Affirmations Spotlight
Anthony Sherman Board Member
How long have you been with Affirmations? I started volunteering in 2016. After the 2016 election, I decided that I needed to become more involved in the community. In 2018, I became involved in the Board of Directors where I am currently Co-chair.
What is Affirmations to you? Affirmations is a safe space for all human beings. It's an organization that offers support to everyone from teens to seniors and includes a pantry that offers food to anyone in need. Our most important mission is to offer mental health support to everyone, regardless of their financial or insurance situation.
When you’re not working, what do you do for fun?
I participate in Avon Players Community Theater. Over the years, I've worked in all facets of the organization, from acting on stage to working in the concession booth to being a member of their Board of Directors.
What’s something you want everyone to know about Affirmations? It's an exceptional place staffed by wonderful, caring individuals.
If you had to play one album forever, which one would it be?
Madonna - Like a Virgin
#1 PRESCRIBED HIV TREATMENT*
*Source: IQVIA NPA Weekly, 04/19/2019 through 05/19/2023.
ELIAS SWITCHED TO BIKTARVY
Person featured takes BIKTARVY and is compensated by Gilead. Listen to REAL STORIES being told by REAL VOICES.
No matter where life takes you, Because HIV doesn’t change who you are.
BIKTARVY® is a complete, 1-pill, once-a-day prescription medicine used to treat HIV-1 in certain adults. BIKTARVY does not cure HIV-1 or AIDS. Ask your healthcare provider if BIKTARVY is right for you.
*This information is an estimate derived from the use of information under license from the following IQVIA information service: IQVIA NPA Weekly, for the period week ending 04/19/2019 through week ending 05/19/2023. IQVIA expressly reserves all rights, including rights of copying, distribution, and republication.
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. (bik-TAR-vee)
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 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 “tea-colored” 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
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. Tell your healthcare provider if you become pregnant while taking BIKTARVY.
Are breastfeeding (nursing) or plan to breastfeed. Talk to your healthcare provider about the risks of breastfeeding during treatment with BIKTARVY.
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.
Zombie Therapies and Homosexuality
Dangerous Gay Conversion Practices just won’t die
In most cases the practice is no longer called “Conversion Therapy,” but has adopted other misleading names, such as “Sex Addiction Therapy” or “Faith Based Therapy.” It is being carried out by both licensed and unlicensed practitioners, the latter mostly in religious circles, and is operating in what has been called, “a gray area” just beyond the law. In fact, according to a 2018 study by the UCLA Williams Institute, approximately 698,000 LGBTQ adults in the U.S. had received conversion therapy, and that’s not even counting the minors who have been subjected to it.
As a longtime therapist specializing in relationships and sexual health, I am here to say that conversion therapy itself and by any other name is both unscientific and quite dangerous. Renaming it is like putting lipstick on a pig. It’s a coverup, and more than 20 years of solid research shows that it doesn’t work.
Conversion therapy is abuse
I have had clients and friends who have told me about their experiences in trying to overcome their erotic attraction to the same sex. Some have been sent away as teens to religious “conversion camps” by their well-meaning or ashamed parents where they were subjected to such horrors as being shown arousing homoerotic pictures and then given the choice of either ingesting a chemical that induced vomiting or receiving electric shocks to their testicles. Does anyone remember the movie Clockwork Orange?
The toll is devastating. Researchers at San Francisco State University found in 2018 that rates of attempted suicide among LGBTQ youth more than double when parents try to change their sexual orientation.
It doesn’t work
In fact, these conversion therapies have utterly failed. Whether they are trying to “pray way the gay” or subject-
ing people to a kind of torture, these programs suffer a 100 percent recidivism rate.
I’ve lost count of how many people who once were champions of such therapies have been caught in same-sex relationships, or finally come out as gay, and even apologized for their gaslighting.
A word about “grooming”
We hear a lot about grooming nowadays coming from the far right and religious organizations. Religions, in particular, are fearful or suspicious of sex and sexuality, if not outright hostile to it. Many of them don’t want their kids to be educated about sex or engaging in it, and certainly not if it is a “deviant” kind—that is, something other than what is acceptable to their religion or culture. Therefore, they label anything that provides children with information that speaks frankly or truthfully about sex as “grooming.”
But the reality is that we’ve all been “groomed” to be heterosexual, to believe that only heterosexual marriage is normal, and to believe that homosexuality is either sin, or perversion. No one acknowledges that this so-called grooming. Banning books of sex education or about LGBT individuals because we fear that reading about sexuality will turn kids LGBT or lead them into promiscuity only ensures that they remain ignorant about one of life’s most basic urges.
I often feel like it is time for us all to just grow up and acknowledge that there are as many aspects and varieties of sexuality as there are stars in the sky. There has never been one size that fits all. The sooner we admit this, the healthier we will become.
Joe Kort, Ph.D., LMSW AASECT Certified Sex Therapist & Supervisor of Sex Therapy
MONDAY'S: KARAOKE
W/SIMON BLACK
TUESDAY'S: TACO NIGHT
$2 DRINK NIGHT
WEDNESDAY'S: KARAOKE
W/SIMON BLACK
THURSDAY'S: CRUISE NIGHTVIDEO DANCE PARTY
$1 DRINK NIGHT
FRIDAY'S: WEERK W/DJ CLUB KID
SATURDAY'S: BOYZ NIGHT OUT
SUNDAY'S: T-DANCE
Hookup from Hell
I grew up in a small-town and being social never has come easy to me as it does others. I was setup on a blind date for the first time. A colleague said they had someone in mind they think I’d have somewhat of a connection with, never done this before so I had no idea what to expect. I met the person at a pub, we seemed to have a little bit in common.
Earlier in the day I went to buy condoms and lube. I specifically drove two towns over so I wouldn’t bump into anyone I may I know. Funny enough, I literally bumped into them at the store the other day. We briefly spoke in passing at the store.
After getting back to my place we got comfortable and ended up getting naked. Once naked I couldn’t help but realize some stains on the underwear next to feet and I puked, puked all over his feet as we were still standing and how the chunks flew. I was mortified but thankful as I think my stomach was telling me the appropriate cue.
After he so willingly thought it would be best to leave I reached out to my friend who set this ordeal up and they couldn’t stop laughing, they decided to bring me pumpkin pie to try and make up for the entire situation.
LATER IN OCTOBER
PACKAGE MONDAYS
Underwear party every week
KARAOKE TUESDAYS
Hosted by Brad with Unity Sound
BEAR DANCE FRIDAYS
Where men meet men
SUBVERSIVE SATURDAYS
Guest DJ sets every week
UPCOMING EVENTS
ULTRAVIOLET GLOW PARTY
Saturday, October 5th, 9PM - DJ: Something Blue/
TEA BAG TEA DANCE
Sunday, October 6th, 5PM - DJ: Darryl G & Seryoza
HALO LIVE: QUEER MUSIC SHOWCASE
Wednesday, October 9th, 8PM - Host: Corey TuT
TRIBE TRANSGENDER NIGHT
Thursday, October 10th, 9PM - DJ: CLUBKID
SCHWEIN: PIG DANCE
Saturday, October 12th, 9PM - DJ: TYLR_
CAMP HALO BEAR SCOUTS
