected viremic partner, displayed higher T cell responses to HIV proteins compared to those who were not regularly exposed to a viremic partner. None of the individuals within this study showed evidence of systemic super-infection. Exposure had limited impact on general activation or poly-functionality. These results are clearly of importance for HIV-1 infected individuals who chose to engage in unprotected sexual activity with other HIV-1 infected individuals. These data also reveal a more general mechanism that occurs in infectious diseases: immune responses to chronic viruses are influenced not only by the virus within the host, but also by exposure to the virus from without.

So from an HIV perspective, poz guys apparently will stay healthier if they take loads up their ass from other poz guys, at least on average. Of course you also have to factor in the negative effect of the other STDs you’re likely to get – it’s not 100% beneficial.

Read the study

Get this one… A 23 year old DJ in Raleigh North Carolina named Josh Weaver is under house arrest for barebacking – complete with one of those electronic ankle bracelets. He had plead guilty earlier to having sex on three occasions without disclosing that he was poz and received probation that stipulated that he wasn’t allowed to have any unprotected sex. Well, he got an STD the health officials said could have been prevented with a condom and now he’s under house arrest for violating his probation.

Personally, I don’t get it. I can see criminalizing lying about your HIV status, but I don’t get how it’s the poz guy’s responsibility to tell if the neg guy doesn’t ask especially in anonymous situations. What happened to the concept of personal responsibility? NO ONE IS RESPONSIBLE FOR YOUR HEALTH EXCEPT YOU!

He’s living with his father, so if he’s really lucky his dad is cool with him having guys over. Once his probation is up I’d suggest he come to some place like New York where disclosure isn’t mandatory.

I mean, a guy who’s that hot should have all the sex he wants…  I know I’d fuck him  😉

ADDITION:

One thing I want to add here… If he’s on meds and has an undetectable viral load. He’s safer to have sex with than a “neg” versatile guy who’s running around barebacking and not getting tested regularly.

The laws were written in an era where poz guys were pretty infectious pretty much all the time. That’s not the case any more and I’d love to see one of these laws challenged on the basis of the person in question had an undetectable viral load.

To say that all poz guys have to disclose all the time and not require neg guys who haven’t been tested in say the last three months to disclose that their status is actually “unknown” simply makes no sense. The current policy is a lot like a scarlet letter.

Saw this video on Towleroad – it’s brilliant. It reminds us once again why it’s important to vote for gay and gay friendly candidates this year. It’s about giving future generations visible options, letting them know they can be who they want to be, achieve what they want to achieve.

Now compare that to this…

There’s so much I could say about that clip, but the point is many of us grew up around people like that (in my case they managed to state their bigotry a bit more tactfully, but the bottom line was about the same). It’s vital that young gay teens see that when they get the opportunity to get out from under those circumstances there’s a life waiting for them that’s worth living.

Believe it or not, I woke up this morning still drunk. Not a hangover – drunk… I can’t remember the last time I drank that much…

It started with me getting out of the apartment so I didn’t have to deal with my boyfriend. I went downtown, had a chicken burger at Better Burger (they were packed at 3pm!), then wandered around town. Sat in Union Square for a while watching people go by. It’s all there – homess people mixed in with Yuppies, mixed in with parents with new kids… Even the homeless people had diversity – there was the young, hip, homeless group (sorta like hippies), and the ones that looked more like stereotypical bums.

Then I had an idea to go watch a movie, but despite walking past a bunch of theaters didn’t find anything that I wanted to watch happening near the time when I was at the theather. I just missed the showing of W. – that would have been cool.

So I wound up at Gym Bar. Ordered a Maker’s Mark on the rocks and they gave me this HUGE glass of it, though it tasted a little watered down (the ice must have melted quickly or something). Thing is, people don’t really talk to strangers at Gym, so after I had finished the burbon I left. I walked up to 23rd to see what was playing at the cinema there, but didn’t see anything I wanted to watch, so I got a muffin at Murray’s Bagels to sop up the alcohol and then went to Rawhide. [BTW, incredible muffin…]

Rawhide is just really low key and friendly. People talk to each other there – and not just in packs of friends who already know each other. The people aren’t as attractive as Gym, but if you just want to hang out and talk to people Rawhide is so much better…

Let’s see, there was a guy from Hoboken (NJ) who’d lived in Hoboken his whole life. Then there was “Juan from Weehauken” (NJ) who was really aggressive about wanting to get fucked (not my type though). Surprisingly he didn’t have much luck and was still coming onto people hours later. Both of the guys from NJ tried to convince me that they lived closer to the bar than I did.

Most of the night was spent talking to Bob – a guy who was playing pool and beating absolutely everyone. He was a bit of a pool shark. It was fascinating watching him. He’d literally miss shots to prolong the game and make people think the game was competitive. When I asked him about himself he was sorta evasive – made it sound like he had homes all over the place and just went around playing tennis and stuff. Curious guy.

All in all I had 4 Wild Turkeys and a Stella at Rawhide. All the drinks there and at Gym were pretty big. Since that study I’m doing has me tracking how much I drink I actually updated a note on my cell phone every time I got a new drink. It’s the only way I actually remember how much I drank – came out to 9.5 “standard drinks” (where a shot, a glass of wine or a bottle of beer is one standard drink).

Needless to say I was seriously drunk and it was a really good thing I didn’t drive. I had been eating all night trying to absorb the alcohol. Even left Rawhide at one point to get one of those horribly dry muffins they sell at the bake shop on 23rd & 8th, and I got a sandwich on the way to the subway. Even with all that the subway ride home was sorta miserable. I was tired, but had to keep my eyes open otherwise I’d get motion sickness.

So I get home and my bf is coming out of the building walking the dogs. And I walk the dogs with him. He had sent me a couple text messages during the day. He finally decided to read the blog thinking I was giving people intimacy and withholding it from him (he’d never read it before). The fact of the matter is we’re pretty intimate already (though not all that sexual), and the guys I fuck are often just holes to me.

When I got to the apartment I just collapsed and went to bed. When I woke amazingly I was still drunk. Not hung over… drunk.

My bf and I talked a bit. He’s cooled off, but said he was disturbed by what he read here on the blog (I didn’t ask details). Honestly, I don’t know where things stand exactly or what comes next… I’ll deal with that when I sober up…  😉