“In the old days, it was condoms and information to get testing. “Obviously we now have a lot more tools in our toolbox to help prevent HIV,” Jean Redmann, CrescentCare’s director of prevention, told me. “But the other side of that is that I wouldn’t have known.” Two days later, Aaron was in treatment, and his viral load became undetectable (which also means nontransmittable to others) within two months. “I was the horror story of why people wouldn’t want to get tested at a bar,” he told me. In response to skyrocketing costs, many smaller and more diverse gay bars are closing shop, taking with them a valuable resource for HIV outreach and community building for a portion of the LGBTQ population often denied the comfort of traditional “safe spaces.”īy the time Aaron made his way back to his friends, still waiting at the bar downstairs, he was, understandably, ready to call it a night. Seitz also says rising costs have been the biggest factors behind the closure of gay bars in the past decade, far outweighing the influence of hookup apps like Grindr and Scruff. When the yuppies come in and drive the rental price, the smaller bars go away.” “Smaller ones are going, and bigger ones are getting bigger,” says Seitz. Meanwhile, bars historically welcoming minority customers are disappearing at a rapid clip. According to him, even in LGBTQ meccas like Los Angeles and New York, gay bars are “morphing,” with the most successful bars targeting a straighter, less racially diverse, and more affluent clientele. I spoke to Scott Seitz, CEO of SPI Marketing, a company that specializes in gay and lesbian market research, about this.
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According to statistics recently released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in 2017 the region produced 52 percent of the country’s new HIV diagnoses (19,968 out of 38,739).Īdditionally, 45 percent of all people living with HIV in the United States live here, even though the south only accounts for about 38 percent of the nation’s total population. In America, the South is ground zero for the country’s ongoing HIV epidemic.
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On Tuesday nights, between rounds of drag queen karaoke, patrons can discreetly slip upstairs to meet with representatives from a community health care clinic for a free rapid test and, if needed, to enroll in treatment on the spot. What to Do When Your Kid Is Reading a Book That Makes You Uncomfortableīut in a southern city still suffering from some of the highest rates of HIV infection in the country, the past decade has seen Good Friends become more than just a campy watering hole.
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