Sexual and Reproductive Health

Get Your Meningitis Vaccine!

First it was just sexually hyperactive HIV-positive gay men in certain parts of Brooklyn who were advised to get the meningitis vaccine. Now that the total number of cases is up to 22, they're saying all gay men in any part of NYC, regardless of HIV status, should get the injection, if they hook up ... More >>

Let's Talk About Sex, Baby (and HIV and AIDS Awareness)

It was just over two decades ago that seminal rap group Salt-N-Pepa helped usher a discussion of HIV and AIDS awareness into the hip-hop community with their single "Let's Talk About Sex" and its reworking "Let's Talk About AIDS." Continuing that tradition of outreach, last weekend Pepa was on-hand ... More >>

David France on the Plague Years: The history and survival of ACT UP

Oral Sex: How To Stay Safer

Most Americans ages 15-24 -- some 66 percent -- have had oral sex, the Centers for Disease Control reports. But that's actually less than in the past. A reason young people have oral sex is because they don't want a kid, the CDC notes. However, a lot of young people also don't realize that oral sex ... More >>

Birth Control and Antibiotics: A Baby-Making Mix?

You have probably heard this before: The Pill doesn't work if you're on antibiotics. However, an item we encountered this morning has made us revisit this age-old misnomer.

More Ladies Are Using Long-Term Birth Control, Researchers Say

More American women are using effective, long-term contraceptives -- namely, intrauterine devices (IUDs) -- a new Guttmacher Institute study indicates. IUDs are implanted in a woman's uterus and can prevent birth for up to 10 years and tend to have a one percent or less annual pregnancy rate, mean ... More >>

Failed War On Drugs Contributing To AIDS Epidemic: Report

The Global Commission on Drug Policy released a report this afternoon that shows how the failed "war on drugs" is contributing to the AIDS epidemic amongst intravenous drug users and their sexual partners (you can review the entire report below).The Commission, which is made up of the who's who of f ... More >>

AIDS Activism: More Than a Walk in the Park

It's back—onstage and screen, but not in the streets

Corpus: A Home Movie for Selena + Vida

FYI: Your Birth Control Might Not Work

Here's some important info if you don't want a kid: neither the transdermal patch, vaginal ring, nor the pill are the best way to go about birth controllin'. According to a recently released New England Journal of Medicine study, intrauterine devices(IUDs), under-the-skin implants, and Depo-Provera ... More >>

UPDATE: Bed-Stuy School Principal Will Not Offer Condoms at Prom But Still Thinks Teens Need 'Em

Looks like the kids are going to be engaging in dangerous sex after all.Yesterday, the Voice reported on an interesting story coming out of Brooklyn, in which a principal of a high school there offered to hand out condoms (rubbers, jimmy-hats, whatever they're calling them these days) at the school' ... More >>

Rabble-Rousing Rubbers? Bed-Stuy Prom Condom Giveaway Causes Controversy

Prophylactics often cause polemics. And this seems to be the case in Bed-Stuy, where a high school principal's decision to pass out condoms at prom has caused quite a bit of conversation. "This is necessary," Darryl Rascoe, Bedford-Stuyvesant Preparatory High School principal, told the Daily New ... More >>

Pregnant? Then Get an STD Test, for God's Sake

A lot of pregnant women don't get tested for sexually transmitted diseases. But a lot of pregnant need to get tested for sexually transmitted diseases, according to just released Centers for Disease Control stats. Out of some 1.3 million American women who had blood work during pregnancy, only 59 p ... More >>

Happy April! Time To Pay Attention To Your Genital Warts Again!

​It's April, which means one thing: it's time to sit back, take in the spring air, and become even more aware of whatever may be itching you down there.The Centers for Disease Control officially has declared April "Sexually Transmitted Disease Awareness Month," so if a short and curly hasn't poppe ... More >>

Singles' Right to Birth Control Turns 40! Happy Birthday, Eisenstadt v. Baird

Though slutgate seems to have come to somewhat of a conclusion -- Rush Limbaugh probably won't call a young woman a "slut" again until he calls a young woman a "slut" again -- it's helpful to remember what laid the groundwork for this most recent culture war battle: Eisenstadt v. Baird a little-disc ... More >>

HIV/AIDS Protestors Descend on Robert Doar's Home, Commute

And you thought your morning commute was rough. HIV/AIDS activists from Voices Of Community Advocates & Leaders (VOCAL-NY) -- an organization that advocates for the rights of HIV-positive New Yorkers -- got up bright and early this to stakeout and protest Human Resources Administration Commissione ... More >>

Leaked City Document Sparks Fears And Frustrations for New Yorkers with HIV/AIDS

Sam LevinAdvocacy group VOCAL-NY at a City Hall rally earlier this year. ​An HIV/AIDS advocacy group has got its hands on an internal government document that the group says is cause for major concern -- and not just because the city is making policy changes behind closed doors, advocates said ... More >>

HIV-Positive New Yorkers Protest Budget Cuts, Drug Screening Policy

Activists upset with a new drug screening regulation for HIV-positive New Yorkers are going to protest the policy today by marching to a city commissioner and asking him to take a drug test. Y'know, it's one of those protests where the activists try to find the person they're mad at -- those are fun ... More >>

Pillheads: On Contraception Issue, Rightbloggers Baptize Insurers and Defend the Faith

On Friday the Obama Administration revealed its compromise with religious organizations, such as Catholic hospitals, who didn't want to offer birth control in their health insurance plans. The orgs won't have to pay for it if it offends their beliefs, the President said -- the insurers would be obl ... More >>

Uh-Oh: You Might Have an STD! The Whole World Might Know, Too

​Love is supposed to be everlasting. Unfortunately for many, the only permanent thing to come out of a relationship is an incurable sexually transmitted disease. And that's why Cyrus Sullivan, of Portland, Ore., claims that he runs STD Carriers Disease Control and Prevention Services, a webs ... More >>

Theatre of the Oppressed Brings Homeless Actors to the Stage Tonight

Some of these folks have never acted on a stage before, but then again, this is most definitely not your traditional performance. Tonight, Theatre of the Oppressed NYC is partnering with nonprofit group Housing Works to put on a show centered around the experiences of being homeless and HIV-posit ... More >>

You Might Be Pregnant! Pfizer Recalls 1 Million Birth Control Packs

​Time for Plan B? Nearly 1 million packs of birth control pills are getting recalled by Pfizer in the U.S., because a packaging screwup boosts your chances of pregnancy (via Time). Oy. The pharmaceutical giant says that women with these sketchy scripts -- such as Lo/Ovral-28 tabs and Nor ... More >>

Here Are the 20 Most-Read Village Voice Stories of 2011

Somewhat unbelievably, here we find ourselves on the last Friday of 2011. We hope this year has been a good one for you. As for us, well, we can't complain too much. After all, this is the post in which we get to brag a little: The most-read stories in the Voice for the year. Whee. Previous top stor ... More >>

That STD Makes You Smell Bad, Too

​Here is a fact: You probably smell. Maybe you smell neurotic. Maybe you smell like a high school cafeteria. Maybe, if you are a man infected with gonorrhea (not recommended) you smell "putrid." In the latest of science's ongoing explorations with the sense of smell, scientists in Russia got a ... More >>

Kevin Beauchamp and Howard Orlick on World AIDS Day

Today is World AIDS Day, the day to remember the 25 million people killed by the disease and the over 33 million people worldwide living with HIV. Earlier this year, we had the opportunity to profile Kevin Beauchamp and Howard Orlick in the Voice cover story "Maybe I Do and Maybe I Don't." Both Kev ... More >>

Sperm Bank to Redheads: Keep Your Semen to Yourself

​Cryos, a Danish network of sperm banks with clinics around the world, has stopped taking donations from men with red hair. The Telegraph reports that there is a low demand internationally for redheaded sperm donors. Cryos has received more donations recently than ever before, allowing them to ... More >>

We Have Obtained a Copy of MTV's Standard Real World Cast-Member Contract

MTV turns 30 today. To celebrate, we're running a bunch of pieces on the channel, its legacy, and its future. Last Wednesday's Village Voice cover story profiled the DeBartoli sisters, two Staten Island sisters who starred in the never-aired Jersey Shore precursor Bridge & Tunnel who signed enorm ... More >>

AIDS In Oral History - Looking Back at 30 Years of the Epidemic (VIDEO)

​This past Pride Week has marked some amazing events, from passage of Marriage Equality in New York, to a President ducking that issue while visiting the city, to that same President marking National HIV Testing Day and preparing to host a White House Pride reception. This Pride also marks ... More >>

Generation HIV: Young Gay Men At Risk

There's one group that is seeing HIV rates accelerating: twentysomething gay men

Today Is The 30th Anniversary of AIDS

via​Today marks the 30th anniversary of the first formal report of the disease that came to be known as AIDS. The disease baffled doctors and public health officials when it first appeared; described in some places as a "gay cancer," the HIV virus took three years to be identified and much longer ... More >>

Ruben Diaz Sr Will Hold His Anti-Gay Marriage Rally the Same Day as AIDS Walk

Son, my priorities come first.​Senator Rev. Ruben Diaz, Sr. is clearly unhappy about being labeled the anti-HIV/AIDS, anti-LGBT bigot that he is. After Diaz, Sr. scheduled an anti-gay marriage rally during the annual AIDS Walk (and during his own son's Bronx Week festivities), we pointed out h ... More >>

Memorial Info and Obit For Trans/AIDS Activist Chloe Dzubilo

​ Trans activist Chloe Dzubilo--who was disoriented from medication and fell onto subway tracks two weeks ago--will not be forgotten. Her friends desperately want this message out: "We invite you to come together in the spirit by which Chloe lived her life--to invoke a world where artist/ac ... More >>

Oral Sex Is Causing Cancer. But, Wait, There's a Bright Side.

Not so cute in reality.​Scientists, who clearly do not want us to be happy, are again reminding us of a link between oral sex and BAD THINGS. This time, cancer. There's "strong evidence" linking oral sex to cancer, scientists have said, yet again. In fact, in the U.S., oral sex has surpassed t ... More >>

Glenn Beck Accuses Planned Parenthood of Abetting Sex Trafficking (Video)

via Fox News​In Glenn Beck's universe, Planned Parenthood is not just an organization that provides reproductive health care and education to those in need of it. Planned Parenthood, as he "revealed" during his program yesterday, is a nefarious ring of criminals involved in child sex trafficking. ... More >>

Orgasm Inc. Director Liz Canner Talks About Her New Film, Decriminalizing Clit Classes

​Stress abounds in the life of a documentary filmmaker, especially when the work involves gritty subjects like police brutality, globalization in Nicaragua, and the 1992 L.A. riots. Award winning director Liz Canner is proud to call those documentaries her own, but when the topics left her ree ... More >>

Teens With STDs Are Lying About Having Sex, Among Other Things

​You know how kids will be kids? And teens will be teens? And adults, certain adults, that is, will be "adults" and enforce a "program" of abstinence over teaching teens that if they are going to have sex they should at least be a little careful about it and, like, use protection? Well, certai ... More >>

Mike Bloomberg and Other New Yorkers Remember Friends and Family on World AIDS Day (Video)

​Today is World AIDS day, which has been observed since 1987 in honor of the 25 million people killed by the disease. There are approximately 33 million people around the globe and 107,000 New Yorkers currently living with HIV/AIDS. Runnin' Scared spoke to several New Yorkers -- from the Mayo ... More >>

Free Things in New York City: AIDS Tests, Washington Square Park, Tomorrow

​Tomorrow is World AIDS Day, which is neither a celebration of AIDS nor the day everyone in the world gets AIDS, but a day dedicated to AIDS awareness, which there will never be enough of. Like AIDS tests. Which are going to be given away for free in Washington Square Park tomorrow.

Federal Government Finally Teaching Some Kids to Screw

​After ten years of funding sex education programs built on abstinence, the federal government is getting a little bit looser. A little bit! This year, "a five-year, $375 million grant is being divided among 28 programs that have been proven to lower the pregnancy rate among participants, no m ... More >>

D.C.'s AIDS Epidemic, Otherwise Ignored, in The Other City

The New Female Condom Takes Over DC: New York Next?

We may now welcome the phrase "female condom" to the great category of English words like "moist" and "uvula": those which mostly bring shutters to English-speaking men and women nationwide. But this hasn't stopped D.C. lawmakers from touting a new campaign to promote safe sex in the area. From metr ... More >>

The Next Frontier of the Stem Cell Debate

"Snowflake" babies, embryo "adoption," and being pre-born again

A Cookoff With Balls

Is it just us or is everyone tasting testicles lately? If you're a fan of balls, you might want to get yourself to Serbia this summer. The World Testicle & Aphrodisiac Cooking Championship will be held in August in Gornji Milanovac. The event is meant to promote "testicle specialities [sic] as well ... More >>

The AIDS-Babies-as-Guinea-Pigs Story Is Finally Over. Right?

Alomar Ex Says He Has AIDS

Roberto Alomar has AIDS, his ex-girlfriend says, and she's brought a $15 million lawsuit against the former Mets star, reports the Daily News. The girlfriend, Ilya Dali, claims that in her time with him Alomar was diagnosed by Mets doctors with thrombocytopenia purpura, often a presenting symptom o ... More >>

Hapless Subject Illustrates Increased STD Risk from Heavy Drinking

We can only imagine how Michelangelo Franqui feels this morning. The Queens man admitted to amNY that one time "My friends had to drag me up the stairs because I was passed out" from strong drink," and when told of a city health department report that shows that people who get that drunk stand a gre ... More >>

HIV Man Faked HIV Test to Get Sex, Is Under Arrest

Survey: One in Four New Yorkers Has Genital Herpes

Why Can't I Leave My Boyfriend Tied Up While I Go the Movies?

Bob Kohler, Gay Rights Pioneer, 1926-2007