Young Asian Men at Fault for Rapid Spread of HIV

Photo courtesy of gay.com

Source: Associated Press, Feburary 20, 2009

The AIDS virus is spreading rapidly among gay and bisexual men in Asia as younger people shun condoms and authorities fail to increase awareness of the disease, health officials said Friday.

The epidemic will worsen dramatically in coming years unless there is better education and stronger political will to combat the disease, warned Massimo Ghidinelli, the World Health Organization's regional adviser on HIV/AIDS ...

Asia is believed to have the world's largest number of men who have sex with other men, with a preliminary estimate of 10 million, according to WHO.

My comment: Young men are more susceptible to the AIDS virus because they often see sex as "playtime," one without any consequences. Such circumstances are further reinforced by first, the absence of any unwanted pregnancies, and two, society's equation of masculinity with aggressive sexuality. Both forces shape the youth mindset, which in turn, are harbingers of a sexual health tragedy.

While describing the figure as "extraordinary high," Ghidinelli said it still appeared to be conservative because of the stigmatization of male-to-male sex.

WHO said fragmentary information from the region indicated a rapid spread of HIV among gay and bisexual men, but that full data weren't available ...

Ghidinelli said low condom use among younger men in male-to-male relationships was fueling the transmission of HIV.

"Younger men engaging in sex with men are entering into a sexual arena without the same level of awareness and without taking the same level of protection that the older generation was taking," Ghidinelli told a news conference ...

My comments: Young gay men, regardless of race, class, or geographical origins, are in fact, at a greater risk of being infected by the AIDS virus due to two factors. First, they have this false sense of security that is shaped by the realization that unlike their straight peers, they will never have to face the consequences of a woman's pregnancy. Second, young gay men, like their straight peers, are part of this larger society's equation of masculinity with aggressive sexuality. The overall tone of gay porn is of that. Romantic sexuality is rarely depicted, even in soft gay porn or R-rated films. With such palpable media messages assaulting the young, impressionable mindset, what else can happen but hyper-sexualization of the penis, one unadorned by rubbers?

AIDS: Renewing the Promise of a Cure

Feb. 9 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. government and the richest charity are offering bounties to a new wave of scientists to wipe out HIV, the virus that causes AIDS and is one of the world’s biggest killers.

Frustrated by one failure after another, the U.S. is asking scientists to outline a major program to find a cure for HIV, while the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in Seattle is offering grants of $100,000 for researchers working on ways to drive the virus from patients’ bodies for good. Scientists are responding with new methods to stamp HIV from human cells and tissues where traces of it can hide for years, evading treatment.

The above excerpt is from a longer article in Bloomberg.com (Click here). Apparently, scientists are frustrated with the lack of progress in finding a cure. So far, all experimental vaccines have failed to spread the disease, which these days, strikes down nearly 3 million patients per year.

I applaud these renewed efforts, but until we do find a vaccine, the US government, and all of us, common citizens included, must step up efforts in AIDS education. There is a squeamishness in the schools to discuss safe sex education. This squeamishness is regrettable, even deadly.

And some quarters in the gay community are still playing fire with their lives, barebacking being one of those means. After the heavy toll of the 1980s and early 1990s, there has been a more laissez faire attitude toward sexual intimacy in the gay community. The advent of more advanced drugs for HIV patients has led to a wrongheaded attitude that AIDS is just a minor pest.

Some of this risky behavior is sometimes rooted in self-hatred, which in turn, arises from rejection by the larger society. So greater acceptance from society can go some way to shifting the goalpost of the fight against AIDS. But no doubt, gays themselves must also share the responsibility of knowing what is right and what is wrong. Perhaps it is time for a renewed alarm.

Desires of a "Concubine" (Film Review)

Sometimes I re-watch certain movies, often because of the universality of the theme. Such is the case with "Farewell My Concubine" (1992, Chinese with English subtitles, 171 minutes). Do not let the length of the movie, or that it is in Chinese, daunt you. The film is worth several bags of popcorn (and you know how much they cost these days in the theater!), and more.

The story reminds me--to a degree--of a flip side to "Brokeback Mountain," that great film by Ang Lee that won him an Oscar for best director. If "Brokeback" is about overtly challenging the archetype of the American cowboy, demythologizing them as overly masculine, "Farewell" is about embracing the conventional understanding of Chinese gays as effeminate. Yet "Farewell," directed by avart garde director Chen Kaige, is hardly an endorsement of gay stereotypes.

Against the entire turbulent sweep of Chinese history, from the bloody era of warlords of the 1920s through the equally tragic Cultural Revolution of the 1960s, "Farewell" pivots around the male relationship between two Beijing Opera actors--Douzi (played by the late Hong Kong pop star, Leslie Cheung) and Shitou (played by mainlander Zhang Fengyi). Their complex friendship begins during boyhood at the grueling Beijing opera training school. Douzi is forced, against his will, to train to play female roles (in those days, all Chinese female operatic roles were played by men). Shitou, in contrast, trained to play male roles.

Years later, the boys have matured into accomplished actors, who each has earned stellar reviews from their adoring fans. But in private, the men have an uneasy relationship. Douzi, the effeminate one, has fallen in love with Shitou, but the latter does not return his affections. In fact, Shitou is a well-known womanizer, though one with strong brotherly affections for Douzi.

Soon Shitou's carousing catches up with him. A prostitute, Juixian (Gong Li), at a local brothel, claims that Shitou, during one of his visits to the establishment, has proposed to her, and now demands that he honors his promise.

Soon marriage arrives for Shitou. And thus trouble arrives too. Douzi, enraged by the turn of events, begins a tussle with Juixian for the affections of Shitou. Does Douzi get his way? How can he prove his undying "brotherhood" to Shitou? Will he betray his country, even his profession, so as to save Shitou from the march of history? Will unrequited love triumph over self-interests? Or will survival of the fittest overcome honor and friendship?

Never has a Chinese film been so ambitious in its scope. The backdrop of its turbulent history is more than just window dressing. It is the necessary setting for this probing look into how the line between public and private, between policy and creativity, between duty and desire, becomes blurred. Along the way, we realize that personal identity--the self--is made of many overlapping layers. Homosexuality is just simply one of them.

The film won multiple awards, include the highest honor at the Cannes Film Festival, and was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film for the Oscars.

Postscript: Leslie Cheung, who plays Douzi, committed suicide in 2003. By then an openly gay singer-cum-actor, Leung had been suffering from depression. Look for eerie parallels between Cheung and his alter ego in this film.

My Storied Past 1: From "Mak Nyah" in Asia to Gay in America

"In July 2006, one evening I was sitting in a car with another man in a public park, in a suburb of Kuala Lumpur. We were just talking, there was nothing sexual going on. This park is known among gay people as a place to hang out. We call it “lost world.” Around 10pm, a police patrol car with two police officers pulled up. I still remember that moment. I thought I was going to die. The officers were both Malay Muslims. They quickly approached the car and grabbed us. ONE officer dragged my companion about six to eight meters away. They pushed us each to opposite sides and quickly grabbed our IDs. They tried to force us to admit that we were doing something wrong so that they would have a reason to bring us back to the police station. I only had one thing in my mind there. I was so frightened. I thought that I am not going to see the morning tomorrow.
The police officers made us stand with our backs to them facing the car and put our hands on the car. We said we did nothing wrong. They said two men inside a car in a public park was already wrong. I said again to them, “We did nothing wrong.” One officer said, “Don’t lie to me. We all know what people are doing in the park at this hour.” I said, “Officer, I don’t know what you had the occasion to catch people doing in the park at this hour but I am telling you the truth.” I was afraid because I knew that if I admitted I was gay I would be in serious trouble. I tried to act regretful, hoping they would have some pity and soften up. I was praying that the officers would believe me."

This anecdotal account is excerpted from a long, unpublished essay written by Dr. Walter Williams, a leading scholar in gay studies. In this extended essay, Williams overviews the insidious influence of Islamic fundamentalism in Malaysia, the country of my birth.

Like the Chinese Malaysian gay man of the above story, I too am of Chinese descent. And like that man, I have always lived in fear. I have lived in fear of my identity--but only for few years, unlike this young man.

Coming out to myself in my late teens, I was at that time hundreds of miles away from home. Then in college, my new home was a touristy island and a place of trade exposed for centuries to cosmopolitan ideas. At times, that island of pristine beaches and stupendous vistas embodied my aspirations, as I fell in love over and over again.

Even later when I was banished to a rural area of obvious Islamic fundamentalism to teach high school, I feared nothing. Respected and beloved by my students of all faiths and creed, iI found solace in my vocation. And I found someone to care for--a father figure, a man of little formal schooling, but of much wisdom.

So how is it that this "Mak Nyah" (Malay derogatory term for transvestites, but also used broadly to apply to homosexuals) ended up in America? When did my fears begin?

That moment of epiphany seemed so distant, so hazy. And yet, Williams's essay prickled my subconscious. It vexed me.

For me, perhaps that moment was seeded by the prim and proper English instructor--a woman who had attended Oxford, a woman whose skirt was always of the polite length--of my undergraduate years. Somehow, I received the assignment of making a speech on the sodomy laws of Malaysia as part of the coursework in the Speech class. I resisted, she insisted. Such is the irony of life.

I do not remember the exact parameters of my fifteen-minute talk, but surely I must have covered some highlights of the said laws, and here I quote from Williams's essay again:

"In Malaysia’s Penal Code, Section 377, the sentence for conviction of sodomy is flogging, plus up to twenty years in prison. Victims are flogged with a section of bamboo that is split into several strips. When bamboo is split it has extremely sharp edges, which slice the skin like knives. Flogging is quite bloody, and leaves permanent scars. In addition to Section 337, just to prevent any homosexual from escaping conviction, Section 337A provides for a male to receive up to two years in prison for any act of “gross indecency with another male person.” This vague wording allows prosecution for any kind of erotic interaction between two males. This law is explicitly applied only to homosexual behavior among males, but lesbians also suffer discrimination."

I thought little of these laws--a young man caught up in the frenzy of tests, quizzes, and paper writing could scarcely have time to mull over such heady stuff. But such thoughts must have remain in my subconscious, and like what Thomas Jefferson said, they came back like "a fire bell in the night," filling "me with terror." They came back one unexpected day.

Sex, Money, & Lies: A Tale of a Gay Candidate

Photo of Earl Rynerson, candidate for Fort Lauderdale mayor
Source: www.earlformayor.com

Fort Lauderdale, for those of you who have been living in the parched deserts of Africa, is of course the gay oasis in Florida. Circuit parties with free flowing booze and wild frenzy sex on the beach seemingly is the dominant image of this city. I have never seen much of that, but then again, I am a goody good two shoes.

That said, it is, still, a boring city. No one really cares about politics in that town. At least, not the average gay man who worries more about his sagging behind, Clinique concealer, and the next "date" than does he of sewers and sewage.

So when a gay candidate running for mayor grabs headlines, then you know it's serious business or is it? Earl Rynerson, an openly gay man, apparently is the man under heavy scrutiny. Why?

First, he admits that he has refused to pay a number of bills for services rendered, ranging from a fence built for his house to a vacation in Africa. If you ask me, he sounds like a "drama queen" who is high maintenance. I say to him: Pay the bills and end the B-rated soap opera. After all, it's just money; give it to some poor contractors or service providers who need them rather than the go-go boys.

Second, reports have surfaced that he has subscribed to sex sites, including one geared for men into bondage. Frankly, none of this is shocking to me. Most gay men have joined one site or another over a long gay lifetime. And if one has not, well, there is something wrong with him. He has never heard of the saying, "joining the herd."

Rynerson also tried to pass himself off as "Lt. Col. Earl Rynerson." Apparently, the man has not been in active duty for more than a decade, and military regulations dictate you cannot claim that rank in such circumstances. I say this is no big deal. The man obviously likes to play GI Joe. And gays always exaggerate anyways--it's either you are real young (when in fact, you are ten years older, wrinkled and all), real muscular (when in fact, you are actually stocky), or you are financially comfortable (when in fact, you are just making the ends meet).

So you see, life in gay old Fort Lauderdale is truly boring. In fact, gays everywhere are just like everyone--boring to the core, like all human beings. Click here for here an article on Rynerson.

Dying Young: A Fifth of Gay People Attempted Suicide

A recent study released by Ireland's Ministry for Health concluded that nearly a fifth of the respondents of this large-scale study (though the exact number of respondents was not reported) have attempted suicide. This inclination stems from their sexual identity and the "experiences of being abused and feeling isolated."

The study goes on make this startling revelation: 80 percent of the respondents reported as having been verbally abused due to their sexual identity and more than half had been bullied whilst in school. Some forty percent of them reported of having been threatened with physical violence. Click here for full article.

I find these findings quite alarming. One of the most recent studies for United States--sampling more than 2,800 interviewees--support the overall conclusions of that Irish study. More than one in five men have at least contemplated suicide. Twelve percent of the sample reported actual suicide attempts, and of this group, about 70 percent reported having tried to do so before age 25. Also, 45 percent of those who had attempted suicide had done so more than once.

The US study concluded that "gay and bisexual males—particularly younger gay and bisexual males—constitute a high-risk group for attempted suicide." And the risk factor for gays and bisexuals is much higher than that for the general population, and that risk is higher at a younger age since coming out among adolescents and youth exposes them to greater social stigmatization and hostility than at a later age. Click here here for full article.

Intimacy in Gay-Straight Relationships

Above is the trailer for the play, "Terra Haute."

Have you wondered if it is possible for a gay man to have a platonic, yet intimate, relationship with a straight man?

I think this is one of the central, though no means only, questions, raised in gay writer Edmund White's new--and perhaps, most successful--play, "Terra Haute." Loosely based on another equally well-known gay writer's--Gore Vidal--work, "Terra Haute" is currently running in New York City. Unlike the play, Vidal's prose work is a series of extended essays. In them, Vidal documents his emotionally charged correspondence with Timothy McVeigh, who bombed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. Vidal, however, denies that he was ever remotely attracted to McVeigh.

Similarly, but not exactly, "Terra Haute" centers around the relationship between an aging, financially comfortable, bisexual journalist and a young, poor, masculine, straight terrorist awaiting execution. What happens when two correspondents, after developing a paper-only relationship, finally meets and sees each other in the true light serves as the conflict of this play.

The drama pivots on the theme of "different types of loneliness," to quote White himself. Like many of his earlier novels such as the highly celebrated, coming-of-age tale, "A Boy's Own Story" and "The Married Man," this play explores "distances in male relationships ... created by differences in age, sexuality or expectations," to quote a New York Times article. White explains also: “I’d hope that thinking about them in terms of their intimacy can raise questions about how they relate to the world,” he said.

So is "Terra Haute" a gay play? Not so, says the playwright. For ultimately this is a play about the humanity of even the most cold or menacing people. The sexuality in the play is simply a vehicle to convey the humanity, the commonality that binds men and women, old and young, children and adults--all of us in this iridescent world.

In that respect, for me, both of the most recent blog entries, speak to the same undercurrents; We must search for the inner war that often breaks out within us. That war rages on, incessantly, and only we, as individuals, can harness its energies for a greater good.