Hair Wars-PICS-Health-News-Sep 27, 2011-
"NO" Religious Discussion / Safe PICS For All Ages/
Boycott Trump-TARGET-FOX NEWS/Murdoch-Salvation Army
Support Keith Olbermann's show "Countdown with Keith Olbermann" - new on "CURRENT TV" (air's nightly @ 8 PM EST (Mon - Fri). About time - as we need progressive un-censored news! Replays at 11 PM Eastern and 2 AM Eastern.
Alert: Target + Minnesota Forward + Tom Emmer = Support for a rather dangerous and radical political philosophy that diminishes LGBT people to pests that should be murdered. And "Target" is cool with this? In San Diego LGBT community peacefully canvassed customers near their stores. In return, TARGET is suing the LGBT community for voicing our right of FREE SPEECH! Update: Target lost in court! David beat Goliath! What should you do? Return everything you bought to TARGET and tell them why! ....Boycott TARGET!!!!!Consider joining:
- Members should join our President Barack Obama group . (Health Care & Gay Rights, Gay Marriage, Repeal DOMA, Don't Ask & Don't Tell).... Osama Bin Laden is killed (May 1, 2011)! President Obama was totally involved and viewed the entire operation in real time. President Obama made a very serious decision that worked! Bravo!!!
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ObamaBiden2008/join - Wrestling Pic group @ http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CyberWrestlingGuys/join
- Bearhug Yahoo PIC Group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Bearhug/join
- HeadLock HeadScissor @
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HeadLockAndHeadScissorsWrestling/join - Heath Ledger group @ http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HeathLedgerTributeSite/join
- Bearhug Submission - NEW: Roommates, A New Coach (Episode 118, By Clay) (Continuing Wrestling Fiction Series). Your "Public" Yahoo Profile must include "Public" Age, Gender, Location - before you apply for membership @ http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BearhugSubmission_/join
Diet & Fitness:
- Reminder: Did you complete your Diet Journal today?
- Did you do any physical activity? If not, make a point of it by tomorrow!
- Perhaps our male fitness photos shall inspire you to get Fit!
Take Action:Health - Wellness - Exercise - Reflections:Reversing the Alarming HIV Increase Among Black Gay Men, Part 1 .
Monday, 19 September 2011 - By Rod McCullom, Special to the NNPA from the Black AIDS Institute Black Voice News
The first of a two-part series examining what can be done to reverse the high rates of new HIV infection among Black gay and bisexual men.
The number of new HIV cases in the United States has remained fairly stable at about 50,000 per year between 2006 and 2009, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that was published in early August in the online scientific journal PLoS ONE.
Predictably, the epidemic continues to affect Black America disproportionately: Forty-four percent of all new infections occurred among African Americans, who make up only about 13 percent of the population. And gay and bisexual men, who make up only an estimated two percent of the population, accounted for 61 percent of all new HIV infections in 2009. Young Black gay and bi men--"men who have sex with men" (MSM), in public health jargon--ages 13 to 29 experienced the greatest increases, with infection rates skyrocketing by more than 48 percent.
But government researchers described the soaring seroconversions among young Black MSM as "alarming." "The data is not surprising because we've been talking about young Black gay and bisexual men for some time," says A. Cornelius Baker, a member of the Presidential Advisory Council HIV/AIDS (PACHA), the senior communications consultant at AED Center on AIDS & Community Health and board chair of the Black AIDS Institute. "Now we have an opportunity to make some progress with bold and comprehensive strategies."
Viral Loads "Off the Chart"?
It's unclear why seroconversions are increasing.
"It's not just individual risk behavior. It's probably behavior plus late testing practices," says David J. Malebranche, M.D., M.P.H., assistant professor of medicine at Emory University in Atlanta and an expert on qualitative HIV behavioral prevention. "We see late testing across the Black community, such as in cancer, diabetes, high blood pressure. Plus, the heightened stigma of HIV certainly delays testing."
Experts estimate that African Americans make up 56 percent of all "late testers"--people who learn of their positive HIV serostatus so far along in their illness that the disease progresses to AIDS within one year of diagnosis. "That means their viral loads are off the charts," Dr. Malebranche adds. The presence of high amounts of HIV in the body makes a person significantly more infectious.
Once people become aware of their HIV-positive status, not only are they more likely to take steps such as using condoms to avoid infecting their sexual partners, but research now shows that beginning treatment soon after diagnosis makes people with HIV/AIDS significantly less infectious.
But Black HIV-positive gay and bi men are least likely of all MSM to be aware of their serostatus. Among HIV-positive Black MSM under age 30, 71 percent were previously unaware of their infection. So not only does their own disease progress unimpeded, but they may unknowingly pass HIV to others.
"We also have higher rates of STDs that can lead to higher risk for HIV," says Dr. Malebranche. "We have to look at sexual networks among Black gay men, especially in Black gay enclaves in large urban centers and rural areas. We tend to sexually partner with each other more so than other races." A significant body of research has shown that sexual networks can play a critical role in facilitating the spread of STDs, including HIV.
The apparent rise in new HIV infections could also reflect the success of recent efforts to aggressively test Black gay men, rather than an increase in new infections themselves, Dr. Malebranche adds.
New CDC-Sponsored Social-Marketing Campaign Targets Black MSM
For years HIV/AIDS activists have criticized the CDC for responding inadequately to persistently high increases in new infections among Black MSM. Today, however, the CDC is receiving high marks for a new social-marketing and public-awareness campaign to encourage HIV testing among Black MSM. The campaign, titled Testing Makes Us Stronger, debuted in August at the 2011 National HIV Prevention Conference in Atlanta and will officially launch on Sept. 27 in Atlanta, Houston, New York, Baltimore and Oakland, Calif.
The new data "underscores the urgency of reaching young Black men who have sex with men," Kevin Fenton, M.D., Ph.D., director of the CDC's National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention, told reporters during a telebriefing. "We cannot allow the health of a new generation of young Black gay and bisexual men to be lost to essentially preventable diseases."
The testing message is a critical component of the new campaign.
"Knowing one's status is important in order to get medical care and treatment for their infection," says Richard Wolitski, a deputy director in the CDC's HIV/AIDS Prevention Division. "The CDC has shown that people who know their status engage in behaviors that significantly reduce risk for others of contracting HIV."
"Testing Makes Us Stronger builds on the strengths of young Black gay and bisexual men," adds Wolitski. "We wanted to show Black gay couples who are loving and supportive and, at the same time, document a diverse range of strong men in [the] community."
The program will include transit, magazine and online advertising--and outreach across Facebook, Twitter, blogs and "hookup" websites popular with Black MSM.
"The young men we are targeting are on these sites," says Daniel Driffin, a 25-year-old prevention specialist at the Atlanta-based National AIDS & Education Services for Minorities. "It makes perfect sense for [the] CDC to be there--especially because the first place many men [my age] get information is [the] Internet."
Kali Lindsey, the 30-year-old senior director of federal policy at Harlem United, was part of a CDC advisory group on the messaging. "The process was refreshing. They brought in about 19 or 20 of us who had expertise in delivering messages to Black gay men," he says.
Venton Jones, senior program associate for communications at the National Black Gay Men's Advocacy Coalition, also participated in the work group. "It's great that [the] CDC took our responses and made sure that the campaign portrayed the diversity of images of Black gay men," says the 27-year-old about the photography of the critically acclaimed Duane Cramer, a San Francisco-based Black gay photographer who snapped a variety of Black men for the campaign. "One or two images cannot fully represent who we are," Jones adds.
"The campaign is a step in the right direction to raise awareness in the community," says Harlem United's Lindsey, and "to encourage dialogue to where people are regularly engaging in conversations about HIV."
- Boycott Bill O'Reilly and FOX News and their advertisers. Bill discussed a French commercial by McDonalds that was meant to show that McDonalds is Gay Friendly. Bill said what is next? Is McDonalds going to be Al-Qaida friendly as well? Imagine - Bill O'Reilly compares Gays to Al-Qaida! Boycott Fox's Owner "Rupert Murcoch" and get him thrown in jail for illegal - political donations, corruption, greed, bribery, hacking!
- Boycott Target, Best Buy, Gold's Gym - for donating money towards anti-gay political candidates/organizations. Update: (12/26/2010): Target is continuing to donate to anti-gay groups/causes/politicians. Update 03/08/11 - Lady Gaga Ends Target Partnership, Reportedly Over Target's Poor LGBT Stance. Update 3/25/2010 - Target displays their hypocrisy and Sues California Gay Rights Group for Lobbying Outside Stores. Target is attempting to block the LGBT right of free speech! STOP SHOPPING AT TARGET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Update 4/8/2011: Target lost its case to stop the LGBT from canvassing in front of their stores. A huge PR Disaster for TARGET! Perhaps Target should go out of business as they betrayed their investers and customer base. Target contributed massive funds to a politician who would like to exterminate gays. Now, Target can not stop us from Boycotting them, nor picketing, nor talking to customers near their stores; although, Target allows a anti-gay company such as the Salvation Army to stand outside their door and speak with customers and raise money. Isn't this a double standard?
- End DOMA (Defense of Marriage Act). Prevents Federal employees and Gays in the Military from gaining equal benefits. Prevents Gay Partners from gaining equal benefits.
- Pass ENDA (Employee Non-Discrimination Act). ENDA would prevent employment discrimination of LGBT workforce.
- Boycott Salvation Army as they will not hire Gays! "DO NOT DONATE TO THEM."
- BOYCOTT "Chick-fil-a" for donating money to anti-gay groups.
- BOYCOTT KOCH INDUSTRIES PRODUCTS- to include their products: Angel Soft toilet paper / Brawny paper towels / Dixie plates, bowls, napkins & cups / Mardi Gras napkins and towels / Quilted Northern toilet paper / Soft 'n Gentle toilet paper / Sparkle napkins / Vanity fair napkins / Zee napkins / Georgia-Pacific paper products & envelopes / All Georgia-Pacific lumber & building products (INVISTA Products) / Lycra / Stainmaster Carpet. The billionaire - Koch brothers are ultra republican - tea bag founders/supporters that do not support causes of the LGBT community.
- Boycott WALMART - The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, force criticized Wal-Mart for denying employee benefits to same-s-x partners and for failing to prohibit discrimination based on gender identity. By comparison, the group said two other chain stores with a strong presence in New York, Costco and Walgreens, did much better.
- "Tune Out Trump", Boycott all Trump Hotel, casinos, holdings, The Apprentice and NBC Network! At CPAC, Trump said he is considering a run for president as a Republican. In a interview with the Des Moines Register, Trump added that he opposes all forms of legal recognition for gay couples, not just marriage. "They should not be able to marry," he said. So why does NBC keep the Apprentice when Donald Trump has stated he may run for president? After making racist remarks about Obama and recv'g public backlash, Trump decided not to run for president after NBC renewed his awful TV Show. How can NBC re-new the clown's show after he pulled such hateful shenanigans? Boycott NBC! Boycott advertisers of The Apprentice and Trump's other business's. Don't shop at any bullding with Donald Trump's name to include Trump Hotels, Casinos, Condo's, Offices, Shops! The Donald has expressed extreme Hatred towards gays and blacks with his birther remarks and anti-gay rhetoric. Remember how poorly Trump treated Rosie O'Donnel? Now we know why he did that! It was hate against a lesbian as we now know he is biget. Unforgiveable! Again, Dump NBC because they air/re-newed Donald Trump's "The Apprentice"! Now the Donald Claims the Long Form Birth certificate is a fraud. And NBC keeps this guy?
- Boycott Georgia for Execution of Troy Davis @ 11:08 EST, Sep 21, 2011:
Former US President and Former GA Gov. Jimmy Carter felt that TROY DAVIS should not be executed and deserved a re-trial. The Former Director of the FBI feels that TROY DAVIS Was Not Guilty! Do not drive through Goergia as it is dangerous. Do not fly via Atlanta. Do not travel to GA. TELL YOUR COMPANY NOT TO PARTICIPATE IN A CONVENTION IN GA! "Georgia Executes Innocent People!"
And Now, Our War of the Fittest!
This group is called "Peckers Pics." The English - slang definition of "pecker" is to pluck at the truth. Therefore, we peck at items such as Gay Men's Health, Male Fitness, Gay (LGBT) Politics & Issues. In this section you may peck at each photo in order to decide the winner of the "war of the fittest!" Whereas, you should select the "Guy" that may inspire you to exercise and "get fit!" Warning: This may stoke you!
Your participation in discussion of health / news articles - appearing in this message is greatly appreciated.
Important Notice: Our ObamaBiden2008 Group works hand - in - hand with Peckers PICS (Both groups were co-created to work with each-other). To prevent duplication of articles and questions, all members of this group are expected to join ObamaBiden2008. It is unfair for members that belong to both groups to hear members of just Peckers PICS (only) to make statements when the ObamaBiden2008 has covered such topics in detail. Therefore, members need to join ObamaBiden2008 immediately. This shall clear up communications and confusion. The LGBT cause is too important and beyond 1 person's need to just look at pictures. Therefore, please join ObamaBiden2008 now. No you don't have to read every article! But, it covers the LGBT community and includes updates on Health insurance; LGBT boycott list; Westboro Church; and the end of DADT, etc...Also, updates with the multi - state gov't's war against unions and people with disabilities. The group is created for you! There are gay teen suicides going on. There are Hate crimes against gay people. There are gays who are fired over their sexual identity. There are gay people who died for our cause! You always reserve the right to remove yourself from all my groups if you do not appreciate this request. I have done everything I can and now it is time for you to step up! My Groups are for Yahoo members who sincerely care about LGBT rights and Gay Mens Health! Please Join Now!