An explanation: For years, I have wanted to teach Sarah Schulman’s People in Trouble in my Introduction to LGBTQ Studies […]
Change over Time: A Colorado Love Story
In 1992, 53% of Colorado voters answered yes to this question on the ballot: “Shall there be an amendment to […]
Deconstructing the Stonewall Myth (Brick by Brick)
If you’ve been on social media at all during the month of June, you’ve probably seen Marsha P. Johnson’s name […]
From “Sip-in” to the Hairpin Drop Heard Round the World, Protests Can Work
Do protests work? Certainly they can make the participants feel that rather than passively accepting injustice they are doing something […]
Obergefell v. Hodges and the Legacy of AIDS
So, yeah… gay marriage is legal now. It’s kind of a big deal. That was about all I could offer […]
Stay Positive: A Radical Alternative to the Gay Blood Ban
In December last year, the FDA lifted its longtime policy of deferring any blood or tissue donations coming from men […]
PrEP, The Pill, and the Fear of Promiscuity.
By Ian Lekus
The first I learned of PrEP, or pre-exposure prophylaxis, came from the signs and postcards around Fenway Health, Boston’s LGBT community health center. Those advertisements appeared as Fenway served as one of two U.S. research sites for PrEP, in advance of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approving Truvada in July 2012 as the first drug deemed safe and effective for reducing the risk of HIV transmission.[1] As I started learning more, I quickly discovered how its advocates frequently compare PrEP to oral contraceptives. One PrEP researcher I consulted with early on in my investigations explicitly drew the parallel to her decision to use the Pill a few years earlier. Some of the similarities jump out immediately: for example, like oral contraceptives, PrEP — a pill taken daily to prevent HIV infection — separates prevention from the act of sexual intercourse itself.
