HEALTH

PrEP helps keep gay and bisexual teens negative from HIV.

A group of gay and bisexual teenage males safely used a medication that prevents HIV infection, though some failed to follow the drug regimen fully and became infected, researchers report. People at risk for becoming infected with the virus that causes AIDS can dramatically lower their risk of infection by taking the drug Truvada in what is known as the PrEP regimen, but its use is only approved for adults.

HEALTH

Elite women’s colleges welcome transgender students.

Until last year, Ninotska Love would have been barred from attending Wellesley College. She’s an accomplished student who has persevered through hardship, but under longstanding rules, the college would have rejected her because she was assigned at birth as a boy. Now the rules have changed. This week, Love will become one of the first transgender women to attend Wellesley in the school’s 147-year history.

HEALTH

Higher rate of HIV infection among black gay and bisexual men in the south.

Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention state the south has the highest number of people living with HIV. Two of the groups most at risk are gay and bisexual black men. “It is not the end of the world in 2017 if people are diagnosed because they can live a long healthy life,” said Gary Jenkins with the AIDS Healthcare Foundation.  

5 THINGS TO KNOW

The evangelical’s Nashville Statement is harmful to LGBT youth.

This week, a group of the country’s most prominent evangelical figures released a document condemning lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people and those who affirm them in what they called the Nashville Statement. Read the list of signatories and you’ll recognize the names — presidents of some of the country’s largest seminaries and pastors of burgeoning evangelical churches.

5 THINGS TO KNOW

A tweet expressing what so many are thinking.

A tweet about gay culture with a heartbreaking twist has gone viral for the best reason. The tweet, which was only written yesterday but has since been retweeted nearly 30,000 times was written by a man from the US. “Gay culture is being a teenager when you’re 30 because your teenage years were not yours to live,” he wrote.

5 THINGS TO KNOW

Body dysmorphia magnified in the gay porn industry.

When I entered the adult industry, the warped sense of self I already felt was magnified more than I’d ever imagined possible. I have never been lied to more than when I stare into a mirror. After an eight mile run and an hour of heavy lifting in the gym, I find myself drenched in sweat, drinking a recovery shake before my full-length mirror. I’m wearing little more than glorified underwear, and I am underwhelmed.

5 THINGS TO KNOW

The challenges of a gay marriage.

“While there are lots of books about how to plan your gay wedding, there are virtually none that address what to do after the honeymoon is over,” begins author and psychotherapist Michael Dale Kimmel. After seeing hundreds—maybe a thousand—gay couples wrestling with the institution of marriage, he came to recognize that two men in a marriage have different needs and different dynamics than heterosexual and lesbian couples. “There are a lot of aspects of heterosexual marriage that don’t work particularly well for us.