By Matt Simonette

Staff writer

Test Positive Aware Network held its fourth annual day-long ManAlive conference Nov. 3, addressing a number of male-related health issues, at Center on Halsted.

Keynote speakers were Tony Mills, a Los Angeles-based physician specializing in gay men’s health issues, as well as a former International Mr. Leather, and Mark Jason McLaurin, executive director of the New York State Black Network.

Mills’ presentation, “10 Things Gay Men Need to Know,” highlighted a number of current gay male-related health issues, including the prevalence of drug use in the community, current transmission rates of HIV and STDs and cholesterol awareness.

Mills also said gay men occasionally need to have their testosterone levels measured, adding that it’s the first thing he checks when men complain of lethargy, depression or osteoporosis.

Since men are living longer, Mills said, testosterone production sometimes needs a boost when they reach middle age.

“Testosterone production hasn’t kept up with evolution,” Mills said.

McLaurin’s address focused on the black gay community’s need to mobilize in the face of rising numbers of HIV infection.

That community’s experience, with a catastrophic rate of infection—46 percent, according to one federal study—“contradicts the idea that increased risk increases your likelihood of infection,” McLaurin said, since African American gay GBT men statistically don’t engage in as many risky sexual behaviors.

McLaurin further decried the reality that no explanation for this contradiction is available.

“The truth is we don’t know (why). The fact that we don’t know is shameful,” McLaurin said.

He added that it is time for gay African Americans to recognize their worth.

“We took care of the kids when our brothers went to jail. We took care of the kids when our sisters became crackheads,” he said.

He concluded by asking everyone in the audience to work towards forging bonds across all GLBT communities, adding, “At the end of the day, my call on you is to display some allied behavior.”

Among the other topics covered by workshops were self-esteem, nude yoga, body image, smoking cessation, tricking safely, spirituality and living with HIV.

TPAN Director of Treatment Education Matt Sharp said there were about 200 participants in the conference this year, about twice the average turnout in previous years. He attributed the rise in attendance to the conference’s location this year at the Center on Halsted.

“We really wanted to involve the Center this year. In the past, we’d had this at the Hyatt downtown. This year, we’re seeing a much more diverse conference. In the past, the majority of the people attending were TPAN clients,” he added.

The real motivation of the conference, according to Sharp, is “education and a sense of community and empowerment. If you touch even two or three people with this, you’ve done your job.”