What the F*%K?

by Jim Pickett
Mon, 07/28/2008 - 7:28pm

Okay, so I am looking at the Programme-at-a-Glance feature on the AIDS 2008 website. "Very handy!" I think. I am starting to plug in the various "roadmaps" or tracks, or to help me build the itinerary I want to follow throughout the conference.

Okay, found "HIV Preventon Research" - got it, click.

I start to look for gay men. Nada.

MSM. Zilch.

There are about 30 or so roadmaps to choose from, including Women and AIDS, Youth, Faith Based, People Living with HIV and dozens more targeting all kinds of issues via all kinds of angles. Criminalization, Mobilization, Globalization, Accountability and Action, Children's Issues, Treatment Literacy - all quite fascinating I'm sure...

But not one roadmap for gay men and other men who have sex with men?

In much of the world - both developed and developing - we damn well know that gay men and MSM make up a huge percentage of the epidemic

And there is not one roadmap that hones in on them. Not. One.

THIS IS RIDICULOUS.

PLEASE TELL ME I AM MISSING SOMETHING!?!

Could it be that the only gay/MSM content is at the preconference - "The Invisible Men: Gay Men and Other MSM in the Global HIV/AIDS" being put on by the Global Forum for MSM and HIV?

I find that hard to believe. And I guess I will find the gay/MSM content hard to find as well.

Thanks.

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Jim, check out the Pink

Submitted by L. Ramki Ramakr... on Mon, 07/28/2008 - 11:25pm.

Jim, check out the Pink pages (MSM Guidebook to the International AIDS Conference), a listing of all MSM-related posters, talks, symposia, etc., compiled by the Global Forum on MSM and HIV (MSMGF) which is also organizing the pre-con. I'm not sure if it includes transgender content, though.

L. Ramki Ramakrishnan
Solidarity and Action Against The HIV Infection in India

This is very helpful! Thank

Submitted by Jim Pickett on Tue, 07/29/2008 - 7:35am.

This is very helpful! Thank you so much. It still doesn't take away from how disturbed I am about the lack of a gay/MSM roadmap from the official organizers - but this will help me out a lot. Again, much appreciated.

Jim Pickett

Director of Advocacy - AIDS Foundation of Chicago

Chair - International Rectal Microbicide Advocactes (IRMA)

Jim, I hear you. I did

Submitted by L. Ramki Ramakr... on Tue, 07/29/2008 - 5:02pm.

Jim, I hear you. I did notice 'female, male and transgender sex workers' in the road map but not gay/bisexual/MSM (or, for that matter, IDUs). The F/M/TG sex workers roadmap actually sounds an alarm bell for me. I encourage those attending presentations in this track to look carefully at how MSM and TG are classified as sex workers in the studies and programs reported. I have looked at reports of non-community-owned interventions and have actually seen data sheets where MSM from various locally named categories of self-identity were tallied up and presented by the interventionists as sex workers, just because their funder wanted them to focus on sex workers! Ramki

There is an MSM roadmap on

Submitted by Scott Sanders (not verified) on Thu, 07/31/2008 - 2:21pm.

There is an MSM roadmap on the Programme-at-Glance entitled "MSM Related Sessions" with 32 sessions included.

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