9th BC Gay Men’s Health Summit
The 9th BC Gay Men’s Health Summit was held on November 7 & 8, 2013 at Simon Fraser University, Harbour Centre and focused on Life Course and Gay Men’s Health.
This year had an attendance of over 150 individuals, with many praising it as the “best Summit yet!” Highlights from the Summit include keynote speaker Dr. Phillip Hammack’s (right in picture, beside Dr. Mark Gilbert, BCCDC) presentation on life course and Dr. Nathaniel Lewis’s presentation on migration and place that affect gay men’s health through their life. Additionally, the Canadian Blood Services hosted a panel that discussed the recent 5-year blood donation deferral for men who have sex with men (MSM) and Chris Atchison led a session about sex work across Canada.
The Summit also had the privledge to host 3 sessions from youth programs in BC and across Canada: Mpowerment YVR, Totally Outright and the Investigaytors. The presence of these amazing youth programs highlighted the importance of empowering and building capacity for young gay men, an ideal upheld at the Stepping Out Youth Summit the following day.
Thank you to our funders for making the Summit possible: the AIDS Community Action Program; Public Health Agency of Canada; Province of British Columbia; BC Ministry of Health; and community donations. Thank you to the Shooting Stars Foundation for helping fund the Stepping Out Youth Summit. And thank you to everyone who attended the Summit and made it such a success!
We will be posting audio presentations online shortly, in the meantime you can check out the local coverage for this year’s Summit and past presentations in our resource library.
__________________________________________________________________________________
Featured Article: A Life Course and Gay Marriage
- Newlywed Keith Reynolds writes a heartwarming and thoughtful article that highlights his experiences growing up and the differences of married life.
“It’s my hope that younger gays will be spared the trauma caused by internalized homophobia. I hope they understand that being gay doesn’t preclude the possibility that they’ll find a partner. Better yet, it’s my hope that they’ll find happiness and acceptance however they live their lives.”
Be sure to read this article, which underneath it all, is a celebration of marriage equality and most importantly, love. ♥
Sarah’s Blog
- Sarah Chown’s latest blog post compliments this year’s Summit theme of life course and gay men’s health. In her new post, Sarah discusses the history and impact of the life course model for gay men.
“The life course model provides a framework of what many of us involved in gay men’s health and communities observe: differences between men who grew up – and grow up – in different time periods.”
An informative and valuable article, you can read it in full here
Qualitative, Quantitative or Versatile (QQV)
- Our new QQV interview is with Bill Ryan, Adjunct Professor from the School of Social Work at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec. Bill takes some time out of his busy schedule to answer our questions, including “What’s something that everyone interested in gay men’s health should read?” and
“Where would you like to see gay men’s health in five years?”Read the entire interview here
For more articles and to find further resources on gay men’s health go to http://www.cbrc.net
__________________________________________________________________________________
Sex Now Survey
With the overwhelming success of Sex Now 2011, we are currently in the process of looking at the next national Sex Now Survey. Following this year’s Summit theme we hope to explore the theme of “gay generations”– their different histories, cultures and health concerns in our next survey.
To help us prepare for the next survey, the CBRC has embarked on trips across BC to gain insight into better promoting Sex Now across BC and identifying questions that should be included in the next survey. Most recently, we went to Kelowna and our experiences from the trip can be read in our newest BC Briefs article.
Simultaneously, part of the Investigaytors qualitative research included interviews from gay health leaders in BC to further gain insight into areas they thought should be studied; potential areas to include in the next survey. The Investigaytors presented their findings at the Summit and will follow with another publication like last year’s Under the Lens publication.
We will keep you posted on Sex Now news. In the meantime, you can read the report of the 8,607 gay and bisexual men who answered the 2011 Sex Now Survey in our resource library.
__________________________________________________________________________________
Poll Question
Last time we asked if Canada should boycott the 2014 Sochi Olympics over the recent anti-gay and discrimination laws in Russia and an astounding 89% of individuals agreed that we should, with 11% saying “No”.
Our newest poll question asks about a hot-topic issue that was front and centre at this year’s Summit: Blood donation for MSM
Health Canada recently changed its long standing ban on men who have sex with men (MSM) with donating blood, a ban that began in 1977. Taken into effect on July 22, 2013 the Canadian Blood Services now say that MSM can donate blood after a 5-year deferral from sexual activity. Under the new policy framework, would you want to give blood to the Canadian Blood Services?