I am writing today to announce the closure of the Michigan Messenger. After four years of operation in Michigan, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news into a single site, The American Independent at Americanindependent.com. This is part of a shift in strategy, towards new forms [...]
An abstinence-only presentation provided to numerous school districts in Calhoun and Eaton Counties in October of this year provided false and misleading information to students about HIV, experts allege.
Two county registers of deeds filed a class action lawsuit Monday on behalf of Michigan’s 83 counties alleging that the Mortgage Electronic Registration Services owes millions of dollars in property title transfer taxes.
Despite evidence of the impact of mercury on children and public health, Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette last month joined with 24 other state attorneys general in filing a lawsuit to scuttle new EPA regulations that would reduce mercury emissions from power plants.
Third in a four-part series on AIDS in Michigan.
While experts debate over how and if to make HIV testing a routine part of annual physicals in Michigan, those who are at high risk for HIV infection offer many reasons for not getting tested.
“I don’t get tested for HIV because I quit having sex — case closed,” said one 23-year-old gay man from Lansing.
In Michigan, men who have sex with men represent 47 percent of all cases of HIV or AIDS, according to statistics from the state Department of Community Health.
Experts in HIV/AIDS say there are many barriers to HIV testing. Among those cited by experts from the Lansing Area AIDS Network and Midwest AIDS Prevention Project are stigma and fear, location of testing sites, and a perception of not being at risk for HIV.
Michigan Messenger asked self-identified gay and bisexual men in an anonymous chat room on gay.com whether they got tested or not and why they made their choices. Because the answers deal with specific health information and in some cases HIV status, the men interviewed are identified only by age, location and sexual orientation.
Continued -Perhaps the most extensive response came from a 28-year-old from Ypsilanti. This gay man is in a long-term relationship; however, he has had sexual encounters outside that relationship.
“I guess that’s why I’m nervous about going (for testing). I feel like I should,” he said. “I don’t want him to know I do this (have sex outside the relationship), so that’s why I’m also scared.”
“I just don’t want to find out maybe that I have something that would endanger his life,” he continued. “The fear is what keeps me from really knowing.”
He also said the expectation that gay men routinely get tested played a role in his decision-making.
“It’s portrayed as something you ‘have to do,’ and I think a lot of people are against things that they have to do in order to be sure that you’re not going to be sentenced to having to use drugs to stay healthy for the rest of your life,” he said. “If you do have it, what happens next? There is no real answer thereafter of how you deal with what comes up if you are positive.”
But for a 44-year-old bisexual from Garden City, testing is not an issue. “I don’t have HIV, and I am not going to get it,” the man said. “End of discussion.”
Others, however, say testing is a regular event in their lives. A 22-year-old gay man from Lansing, who said he drove to Ferndale every six months because the test site offers rapid results, explained it was the right thing to do “because I’m a responsible adult.”
And a 31-year-old gay man from Grand Rapids said, “Hello? Every six months just to be on the safe side.”
Finally, a 55-year-old man from Lansing said he does not get checked at all because “I am already poz (positive).” He said he tested positive in 1989.
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