Metra Issue 952 - April 2022

Dragrectory Dragrectory Dragrectory

Meet our crew in person, and find out more about Ferndale Pride volunteer opportunities

May 9 - 7:00-8 :00PM

May 25 - 7:00-8 :00PM

Affirmations Community Center

290 W. Nine Mile, Ferndale

You can also sign up to volunteer at ferndalepride.com/volunteer

We’re powered by volunteers like you.

IMPORTANT FACTS FOR BIKTARVY®

This is only a brief summary of important information about BIKTARVY and does not replace talking to your healthcare provider about your condition and your treatment.

MOST IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT BIKTARVY

BIKTARVY may cause serious side e ects, including:

 Worsening of hepatitis B (HBV) infection. Your healthcare provider will test you for HBV. If you have both HIV-1 and HBV, your HBV may suddenly get worse if you stop taking BIKTARVY. Do not stop taking BIKTARVY without first talking to your healthcare provider, as they will need to check your health regularly for several months, and may give you HBV medicine.

ABOUT BIKTARVY

BIKTARVY is a complete, 1-pill, once-a-day prescription medicine used to treat HIV-1 in adults and children who weigh at least 55 pounds. It can either be used in people who have never taken HIV-1 medicines before, or people who are replacing their current HIV-1 medicines and whose healthcare provider determines they meet certain requirements.

BIKTARVY does not cure HIV-1 or AIDS. HIV-1 is the virus that causes AIDS. Do NOT take BIKTARVY if you also take a medicine that contains:

 dofetilide

 rifampin

 any other medicines to treat HIV-1

POSSIBLE SIDE EFFECTS OF BIKTARVY

BIKTARVY may cause serious side e ects, including:

 Those in the “Most Important Information About BIKTARVY” section.

 Changes in your immune system. Your immune system may get stronger and begin to fight infections

(bik-TAR-vee)

that may have been hidden in your body. Tell your healthcare provider if you have any new symptoms after you start taking BIKTARVY.

 Kidney problems, including kidney failure. Your healthcare provider should do blood and urine tests to check your kidneys. If you develop new or worse kidney problems, they may tell you to stop taking BIKTARVY.

 Too much lactic acid in your blood (lactic acidosis), which is a serious but rare medical emergency that can lead to death. Tell your healthcare provider right away if you get these symptoms: weakness or being more tired than usual, unusual muscle pain, being short of breath or fast breathing, stomach pain with nausea and vomiting, cold or blue hands and feet, feel dizzy or lightheaded, or a fast or abnormal heartbeat.

 Severe liver problems, which in rare cases can lead to death. Tell your healthcare provider right away if you get these symptoms: skin or the white part of your eyes turns yellow, dark “teacolored” urine, light-colored stools, loss of appetite for several days or longer, nausea, or stomach-area pain.

 The most common side e ects of BIKTARVY in clinical studies were diarrhea (6%), nausea (6%), and headache (5%).

These are not all the possible side e ects of BIKTARVY. Tell your healthcare provider right away if you have any new symptoms while taking BIKTARVY.

You are encouraged to report negative side e ects of prescription drugs to the FDA. Visit www.FDA.gov/medwatch or call 1-800-FDA-1088.

Your healthcare provider will need to do tests to monitor your health before and during treatment with BIKTARVY.

Continued on next page.

Please see Important Facts, including important warnings, continued on the next page and at BIKTARVY.com.

Meet a few of the extraordinary people who take BIKTARVY. Watch their stories at BIKTARVY.com

IMPORTANT FACTS FOR BIKTARVY® (CONTINUED)

BEFORE TAKING BIKTARVY

Tell your healthcare provider if you:

 Have or have had any kidney or liver problems, including hepatitis infection.

 Have any other health problems.

 Are pregnant or plan to become pregnant. It is not known if BIKTARVY can harm your unborn baby. Tell your healthcare provider if you become pregnant while taking BIKTARVY.

 Are breastfeeding (nursing) or plan to breastfeed. Do not breastfeed. HIV-1 can be passed to the baby in breast milk.

Tell your healthcare provider about all the medicines you take:

 Keep a list that includes all prescription and over-the-counter medicines, antacids, laxatives, vitamins, and herbal supplements, and show it to your healthcare provider and pharmacist.

 BIKTARVY and other medicines may a ect each other. Ask your healthcare provider and pharmacist about medicines that interact with BIKTARVY, and ask if it is safe to take BIKTARVY with all your other medicines.

HOW TO TAKE BIKTARVY

Take BIKTARVY 1 time each day with or without food.

GET MORE INFORMATION

 This is only a brief summary of important information about BIKTARVY. Talk to your healthcare provider or pharmacist to learn more.

 Go to BIKTARVY.com or call 1-800-GILEAD-5

 If you need help paying for your medicine, visit BIKTARVY.com for program information.

BIKTARVY, the BIKTARVY Logo, GILEAD, the GILEAD Logo, KEEP CREATING, and LOVE WHAT’S INSIDE are trademarks of Gilead Sciences, Inc., or its related companies. Version date: February 2021 © 2021 Gilead Sciences, Inc. All rights reserved. BVYC0413 04/21

Featured patients compensated by Gilead.

DIMITRI

ZACH NIKKI CHAD HUGO D’EVA

Aries: You’ve had a couple of days of nice weather, which is making you a little hungry and making that hole a little thirsty. What is the saying, April showers brings piss play? No wait. That’s not right, but it works just as well! Get out and do something fun. Let’s just not try naked sunbathing by a pre-school again, okay?

Taurus: Spring weather normally means spring cleaning in your mind. Time to clean out all of the things you’ll never use (the old tennis shoes you hate, your high school coach’s jock that he never washed…Wait. Go ahead and keep that one). It’s hard for you to remove things from your life, that’s why you tend to just be the token pass around bottom at the hookah lounge orgy you love so much.

Gemini: You’re pretty torn. Should you be productive? Should you relax? Should you make that pass at your boss who gives you all that special attention? My vote is be a bad little baby and let your freak flag fly! You can always go back and be productive, but it’s time to get out and smell the fresh air (and get that promotion, girl!)!

Cancer: You are beloved by many and are so understanding. Which explains the 5 or 6 times you’ve had your credit stolen. Let’s not get started on the whole 90-Day Fiancée kick you were on with what was their name? Ashkay? We love that you see the good in people. Let’s just try and not get into yet another world of hurt, I know you like getting fucked, but c’mon sis – use some lube.

Leo: Ah Leo, the ruler of the jungle! Everyone thinks you’re such a baddie and get hyped when you show up. In reality you hate making all the calls and you just want to have someone play with your hair. Don’t worry boo, your secret is safe with us and the animals you know best in your kingdom.

Virgo: Spring is here! Which means you get to do one of your many socially awkward activities you love, skip naked in the backyard while you stomp on multiple cracks in your sidewalk (step on a crack, break yo’ momma’s back). That’s enough fun. Time to be serious and write a strongly worded letter to the head of the CW and beg them to make Charmed stop.

Libra: This April, you’re ready to try out some new hobbies. Maybe needle work? Throwing two liters of pop onto the freeway at cars with their tops down? The world is your oyster, so make sure you try being more open minded. You may find the love of your life (or at least the love of the next two weeks) at one of these church basements or rundown community centers?

Scorpio: You really hate this whole cat and mouse game. You’d much rather stop playing games and just be the bed of flowers everyone takes a giant leak in. You have important stuff to do, like take apart that computer and never put it back together. Or putting together that LEGO Star Wars display that your neighbor got you from 1997. We know you hate being made to wait. But sometimes the chase is worth the game.

Sagittarius: You have a face that’s meant for radio and a voice that is meant for deaf people. That’s why you’d much rather play in the dark and make everyone put on noise cancelling headphones. You tell them it heightens their other senses. Let’s not lie, bruh. It’s more of a guarantee that they don’t run the opposite direction when they hear you sound like one of those Martians from the Mars Attacks Movie.

Capricorn: Sometimes you can focus a little too much on people’s imperfections. This one’s missing an arm, this one has web feet, this one isn’t 5 foot 11. Remember, bitch, any hole is a goal! It’s time to maybe stop focusing on prince or princess charming and focus on duke or duchess clap these cheeks? You don’t have to marry them. Your goal is to just not puke at the thought of pounding them.

Aquarius: Happy go lucky Aquarius tends to be social in all the right times. People tend to come to you based off of the energy you exude. It may also be that great pheromone body spray you got from the guy in the mall. It reminds you of the first gay gentleman who slipped you a night-night pill. Ahh memories!

Pisces: Spring is going to be another busy time for you. You’re going to brunch it up with all your favorites and pretend that you are on the Sex and The City Reboot you’ve been yearning for. Then on your way home, go through your favorite trail and get dicked down the house down (boots!)!

Kink vs fetish – is there a difference?

It’s hard to label sexuality. If it’s nontraditional, does that mean it is kinky or a fetish? The terms are used quite loosely and sometimes interchangeably. But they are not the same.

Kink is a broad term used to describe nontraditional, alternative sexual interests, behaviors and fantasies, while a fetish is a sexual fixation on a specific object or act that is necessary for a person’s arousal.

A person with a fetish may have an attraction to an inanimate object that arouses them sexually. Kink typically is an experience used to enhance a sexual encounter. Sexual arousal is not dependent on the behavior or object. For example, if you hear other people having sex and it turns you on, that is kinky, but if you need to listen to others having sex to get aroused, that is a fetish. The person needs specific

objects or acts to experience pleasure or an orgasm.

All fetishes are kinks but not all kinks are fetishes.

One client told me she is submissive and loves spankings, but she doesn’t always want or need that kind of kinky play during her sexual experiences. If this were a fetish for her, she wouldn’t be able to get aroused unless she was spanked.

It is okay to be kinky or have a fetish if your sexual desires don’t harm anyone, they are not illegal, and they are safe and consensual.

What is most important is to be aware of your sexual interests and how they are impacting your life and the life of others.

Dr. Joe Kort

Hook-up from hell Hook-up from hell Hook-up from hell

It was the early 2000’s and social media was in its infancy. A guy I met on Myspace had invited me over to his place. We were still in our teens, maybe early 20s, so I had to wait for his parents to fall asleep and sneak through the bedroom window.

It was definitely after midnight and I was in my pajamas when I snuck over. We were having our fun when we saw the hall light

turn on, and heard footsteps approaching. With no time to get dressed, let alone jump back out the window, I ran to the closet, buck naked, and crouched.

I could see the silhouette of a man approaching through the crack in the door, when suddenly, the door swung open with me sitting there, naked, staring up with nothing but a smile on my face.

Bartender Cathy W