As is almost certainly apparent to everyone, I have stopped blogging here. There are a number of reasons for it, but mostly boil down to me not having much more to say about gay men's health. Yes, there continue to be fucked up things happening out there, like SFWeekly's recent "coverage" of bareback sex parties in San Francisco (someone really needs to fire that "reporter"). But c'mon. You know what I'm going to say. I know what I'm going to say. It's all song and dance at this point.
Quite simply, my interests have moved away from public health and towards social justice. I no longer believe at heart in promoting public health. So much of that work has been co-opted by moral behavioralists who believe the solution to HIV is to pathologize, scold, rinse and repeat. There are still those out there who believe in linking disease to inequality, poverty, homophobia, and larger, more structural and social factors. But they are the minority. They don't get funded. Yes, CDC and other organizations put up with listening to them -- and occasionally cite concepts developed by them (fundamental causes, for instance). But the DEBI machine just keeps on pushing forward, despite countless reasons to abandon that funding structure -- the least of which is that it is entirely patronizing and utterly ridiculous. Who actually follows DEBIs they way they say they do? They don't. But they report that they did to get the money. The researchers get their faulty "evidence" to back up the untenable claims of their "intervention," and the CBOs get their money. It's disgusting. There's no other word for it.
I believe public health is not the only end out there worth fighting for. We lose sight of that sometimes, I think, when we get caught up in HIV work. We don't even have to look outside of HIV to find injustice worth making a muck about. HIV-positive people are being thrown in jail left and right in this country under laws that were passed mostly in the 1980s to allegedly promote disclosure. There has been a surge of interest in repealing and/or amending these statutes to prevent their further abuse (see examples here, here, here), and this work is far more exciting and interesting to me than squabbling over whether gay men deserve to be trusted to make informed decisions about risk.
This is where my work will continue. Perhaps one day I may blog again on that issue or another, but not now. I'm in my fifth year here at Michigan, working on my dissertation on how Michigan public officials enforce the state's HIV disclosure law. I'm thrilled about where this work is taking me. I'm happy to continue answering questions by e-mail, but this blog will in the coming weeks be archived and the comments system will be dismantled (though previously posted comments will remain).
Happy trails! It's been a glorious few years here on the blog. I'll miss it. Thanks for reading. Thanks for helping me to think through so many issues I've posted about.
In honor of this final goodbye, here's a look back at some of my favorite pieces over the years. Ah, memories! So many good times. And some bad ones too!
From 2005:
Rehnquist Hospitalized, Bush to Take Over World (July 14)
I am a Political Scientist. What the hell does that mean? (July 28)
My FIRST Day as a Graduate Student (August 26)
Online Racial Power Disparities (August 28)
Why I Left the NC Fellows Program (September 8)
The Surreal Life, San Fran Style (October 16)
Creating Change Conference '05 (November 14)
From 2006:
Misogyny and Gay Men (January 22)
"Against Health" Conference (October 13)
Frustrated with San Francisco (October 29)
The Death of Fiscally Conservative Repubs, and the Rise of Libertarian Dems (October 30)
Feminist/Queer/Man: Dialoguing on Gender
From 2007:
LGBTI Health Summit - Philadelphia (March 17)
Beyond Identity Politics? (May 19)
Toronto = Fabulous (October 7)
Longtime Companion, Early AIDS Movies, and Mentorship (October 25)
What I'm Thankful For, 2007 (November 20)
Questions of Trans-Inclusion and Identity (December 3)
A Lovely Time in Mexico! (December 17)
From 2008:
Creating Change '08: Mourning / Celebration (February 10)
Making it Work: Mobilizing Gay and Lesbian Identities in the 21st Century (February 12)
Where's the Pleasure in Gay Sex? (February 16)
On the Staph Debate and the Swiss AIDS Study (February 17)
Barebacking and XTube: A Window Into Our Sex Lives (February 22)
Gay Men's Health Leadership Academy: Day 1 / Day 2 / Day 3 (March 22-24)
Gay.com Conversations on Race: Part One / Part Two (April 1-2)
HIV Prevention Politics in Detroit (April 17)
The Gayest Podcast in Michigan - Episode 2a: Troy Wood (June 23)
Juanita More's 2008 PRIDE Party Extravaganza (June 30)
The Gayest Podcast in Michigan - Episode 2b: Troy Wood, Ctd. (July 4)
"DON'T ASK ME TO PAY FOR THEIR MEDICINE!" (July 23)
Gaycation '08 Photo Album (July 28)
Hooking Up (July 31)
Racial Diversity on Manhunt, Adam4Adam: San Francisco Edition (August 6)
Racial Diversity on Manhunt, Adam4Adam: Atlanta Edition (August 8)
Racial Diversity on Manhunt, Adam4Adam: NYC Edition (August 10)
The LAST Trannyshack EVER (August 13)
Me on "Getting it on with Bonnie" (August 21)
Dating Economics (September 13)
Three Fags in a Boat (October 12)
What is Sexual Health? (October 19)
Outrage! NC DJ Arrested for Having Unprotected Sex (October 23)
Resist "Lazy Structuralism": HIV Prevention as Case Study (October 27)
"BlacksOnBoys": The Construction of Black Masculinity (Vs. White Femininity) in Gay Porn (November 30)
Working Out, or, "What happens to twinks when they hit 25?" (December 8)
Positional Identity on Manhunt, Adam4Adam: SF Edition (December 18)
From 2009:
Positional Identity on Manhunt, Adam4Adam: NYC Edition (February 3)
Me and Loretta Devine!!!! (February 10)
Eric Leven's Recent Barebacking Video: "Why are we..." (March 3)
How Do I Trust Again?: Love, Betrayal, and Moving On (March 17)
Why are Hate Crimes Worse Than Other Crimes? (April 1)
What's New in Gay Sex?: "Natural" (April 11)
Recuperating "Heteronormativity": It's Not *Just* About Heterosexuals! (April 20)
Christina Aguilera Fans Crashed My Blog (May 10)
To Everyone Who Is Demanding Lambert Come Out... (May 28)
Hookups are not meaningless (And other thoughts on sex) (May 29)
From 2010:
Does Justice = Loving Yourself? Thoughts From the Forum on Black Gay Men (Feb 1)
What does it mean to call something "problematic"? (Feb 2)
Can "uncertainty" help us to better explain "sexual risk"? (Feb 14)
Why do sorority girls come to gay bars? (April 9)
The anatomy of a claim: "Having older sex partners increases HIV risk for young gay men" (April 12)
Frameline 34: "We were here: Voices from the AIDS years in San Francisco" (June 22)
Queering HIV prevention: An interview with Kane Race (July 12)
Analysis of NYC's wrong-headed HIV ad, and a call for accountability (Dec 14)
And there you have it. Six years of material, all boiled down to a few dozen "greatest hits." It's been swell, y'all!
xoxoxo
Trevor
