POZ love for IRMA - The Anal Dialogues

The July/August 2011 issue of POZ Magazine belongs to IRMA and rectal microbicides. Check it out for a nice history of our work and a snapshot of the science, including important information on lubricant safety.

via POZ.com, by Trenton Straub

Excerpt:

Perhaps IRMA’s most visible work is three game-changing reports it published in conjunction with the biennial International Microbicides Conference. The first, Rectal Microbicides: Investments & Advocacy in 2006, compiled what research was being done and where—a tricky task. “A lot of researchers were concerned that if ‘anal’ or ‘rectal’ appeared in research proposals or reports, they wouldn’t get funded, so they’d scrub their papers so those words wouldn’t show up,” LeBlanc says. “Instead, they would refer to ‘topical use of products’ or other language.” And because of the dangers surrounding the subject—male-to-male sex is illegal in many countries, including 31 in sub-Saharan Africa—IRMA first had to gain researchers’ trust, proving they were not raging advocates who would alienate and antagonize. Their professionalism paid off, and the report was a hit. “It showed we were serious,” Pickett says, “and we got hundreds of new members.” 


Read the rest.

[If an item is not written by an IRMA member, it should not be construed that IRMA has taken a position on the article's content, whether in support or in opposition.]