June 24-26th, 2013
8am-5pm each day
Big Horn Resort, Billings, MT
Please register by May 14th!!!
On Thursday, April 25th from 5:00pm-6:00pm, Open Aid Alliance is offering the first of three community seminars on hepatitis C. The first presentation will feature Dr. Rebecca Kinney. Dr. Kinney completed medical school at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City, and did her residency at Family Medicine Residency of Idaho in Boise. She is a family physician specializing in infectious diseases, with specific expertise in hepatitis C. This presentation will provide an overview of hepatitis C infection, transmission, and recommendations for testing. All three seminars are free and open to the public.
Thursday, April 25th, 2013
5:00pm-6:00pm
MCT Center for the Performing Arts (use the Main Street entrance)
Room 302
For more information, call Open Aid Alliance at 406.543.4770 or email stephanie@openaidalliance.org
Please join us for this opportunity to expand your knowledge of hepatitis C
Bishop Gene Robinson is a pioneer, and I’m really looking forward to meeting him- this is a big deal for Montana.
I’m also excited about Gregory Hinton’s play about the Missoula non-discrimination ordinance. It promises to be an informative, enlightening and inspirational weekend for everyone interested in equality. I will be in Billings Friday through Sunday- I hope to see you there!
Still time to register! Click pic for more info….
Here’s an opportunity to do some good:
FREE 3-day Training!!!
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Click here for more info: CTRS Training February 2013
And if you’re interested in becoming a testing associate for AIDS Outreach, please email info@aidsoutreachmt.org
The infographic below was created by the Girl Effect which is a movement about leveraging the unique potential of adolescent girls to end poverty for themselves, their families and the world. It highlights the problem of child marriage which leads to pregnancy and childbirth which can be fatal for young girls- not to mention damaging to a country’s economy.
When: September 14 – 16, 2012
Where: Helena, MT
Cost: FREE
Registration Deadline: September 7, 2012
• Experienced facilitators and educators • Great workshops on accessing resources • Safe and confidential space
To Register, CLICK HERE, or if you have Questions, call:
FDH & Associates ● 406.829.8075 Or email: fdh@mtgayhealth.org
Montana does something that, to my knowledge, is not done anywhere else in the U.S.- we invite HIV+ persons and their partners/support persons to learn about coping and living with HIV. It’s a fantastic weekend filled with information, activity, relaxation, community and support, and I’ve been part of it for five years now.
I highly recommend it. Out-of-staters welcome. To check it out and/or register, click the pic below.
Image via Wikipedia
Sadly, but perhaps unsurprisingly, Utah’s Legislature is moving forward on HB363, a piece of legislation that would effectively end any comprehensive sexual education in Utah schools. The Salt Lake City Weekly:
House Bill 363 sponsor Rep. Bill Wright, R-Holden, argued that teaching contraception only encouraged immoral behavior, so his bill would allow for schools to teach abstinence-only or to opt out of teaching sexual education entirely. Wright said teaching sexuality wasn’t a priority in education. “This is not like all our students are going to die if they don’t learn promiscuous behavior,” Wright said. (emphasis mine)
Yes. That’s what he said.
In an editorial for the same paper, Rebecca Walsh opines
Anti-sex-education crusader Bill Wright would have loved me.
In seventh grade, I was just like the tiny blond granddaughter the Republican legislator from Holden hauled up to Capitol Hill last week as a prop for his legislative campaign, House Bill 363. I was the pristine product of a sex-free Utah public education and Mormon parents—innocent, naïve, clueless.
Then one day, I overheard a boy in the hall at school crudely describing the mechanics of copulation. In an instant, Troy rendered irrelevant my parents’ denial that we needed to have the talk and showed me the limits of my teachers’ silence. It was the end of innocence, delivered by a pimply teenage boy.
And that’s the problem with Wright’s (and my parents’) plan: It’s not rooted in real life.
American teens are shockingly misinformed about their bodies, birth control and pregnancy—Utah kids even more so.
A 2008 study by Self magazine and the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy found many young adults had “magical thinking” when it comes to sex—unsure of how often to take birth-control pills, unfamiliar with 28-day fertility cycles.
And that was among young adults with some level of sex education. In the information vacuum created by Utah lawmakers, sex ed ranges from abstinence-only programs in four school districts—Alpine, Canyons, Jordan and Nebo—to oblique references from frightened biology and health teachers in others.
When are we going to wake up to science and truth? High school students are having sex. Right now. Probably without condoms, birth control, and in Utah, without rudimentary knowledge of biological processes.
While this “teaching kids about sex causes them to have more sex” nonsense avoids the reality of the situation: as a society, we are ridiculously stupid about sex.
Ridiculously.
And if this bill gets through, that ridiculousness will be enshrined in Utah law.
An awesome opportunity for young gay/bi men in Montana to feel less isolated, learn about themselves and make some awesome friends!
Click pic for registration link.
