London- Three gay actors have been diagnosed with HIV after participating in a bareback porn shoot here, British gay entertainment and culture magazine Boyz reported in its Oct. 18 issue.

According to Boyz reporter Karl Ryan, the three unidentified young men, ages 18, 21, and 26, contracted the infection as a result of unprotected sex with a fourth actor who didn’t realize he was HIV-positive until three days after shooting wrapped. Ryan reported the movie director had the other three actors undergo a rarely used 48-hour DNA screening that indicated they also now bear the infection.

The standard HIV antibody test in London requires a three-month waiting period between time of infection and accurate results, according to Riley. At least one gay adult entertainment producer has begun screening all performers with the 48-hour test before allowing them to perform in bareback scenes, but some health professionals feel the test is unreliable because it returns a high percentage of false-positive results and requires a standard antibody test for confirmation of infection.

More than 80 gay or bisexual men from around New Zealand have put themselves forward for the Gay Men’s Health Safe Sex Poster Boy competition.

Entries were accepted online throughout the month of September, under one of six categories: Party Boy, Bear/Cub/Leather, Boy Next Door/Regular Guy, Sportsman, Businessman/Professional, and Alternative.

“We’re very pleased with the response,” says Douglas Jenkin, National Campaigns Co-ordinator for the New Zealand AIDS Foundation. “We’ve had men enter from rural areas as well as cities, across all the categories, and a wide age range. Our youngest entrant is 18 and our oldest is 69.”

A requirement of entry was consistent use of condoms for anal sex, the best method for preventing transmission of HIV between men. Entrants were asked to supply their own reasons why using condoms is important for them.

“Many entrants spoke of the need to protect their health as one of the reasons why they use condoms, but some also had personal experience of the epidemic, such as knowing someone who is HIV positive,” Jenkin says. “This highlights the importance of making sure the safe sex message is personally relevant for all gay and bisexual men, which is one of the aims of this contest.”

Safe Sex Poster Boy will now proceed into the next phase, which involves entrants being interviewed on-camera before a panel of their peers during the month of October. Selections from the interviews will appear on www.safesexposterboy.co.nz.

“This will act as a dry run for the semi-finals, which will be held in venues in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch,” Jenkin explains. “Then it’s up to our communities to decide who will be the safe sex poster boys for 2008!”

[SOURCE]

Here’s some fashion news for the everyday gay. Designer Todd Oldham has been hired as creative director of Old Navy.

According to Women’s Wear Daily, the $6 billion, 900-unit Gap Inc. division said Friday that Oldham will become creative director on Oct. 1, and divide his time between New York and San Francisco. He’ll play a key role in developing the merchandise direction and creative vision at Old Navy.

I couldn’t be more excited about this! I’ve loved Todd since his days on MTV as host of House of Style and most recently on Top Design. This couldn’t be a more perfect match. I can’t wait to see what direction Old Navy’s men’s line will take since lately it’s been leaving much to be desired. Good luck Todd!

The US military investigated building a “gay bomb”, which would make enemy soldiers “sexually irresistible” to each other, government papers say.

Other weapons that never saw the light of day include one to make soldiers obvious by their bad breath.

The US defence department considered various non-lethal chemicals meant to disrupt enemy discipline and morale.

The 1994 plans were for a six-year project costing $7.5m, but they were never pursued.

The US Air Force Wright Laboratory in Dayton, Ohio, sought Pentagon funding for research into what it called “harassing, annoying and ‘bad guy’-identifying chemicals”.

The plans were obtained under the US Freedom of Information by the Sunshine Project, a group which monitors research into chemical and biological weapons.

‘Who? Me?’

The plan for a so-called “love bomb” envisaged an aphrodisiac chemical that would provoke widespread homosexual behaviour among troops, causing what the military called a “distasteful but completely non-lethal” blow to morale.

Scientists also reportedly considered a “sting me/attack me” chemical weapon to attract swarms of enraged wasps or angry rats towards enemy troops.

A substance to make the skin unbearably sensitive to sunlight was also pondered.

Another idea was to develop a chemical causing “severe and lasting halitosis”, so that enemy forces would be obvious even when they tried to blend in with civilians.

In a variation on that idea, researchers pondered a “Who? Me?” bomb, which would simulate flatulence in enemy ranks.

Indeed, a “Who? Me?” device had been under consideration since 1945, the government papers say.

However, researchers concluded that the premise for such a device was fatally flawed because “people in many areas of the world do not find faecal odour offensive, since they smell it on a regular basis”.

Captain Dan McSweeney of the Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Directorate at the Pentagon said the defence department receives “literally hundreds” of project ideas, but that “none of the systems described in that [1994] proposal have been developed”.

He told the BBC: “It’s important to point out that only those proposals which are deemed appropriate, based on stringent human effects, legal, and international treaty reviews are considered for development or acquisition.”

[SOURCE]

A new cancer study has found that the sexually transmitted virus that causes cervical cancer also increases the risk of certain types of throat cancer among people infected through oral sex.

According to the study unprotected oral sex is one of the major causes of a disease often associated with smoking and alcohol abuse.

Maura L. Gillison, an assistant professor of oncology and epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions in Baltimore, conducted the study.

It involved 100 participants with throat cancer and 200 without it.

She concluded that those with the human papilloma virus (HPV) were 32 times as likely to develop one form of oral cancer than those free of the virus.

“It makes it absolutely clear that oral HPV infection is a risk factor,” she said about the study published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The conclusion based on the test is that the more oral-sex partners a person has, the greater the risk of contracting oral cancers, which are located in the tonsils, back of the tongue and throat.

The new findings could explain the rise of oral cancer over the recent years especially in younger generations who typically smoke and drink less.

The findings provide new evidence that contradicts widespread misconceptions about oral sex.

“Many adolescents, and adults too, say they engage in oral sex as a less risky type of sex,” Mark A. Schuster of Rand Corp. and UCLA, told the Washington Post.

“What this article and others show is you absolutely can get serious sexually transmitted diseases through oral sex.”

The study could also boast support for a wide spread use of a new vaccine that would help prevent HPV.

Dr. Gillison added:

“People should be reassured that oral cancer is relatively uncommon, and the majority of people with oral HPV infection probably will not get throat cancer.”

There was no conclusion on whether kissing poses any risks on spreading HPV, but “it is not out of the realm of possibility,” Gillison said.

Currently there is no screening test for oral cancer, which is usually detected by sores in the mouth that will not heal.

[SOURCE]