Meet our Newest Friendly Rectal Microbicide Advocate: Abimbola Onigbango Williams!

“Rectal microbicides are an important priority that need to be fully explored to provide males and females who engage in anal sex a way to protect themselves from HIV and perhaps other sexually related infections.”

Abimbola is an IRMA advocate from Lagos, Nigeria. There she is a public health researcher and advocate. She has a Master’s Degree in Public Health from the University of Ibadan in Nigeria, and is currently a Fulbright Scholar/ Hubert Humphrey Fellow at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. At Johns Hopkins her fellowship is focused on Public Health and Policy Management with an emphasis on Health Systems Strengthening.

Abimbola first became involved with IRMA when she attended the Project ARM meeting in Addis in December. The meeting gave her the opportunity to understand new ideas and perspectives on how to integrate anal health and rectal microbicides into her work as a researcher and advocate. It was also a great place to find common ground with meeting participants from all over the world on issues related to rectal microbicides. She thought the meeting was a huge success and left feeling inspired!

She believes rectal microbicides are a top priority, and we need to dedicate more time and resources to their development. She is already creating a greater awareness of rectal microbicides by educating individuals and key stakeholders through advocacy visits, information sharing, and helping them disseminate research materials.

Her advice to other IRMA advocates is to keep up the robust discussion on the listserv and continue advocating for healthy anal intercourse regardless of peoples’ sexual orientations. She also has a great tactic for combating stigma she faces for standing up for rectal microbicides. She first tries to educate people about health and anal health to create a safe space for a healthy discussion. Then, she brings up the idea of rectal microbicides. She finds this is especially helpful if someone isn’t very familiar with anal intercourse.

In her free time she loves travelling, playing badminton, and knitting.

Thanks Abimbola for all that you do!


[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.]

Race, Gender, & Sexuality in HIV Prevention Campaigns

via The Society Pages, by Christie Barcelos

Gay men and bisexual men still represent a disproportionate number of HIV cases in the United States (CDC). In addition, African-American and Latino men are significantly more likely than white men to be diagnosed with HIV and die from AIDS-related illnesses. Numerous HIV prevention campaigns are thus aimed at these populations.

It’s important to try to reduce the HIV among these populations, but we also need to think critically about how prevention strategies reinforce stigmatization.

For example, this ad from a western Massachusetts clinic uses the phrase “man up, get tested” — taking care of yourself by getting tested for HIV is linked to your masculinity. What’s interesting is that by including only men of color in the photo, the ad suggests that black and Latino men are particularly obsessed with their masculinity, more so, perhaps, than white men. It also potentially reinforces stereotypes about black men as hyper-sexualized and Latino men as machismo.

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.]

Searching for a Transsexual Community

From the Guardian, by Juliet Jacques

Settling into 'full-time' living, I stepped away from the places where I'd explored my gender, spending time with old friends as we intuitively worked out if my transition would affect our relationships. No longer feeling that I could only be myself in 'safe' spaces, I stopped going to 'T-friendly' mainstream gay clubs (where I was often the only T, sitting in the corner grinding my teeth as yet another musical abomination piped up), deciding that the best way to normalise my gender was to maintain as much continuity as possible with my pre-transition social life.

For the most part, this was fine. Fortunately, I lost very few friends and, being discerning about where I socialised, I encountered little friction away from the streets. Having discussed my transition so much on coming out, the resumption of long-standing arguments with old friends felt strangely cathartic. But I missed Brighton's queer scene: I no longer needed it in the same way, but I still liked the atmosphere at its events, as well as the tunes (sometimes they let me choose them, the fools) – and I'd made some good friends there.

As well as strengthening my few existing ties, I wanted to make new friends who understood the specific challenges of transsexual life. 'Tranny' nights, which felt more suited to those who would not transition (especially transvestites) didn't appeal, even before I came to define as transsexual, and I started to look beyond clubs (which often, on some level, cater for people of shared sexuality rather than gender identity) for community support.

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.]

'Kothis' (Feminised Males) Reducing Risk to HIV and Sexual Violence

from News Blaze, by Anjali Singh

Having faced ages of neglect, denial and invisibility, "Kothis" (feminised males) are now being mobilized by groups like 'Bharosa' in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh (India) to be empowered and demonstrate leadership in reaching out within their community for increasing access to essential services including HIV prevention, care, treatment and support services. They are routinely encouraged to practice safer sexual practices and protect themselves from any kind of abuse or exploitation.

Kothis, or feminised males, are unique and don't necessarily identify with gender identities of man, woman, or other identities now increasingly getting accepted like those of gays or men-who-have-sex-with-men (MSM). Kothis are neither gays nor eunuchs and because of this, they are outcasts in these groups and several rungs lower in social status. Thus, sans any rights within the said group, they are often severely exploited and abused.

Read more

Gender differences in immune response to HIV

From Kaiser News

New research showing that "a receptor molecule involved in the recognition of HIV-1 responds to the virus differently in women than in men," might "explain why HIV infection progresses faster to AIDS in women than in men with similar viral loads," the HealthDay/Greenville Daily Reflector reports. The study was conducted by researchers at the Ragon Institute of Massachusetts General Hospital, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University and will be published in an upcoming issue of the journal Nature Medicine. Study authors also note that during the early stages of infection, women tend to have a stronger immune response to HIV than men, but then progress to AIDS more quickly. The different immune system response "then leads to differences in chronic T-cell activation, a known activator of disease progression, according to the researchers," the article states (7/13). Researcher Marcus Altfeld said the findings raise new questions about how sex hormones affect HIV in the body. "Focusing on immune activation separately from viral replication might give us new therapeutic approaches" to treating HIV, he added (AFP/Google News, 7/13).