Each week HuffPost Gay Voices, in a partnership with blogger Scout, LGBT HealthLink and researcher Susana Fajardo, brings you a round up of some of the biggest LGBT wellness stories from the past seven days. For more LGBT Wellness visit our page dedicated to the topic here.
1
Are Condoms Really Effective At Protecting Gay Men From HIV?
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Did you know most current condom statistics are from straight couples? Researchers investigated how well they worked with male couples and found that on average condoms prevented HIV 70% of the time versus 80% of the time for straight couples. Astoundingly, only 16% of the queer men reported using condoms at all. We’ve run our own analysis and found that condoms protect you 0% of the time if they stay in the nightstand.
2
Online Habits Can Lead To Risky Sex for LGBT Teens
Janitors/Flickr
A new study looked at sexual activity and online habits for LGB (no T) and questioning teens. Researchers found 17 percent said that complete strangers had asked them for sex online and 15 percent said that they had slept with someone they met online. Bi teens were the most likely to be asked for sex and teens with smartphones were over two times more likely to sleep with someone they met online. Unfortunately, the queers who reported online sex were more likely to not have safe sex, so this isn’t good news.
3
Obama Wants To End Conversion Therapy
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President Obama recently unexpectedly called for an end to conversion therapy nationwide. Ring the victory bells, we’ve got the president on our side! Conversion therapy, based more on bigotry than actual psychology or science, has led to immense suffering over the years -- including the suicide of Leelah Alcorn. Hopefully it will soon be a thing of the past. Good riddance!
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4
Queer Female College Students Unlikely To Report Domestic Violence
Shutterstock / altanaka
New research found that queer women in college who had experienced intimate partner violence only reported it 35 percent of the time. Those facing the most anti-LGBT discrimination were the most likely to keep it secret. Remember, feds recently started to analyze intimate partner violence for LGB (not T) and found it’s not uncommon in our world, and that bi women have higher risk than others. Need help on this topic? Call the LGBTQ friendly National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 or find a queer anti-violence project near you at www.ncavp.org.
5
Indiana’s Lesbian 'Tips From Former Smokers' Billboard
Courtesy of Scout
Indiana has recently been in the spotlight for anti-LGBT legislation. But don’t write Indiana off just yet! As our very own Dr. Scout writes, they were the first state to turn the lesbian "Tips from Former Smokers PSA" into a billboard. Even if you don’t live in Indiana you might be seeing these ads around because, as LGBT HealthLink notes, CDC just launched the "Tips From Former Smokers" campaign for this year and they’ve bought more ads in LGBT media than ever before.
6
Cool New Immersive Video About Living with HIV
Shutterstock / jocic
We like how The Body and Live Bold Live Now brought us this great piece on what it’s like to live with HIV.
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7
Vermont Department Of Health Adds Rainbow Logo
Courtesy of Pride Center of Vermont
Vermont for the win this week! To make sure their messages are really reaching LGBTQ people, their Department of Health has partnered with Pride Center of Vermont and developed a special rainbow version of their logo to be used for promoting services like their state tobacco quitline to queers. “Vermont should be proud of our leadership role in promoting and advancing LGBTQ rights,” said Governor Peter Shumlin. “This is a great way to continue that tradition.” Somehow we don’t think any major companies will be boycotting Vermont like they did Indiana anytime soon.