S4 E9 From Red Ribbons to Leather Straps: Rodney McCoy’s Trailblazing Tale of HIV Prevention and Pleasure

In this episode, Rodney McCoy, a Black queer man with over four decades of experience in HIV prevention and education, shares his journey as a Leatherman of color and discusses the intersection of BDSM, kink, and HIV prevention. From his entry into the kink community to becoming a titleholder in the American Leatherman competition, Rodney emphasizes how the kink community provided a safe space for self-discovery and empowerment. The episode explores the link between pleasure, power dynamics, and HIV prevention, highlighting the importance of honest conversations, sex positivity training, and the destigmatization of “risky behavior.”

Rodney, a health educator, program director, adjunct professor, and researcher, emphasizes the partnership between healthcare professionals and patients in promoting sexual health. Rodney says, “I am about encouraging people to embrace all pleasure: sexual pleasure, pleasure that comes from good mental health, from good physical health and from good social connections. I believe as healthcare professionals, regardless of the field we’re in, we are arbiters to help assist our clients explore and enhance that pleasure, that good health in their lives.” Rodney shares personal experiences as an HIV/STI testing specialist, addressing the impact of stigma and the importance of open communication.

Download the transcript of this episode.

Resources from Rodney:

Beyond the Red Ribbon training & other services: https://rodneymccoy.info/services

Listen to Daddy Podcast on YouTube

Bio:

Rodney “Rod” McCoy, Jr. brings his expertise of nearly four decades in HIV prevention and education, as well as his real-life experience as an African American gay/queer man living with HIV. An Oberlin College graduate with his Bachelors in Sociology and Black Studies, Rod has worked in a variety of capacities in the field of HIV Prevention, from Health Educator and HIV Counselor to Program Director. As an Adjunct Professor at George Mason University, Rod established the “HIV, Culture and Sexuality” course for the school’s Global and Community Health Department. Rod created a sex positivity training for public health professionals called Beyond the Red Ribbon in collaboration with Louis Shackelford of the HIV Vaccine Trials Network. He currently works at Us Helping Us in Washington, DC, as a Research Assistant.

Congenital Syphilis Hotline Pilot

California Clinicians:

Do you have an URGENT congenital syphilis case and need SAME DAY expert consultation?

January 1 – March 31, 2024

www.stdccn.org

2023 Hawai’i STI Clinical Update

October 17, 2023

9AM-5PM (HST)

Honolulu, HI / Virtual

1-day in-person and virtual training covering the following topics:

Syphilis in Pregnancy
Congenital Syphilis
Gonorrhea (GC)/Chlamydia (CT), including extragenital testing
Doxycycline Post-exposure prophylaxis (doxy-PEP), Expedited Partner Therapy (EPT)
Dermatologic manifestations of STIs – Urethritis/Vaginitis (including syndromic management)
Sexual assault and STIs

Presented by:

Kelly Johnson, MD,MPH, Medical Director, California Prevention Training Center
Tamara Ooms, RN, MSN, FNP, Program Manager, California Prevention Training Center
Rosalyn Plotzker, MD, MPH, Clinical Faculty, California Prevention Training Center
Alan Katz, MD, MPH, Staff Physician, Hawai’i State Department of Health
Moderator: Breena Gaskov, BS, Outreach Epidemiological Specialist, Hawai’i State Department of Health

Learning Objectives

Explain prenatal syphilis screening and treatment recommendations
Describe the clinical and public health approaches to GC/CT prevention
Summarize data from recent studies exploring the use of doxy PEP to prevent bacterial STIs
Compare potential strategies for doxy-PEP implementation in clinical settings
Recognize dermatologic signs of sexually transmitted infections (STIs)
Delineate treatment approaches for syndromes suggestive of STIs

S4 E8 Intimacy Starts with I: Women, Self-Love, and HIV with Michelle Lopez

Listen Now

CW: Mention of abuse, sexual abuse, physical abuse, incest, molestation

At 24 years old, in the early 90’s, Michelle Lopez was riding a train in New York with her newborn baby and saw an advertisement that spoke to her. It said, “If you’re a woman and you’re enduring substance abuse, homelessness, or battery, call this number.” Michelle picked up a phone and began her new life. Her and her daughter were diagnosed with HIV, and it was her mission to get clean, understand her own trauma, and help others with similar stories.

Michelle, a bisexual Caribbean woman, realized that women living with HIV continue to be ostracized for both wanting and having sex. Michelle knew she had to combat this and teach herself and others about self-love, pleasure, and intimacy. She has spent her career advocating for HIV prevention and treatment, women’s health, mental health, sexuality, and how to unlearn feelings of shame. She says, “I recognized getting clean would give me more power to fight against situations and circumstances and stand up for my rights. I had to learn what it is to love Michelle and deal with the trauma that I endured.” Michelle shares how she utilizes her experiences from childhood to the present to educate others through clinical work, research, and advocacy. Her story is one of empowerment, celebration, and making lemonade with the lemons she was given.

Download the transcript of this episode.

Resources:

Michelle Lopez LinkedIn

CAPTC World AIDS Day Page

HIV.gov

Bio:

Michelle Lopez is a tireless advocate for public health among Black and Latinx communities. Over the last 30 years, Michelle has worked in HIV and AIDS prevention and health care navigation and substance use services. Michelle has served on boards of directors and advised on policy development that impacts the lives of marginalized communities. Michelle is now focusing on research designs methodology to meaningfully engages community members.

S4 E7 Dan Savage on the Magic Question “What are you into?” & Dr. Ina Park on How Providers Can Help

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Dan Savage is a sex-advice columnist and podcaster, and Ina Park is a sex positive STI researcher, physician, and author. The two come together in this episode to discuss desire, pleasure, and how to communicate about what feels good with partners and providers. Dan delves into discovering kinks, pleasure as we age, and trying new things alone and with partners. Ina reflects on her experiences as a provider, having conversations with patients around sex and pleasure as bodies, needs, and abilities change.

Dan says that gay people might be better at sex, “not because we’re magic…we use the 4 magic words ‘what are you into?’” Ina explains that honest communication with a partner, a physician, a sex columnist, or a therapist knocks down barriers to explore sex and discover pleasure. The two emphasize the importance of both having providers and friends (with a good sense of judgment) with whom you can discuss sex freely.

This is our first episode of the 3-episode mini-series on pleasure.

Download the transcript of this episode.

Resources:

Connect with Dan: https://savage.love/, @dansavage on Instagram, and @fakedansavage on Twitter/X

Connect with Ina: https://www.inapark.net/ and @InaParkMD on Twitter/X

Learn how to include pleasure in sexual health history-taking from the National Coalition for Sexual Health: https://nationalcoalitionforsexualhealth.org/tools/for-healthcare-providers/video-series

Bios:

Dan Savage is a sex-advice columnist, podcaster and author whose graphic, pragmatic, and humorous advice has changed the cultural conversation about monogamy, gay rights, religion, and politics. “Savage Love,” Dan’s sex-advice column, was first published in 1991 and is now syndicated across the United States and Canada. He also hosts the Savage Lovecast, a weekly, call-in advice podcast that has tens of thousands of paying subscribers for premium Magnum content. Both his podcast and column can be found on his website Savage.Love.

Ina Park MD, MS, is the author of Strange Bedfellows: Adventures in the Science, History, and Surprising Secrets of STDs. She is the Principal Investigator at the California Prevention Training Center. She is a Professor in the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the University of California San Francisco School of Medicine and a Medical Consultant in the Division of STD Prevention at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. She is a co-author of the 2021 CDC STD Treatment Guidelines, the country’s premier resource for diagnosis and treatment of sexually transmitted infections.

Inclusive Services: Approaches to Improve Sexual and Reproductive Health Care for People with Disabilities

May 10, 2023

Description:

According to the National Survey of Family Growth, approximately 12% of “women of childbearing age” have a disability, and yet our educational and training programs devote little to no time in preparing us to provide accessible, appropriate, quality services to these populations. This webinar will define the population, identify the sexual and reproductive health needs, barriers to health care and health care disparities for people with disabilities, and present best practices for providing accessible, equitable sexual and reproductive health care for people with disabilities. This webinar will also discuss actionable items providers can immediately implement in their practices to make them disability accessible.

Learning Objectives:

Develop an inclusive definition of the populations that comprise people with disabilities
Identify sexual and reproductive health needs, barriers to health care and healthcare disparities for people with disabilities
Outline best practices for providing sexual and reproductive health care for people with disabilities
Identify concrete actions providers can take to improve access to and quality of sexual and reproductive health care for people with disabilities
Become knowledgeable on language, culture, and medical equipment suggestions

Speakers:

Erica Monasterio, MN, FNP-BC-Retired
Clinical Professor Emerita at University of California, San Francisco
35 years of clinical experience in primary care for youth and families at UCSF and the San Francisco Department of Public Health
Works in collaborations with organizations at the local, state, and national level providing training and technical assistance

Robin Wilson-Beattie, B.A
Disability Sexual and Reproductive Health Educator
Certified by the American Board of Sexology and City College of San Francisco as a Sexual Health Educator
Member of the American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors and Therapists (AASECT), the Women of Color Sexual Health Network (WOCSHN), and a graduate of the San Francisco Sexuality Information Training (SFSI) Sex Educator Training
Speaker, writer, and advocated for disability and sexuality

Resources:

Examination and Interpretation of Wet Preparations of Vaginal Specimens

Thursday, November 2, 2023

2:00-5:00PM (PDT)

In-person laboratory course onsite at the UC San Francisco campus
Intended for practicing clinicians with prior wet mount experience and microscopy skills
Capacity limited to 8 persons

The course begins with a fifteen minute didactic presentation on applicable issues of CLIA regulation, quality control, and interpretation vaginal wet mount (VWM) for common causes of vaginitis This will be followed by a fifteen minute video that details through the microscope footage of findings on VWM including trichomads, yeast and clue cells associated with BV. The remaining two and one-half hours consists of experiential training, including laboratory practicum on examination of saline and KOH vaginal wet mounts (VWM). During this portion of the training, participants will have an opportunity for group discussion, explanation, and demonstration, as well as practice and return demonstration.

Learning Objectives

Practice proper preparation of saline and KOH specimens of vaginal fluid to increase viability of specimens for microscopic evaluation.
Perform proper use of the light microscope to improve examination of saline and KOH wet mount specimens.
Assess wet mount microscopy specimens to appropriately interpret findings that support diagnosis of vulvovaginal candidiasis, bacterial vaginosis or trichomoniaisis.

URL Redirect: STOMP: Study of Tecovirimat for Mpox

Guides for Patients and Providers

STOMP: Study of Tecovirimat for Mpox

Guides for patients and providers in English, Spanish, and Chinese. STOMP (www.stomptpoxx.org) is a clinical trial of oral tecovirimat (TPOXX) safety and efficacy. It is the preferred strategy for clinicians and local health jurisdictions to access oral TPOXX.