Traditionally, across the country, empowerment programs are made up of gay men who are working together around HIV advocacy and awareness. The campaign that we worked on is with the TEA Phoenix, a small empowerment program that’s part of the Southwest Center for HIV/AIDS in Phoenix, Arizona. And I’ll also say that the campaign with PrEPster and Hornet is so awesome. José Ramón García-Madrid: Thank you, Terri. Wilder: José, I’d love to hear about the campaign that you helped create, and what your group is hoping it will achieve. The Tea Phoenix’s “Don’t Stop Talking Sex” There’s so little information still around sex and COVID that we wanted to be able to spell it out in a way that was specific, yet comprehensive, sex positive, and really allowed a wide spectrum for gay men to decide what sort of things might work for them as they navigate and negotiate all sorts of risk during COVID, and not feel like any decisions that they’re making to pursue sex or intimacy are wrong or bad, but that they are making those decisions based on useful and accurate information. Now, obviously, it applies with COVID-19. That’s always been sort of the overlying principle with HIV. We wanted to be able to provide gay men with as much information as possible so they can make informed decisions about their sexual health.
This campaign was meant to be more of a guide than a “do’s and don’ts” list. Having worked with them in the past and understanding that this issue of COVID was dramatically impacting gay men’s sex lives-and because Hornet is predominantly a gay social network-we really wanted to zero in on how this was impacting gay men’s sex lives, and gay men’s lives in general.