Great Opportunities and Community Strength

My role as AIDS Calgary’s HIV Education and Awareness Today (HEAT) outreach worker, has afforded me many great opportunities to connect with other Gay, MSM and Trans men outreach workers from across the country. For example, most recently HEAT was recognized on a national level and I was invited to participate in two National Advisory Groups (NAG). The role I have accepted will involve the development of a survey which will be distributed to Gay, MSM, and Trans men across the country. Unfortunately, due to my overwhelming schedule I couldn’t accept both roles, so I was able to connect my Edmonton counter part with this opportunity instead. With the participation of representatives from both Calgary and Edmonton, Alberta is a well represented voice to both NAGs looking at Gay, MSM and Trans Men’s issues on a national level. The participation in both of these NAGs also allowed my Albertan counterpart and I the opportunity to attend the Gay Men’s Health Summit presented by the Gay Men’s Sexual Health Alliance and partner organizations.

This conference was a great opportunity to network with other Gay, MSM, and Trans men’s community outreach workers and organizations, and also provided a platform for educational resources. A few workshops that I was able to participate in were: “Integrating Trans Men into HIV prevention”, “Closets, Companions, Challenges: Seniors, Sex and Sexuality” and “Community Engagement through New, Mobile & Social Media”.

All of these workshops were allowed for dynamic discussion and interesting perspective. My personal favorite being the “Community Engagement through New, Mobile & Social Media”, where we learned about the iPhone application developed for accessing various health services in Toronto and Montreal, and eventually to be launched in Vancouver.

The remainder of the conference included subject specific presentations from individuals and organizations. These presentations were followed by an expert panel discussion and break out groups which focused on challenges and answer questions. Each presentation wrapped up with an open floor question period for participants to further explore the issues and discussions that evolved from the session.

Some of these presentations looked at very specific topics such as the “Gay Agenda Revealed”, “Challenges from the Bathhouse”, “Black and Queer: Contradictions and Paradoxes in Gay Men’s Culture”, “Masculinity and Queer Identities” and “Syndemics, Resilience and Gay Men’s Health”. These presentations looked at the past, current and future challenges, stigmas and lack of services in Gay, MSM and Trans Men’s health.

I left this conference exhausted and at the same time incredibly empowered and connected to other great Gay, MSM, Trans men’s organizations and service providers from across Canada and US. Although I feel Gay, MSM and Trans Men are still challenged by many stigmas (societal and self imposed) within our country, conferences like this one highlight that there are incredible programs in place and future programs in development that support and strengthen our community. This strength will allow us to start addressing Gay, MSM and Trans Men’s health for all that it is; the heart, mind, body and soul and not just the area between our knees and belly button.

This article was submitted by the AIDS Calgary HEAT Program Coordinator. HEAT (HIV Education and Awareness Today) is a program designed to address HIV/STI education, awareness and prevention in the gay men/MSM community.