Fundraiser in Red Bank NJ Held to Support Marriage Equality

Over the weekend, The Garden State Equality held a free wine and cheese open house in Red Bank, NJ for all their members to show their love and appreciation. The New Jersey Women and Aids Network were one of those privileged to attend the fundraiser at the Hip and Humble Home, for marriage equality. The home furnishing store was gracious enough to donate 25% of all purchases that day to Garden State Equality's campaign to override Governor Christie's veto of the marriage equality bill.

The invitation read: "212 LGBT civil rights laws at the state, county and local levels in New Jersey our founding in 2004--and now we're one of only three states in American history to pass a marriage equality. Those are your achievements, dear members."

The event was a success bringing in a diverse group of individuals to talk about the community, political views, the upcoming election, marriage equality, occupy wall street,economy, LGBT rights, education etc. Among us were lawyers, activists, retired non-profit workers, and business owners, all in one room for a common purpose. Equality.

Check out some pics from the event down below!










We'd like to personally thank the members of Garden State Equality for the invite!

The Republican Plan to Defund Planned Parenthood is Working

Dear Friend,

The Republican plan to defund Planned Parenthood is working -- but if we
take action now we may be able to stop the latest attack on women's right
to health care.

It was just announced that Susan G. Komen for a Cure, America's largest
charity to fight breast cancer, will no longer fund a program that
provides free or low-cost breast cancer screenings for millions of women
who get their health care from Planned Parenthood.1 This is a huge blow.

In abruptly pulling nearly $1,000,000 in funding for breast cancer
screenings, Susan G. Koman foundation cited a sham "investigation" into
Planned Parenthood launched by Republican Rep. Cliff Stearns, one of the
most militant anti-choice members of Congress.2 We have to stand up and
fiercely defend Planned Parenthood -- and show Susan G. Komen and others
who are considering caving to the radical right that we will not let
extremists defund health care for women that includes reproductive
services.

I told the board of Susan G. Komen: Don't throw Planned Parenthood under
the bus! Don't cave to anti-woman extremists and cut off funding for
breast cancer screenings at the largest provider of health care for women.
I hope you will too. You can get more information and sign the petition at
the link below.

http://act.credoaction.com/campaign/komen_2/?r_by=-5026300-yirnsTx&rc=mailto1

Social Media Experiment to Eliminate HIV

Business and social media leaders teamed up Friday to tackle the transmission of HIV from mothers to babies, saying the medicine and the money are largely in place, and with the right organizational skills they can eliminate HIV-infected births by 2015. - Associated Press

So the plan is to use the power of social networking to increase the awareness of HIV/Aids in children. Women need to receive antiretroviral drugs to prevent the virus being passed to their unborn babies. If this can happen reports are stating that in 2015 there should be a significant decrease in the amount of children born with HIV. Instead of saying zero children will be born infected with the virus, in reality about only 13% of women will most likely unavoidably transmit the virus to their children.

I've already started seeing commercials that encourages everyone to "start a virus to end a virus"

"The long-term vision is for this to be a group of thousands or millions of people who can all broadcast in a coordinated manner where there is a global crisis."
Other business leaders involved in the project include Dominic Barton, managing director of consulting firm McKinsey & Co., and Cynthia Carroll, CEO of the mining company Anglo American PLC.
"AIDS," Carroll said, "should not be a disease of children."

What do you think is the best way to stop the transmission of HIV from mother to child...and more?

Equality - The American Dream **Attention LGBT NJ YOUTH**

ON TUESDAY, JANUARY 24, 2012 AT 11:00 AM, THE NEW JERSEY SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE IS HOLDING A HEARING AND VOTE ON S. 1, THE NEWLY REINTRODUCED MARRIAGE EQUALITY BILL. JOIN US! ARRIVE AS EARLY AS YOU CAN.

Please meet us as early as possible on Tuesday morning at the State House, 125 West State Street, Trenton. You can park at the Trenton Marriott, 1 West Lafayette Street, only three blocks from the State House, and then walk to the State House. You cannot arrive too early. We will be at the State House at the crack of dawn. The hearing room will be jammed and our anti-equality opponents intend to pack the room. Please wear your EQUALITY The American Dream t-shirt from two years ago if you have one. If ever there was a day to take off from work - which we don't ask you too often - this is it, history in the making.

WE ARE COMPILING WITNESSES TO TESTIFY FOR MARRIAGE EQUALITY. We are specifically seeking:

Civil union couples who have faced difficulties with the civil union law.
Civil union couples who want to talk about what the deprivation of marriage equality means to them.
Clergy.
LGBT Youth.
Parents or other loved ones of LGBT youth.
Supporters of marriage equality, straight or LGBT.

IF YOU’D LIKE TO TESTIFY, PLEASE E-MAIL Testify@GardenStateEquality.org, put TESTIFY in the subject header, and include in the email your name, town and the easiest phone number at which to reach you, which we will not give to anyone. Please also include which category above applies to you, or any other category or anything else relevant.

Whether or not you want to testify, we beg you to join us. We need a massive crowd. Right now, please forward this email to every supportive friend and colleague you have and to every blog and list serv of which you are a member.

Questions? Steven Goldstein is at cell (917) 449-8918.

Thank you, the world's greatest members, for never giving up. GAME ON AGAIN!

Safe Smart Sex

Safe Smart Sex





Imagine a world where no one told you anything about sex. Absolutely nothing, not how it feels, how to do it, what to do, or who to do it with. Yet here you are walking down the street and someone tells you to have safe sex and hands you a bag chock full o’ adult goodies. Condoms, female condoms, dental dams, birth control... etc. What would you do?

Unfortunately, you’d probably do the same thing most people do, ignore the PSA that’s standing right in front of you and keep it moving. I mean could we really blame you? You don’t know anything about the topic but I’m forcing my safe sex protest into your brain.

I think its safe to say that naturally you wouldn’t want to harm yourself, nor would you want to dip your naked body in a pool full of bacteria. Smart sex is the idea of having a smart sex life. In a world where people are obsessively consumed by eating smart, driving smart, and being financially smart wouldn’t you want to have sex the genius way?

This includes thinking about how being sexually active effects your mind, body and soul. Some consider being sexually active a risk in itself for your body, but what about your feelings. How often are you willing to give your body away at the expense of your health?

Now try and imagine a world where your wants and needs came first, not only to yourself, but to everyone. Any person you meet has the utmost respect for you and some are actually in awe of the person you’ve grown to be. If everyone wanted to protect you, you would be more conscious of protecting yourself right?

Well, that is the world you live in. We want to protect you...

If you’re more conscious about the food that goes in your mouth, rather than the body fluids you are exchanging with the next person, maybe it’s time to prioritize. Protecting yourself is just the beginning.

Just Think About It...

Do you practice Smart Sex? Let us know your thoughts, just spill the beans down below!

PrEP

Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis: A New Tool in the HIV Prevention Toolbox

Can a pill really be taken that will prevent HIV infection? Some new studies say “Yes.” The use of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is not a new concept; for years malaria drugs have been given to travelers visiting areas where there is a high risk of contracting the disease. However, the use of PrEP has never before been looked at as a prevention method for contracting HIV.

So what exactly is PrEP and how does it work? Current studies are testing the effect of using a daily regimen of antiretroviral treatments to prevent infection with HIV. Two drugs are currently being tested for this purpose in clinical trials: tenofovir and Truvada (a combination of tenofovir and emtricitabine). In November 2010 the National Institute of Health released the results of the iPrEx clinical trials. These studies were conducted with men who have sex with men in six different countries. In the study, there was an overall 44% reduction in acquisition of the virus in men who took a daily oral regimen of Truvada. Additionally, blood samples showed that there was a 90% risk reduction in men who faithfully took the drug daily.

In two more recent studies, PrEP has been shown to be effective in reducing the spread of HIV between heterosexual partners as well. The Partners PrEP study compared tenofovir and Truvada regimens in heterosexual partners where one was HIV positive and the other was HIV negative, in Kenya and Uganda. In this study, tenofovir was 62% effective in preventing HIV infection while Truvada was 73% effective. In another study, TDF2, researchers looked at a Truvada regimen in heterosexual men and women in Botswana. This study found Truvada to be 63% effective in preventing HIV infection. Although the adherence in both studies was somewhat high, 97% and 84% respectively, the researchers noticed that the adherence was higher in couples, especially when they received adherence and sexual health counseling together. Therefore the drug appears to be more effective when it was taken along with practicing other safe sex methods.

What do these new findings mean for combating the AIDS pandemic? Firstly, they give medical practitioners another tool to fight the disease. Previously, condoms and abstinence were the only ways to prevent the spread of HIV. However, more recent discoveries have given us other ways to help curb the spread of the disease: vaginal microbicides, immediate ART treatment to prevent HIV transmission and now PrEP. Combing these new prevention methods with the traditional prevention strategy of condom use could be an extremely effective way to reverse the trends of the current pandemic.

Second PrEP allows individuals, especially women, to have more control over what happens to their bodies. Many women may not be a position to negotiate condom use, for example if they are in abusive relationships or live in societies where women have no self autonomy, and PrEP would give them another way to protect themselves against HIV. Unlike a female condom which is visible to the eye, a woman could potentially be on a PrEP regimen without their partner ever knowing.

Despite the potential benefits of PrEP, there are still a few major concerns. One problem with such a breakthrough is that it may discourage the use of other safe sex practices. If someone knows they can greatly decrease their chance of getting HIV by taking a pill they may forgo the use of condoms altogether. Not only does unprotected sex increase the chance of pregnancy, it also opens one up to a whole host of other sexually transmitted infections (STIs). STIs increase the chance of acquiring HIV, as well as lead to infertility and reproductive cancers. The most effective use of PrEP would be in conjunction with condom use and continual HIV testing.

Another issue with PrEP is cost and access to the medication. Condoms are cheap, drugs are not. Condoms can be handed out on the streets while drugs would require a doctor’s visit and a prescription. In areas where funds are already scarce, such as in Africa, who would have access to this prophylactic treatment? Would it only be for partners of HIV infected people? In the United States would the drug only be aimed at the entire population or only at high risk populations, such as minority communities? The same communities who currently have little access to healthcare and could most likely not afford such a long-term drug treatment? In order for PrEP to have the widespread positive impact it has the potential to have, it needs to be handled with caution. PrEP needs to be marketed not as a “cure” for AIDS but as a tool to be used in combination with condoms and other prophylactic treatments to curb the spread of the disease. PrEP also needs to be distributed in populations where it will do the most good and for little or no cost to the user. The HIV/AIDS pandemic shows no signs of stopping and the more ammunition we have to combat the disease the better.

New Jerseyans: Where Were You?

On June 20th as I walked up to the statehouse in Trenton, I could hear the crowd before I even saw it. As I got closer a sea of women in pink shirts filled my field of vision. The more I looked around though, I realized the chanting was not coming from this group of women. Instead, further down the street a much larger, more rambunctious crowd had gathered to protest proposed cuts to health care benefits and pensions for the state’s public employees. As I looked around at the crowd gathered in support of women’s health, I wondered, “Is this it? Where are all the signs? Where is all the chanting?” Cuts to the state’s family planning budget have the potential to affect half of states adult population, not counting their families. So where was everyone?
Maybe my expectations were too high. Never having been to a political rally before the only visuals I had to go on were of what I had seen on TV or had read about in history books: The March on Washington, the Million Mom March or the National Equality March. Knowing that this was a state versus federal rally meant that my expectations were lowered, but not by much. I expected to see hundreds of women wearing various organizations’ t-shirts, carrying signs emblazoned with slogans such as “Stop the War on Women” and “Women’s Health=Family Health,” chanting for women’s rights and listening to leaders of the movement expounding on its progress and what we must do to continue the fight.
In reality, the rally was much smaller and tamer than I anticipated. Yes there were t-shirts: bright pink with “I stand with Planned Parenthood” written on the front. Yes, many of the movement’s leaders gave excellent speeches and promised to continue the fight to restore the family planning budget. And yes there were a few signs and some chanting. However, I think what disappointed me the most was the somewhat small turnout. Don’t get me wrong, everyone who turned up was amazing for doing so and I applaud the organizers of the rally for all of the support garnered for the cause. But seriously, New Jerseyans, where were you? These cuts will directly affect your health and the health of those that you care about. I am especially disappointed in college age women, my peers, many of whom rely on Planned Parenthood and other family planning centers for the most basic healthcare. If we do not care enough about our own health to fight these budget cuts why should we expect anyone else to care?
However, maybe I am being too hard on this rally in particular and instead am making a comment on women’s rallies in general. In this society, when women gather they are expected to be calm and collected. As evidenced by only the two State Police officers stationed outside the statehouse, no one expected a group of women to get out of hand. Along with this assumption another can be deduced: no one expected men to even attend. Why is it that men are not expected to rally for a “women’s” cause? Men do not exist in a women-less bubble; they are surrounded by their mothers, sisters, wives, daughters, friends, etc whom they care about and whose well-being is at stake. A woman would be expected to support her husband in a rally against pension cuts, so why shouldn’t he be expected to support his wife in a rally against threats to her health? Because of the relatively “calm” nature of women’s rallies and the lack of male presence these rallies are often missing another crucial component: press coverage. Without press coverage how will the legislators know that anyone cares? How will other women and men know that they can join in the cause? Women’s rallies need to continue to be taken seriously if they are ever to affect the change necessary ensure our rights.
Nevertheless, my first political rally was a positive experience. It was exciting to see other people gathered for a cause that I feel so strongly about. Hearing all of the speeches made me realize that other people truly care about my health and will continue to fight for my well-being. My only wish is that in the future more young women like myself will be able to experience what I did yesterday and will join in the fight for women’s health and in essence, women’s rights.