Festivals, Summits, and Conferences!
The Tattooed Activist talks about his busy work schedule in February and updates his readers on where he’s been hiding.
February has always been a busy time. During the shortest, coldest, month of the year the AIDS Committee of Ottawa hosts its annual health and wellness festival called Snowblower which aims to decrease social isolation, build agency, and increase queer men’s knowledge around safer sex practices. I helped to organize, promote, and facilitate five specific events, even as I tried to manage my regular work commitments, which included hosting a HIV+ young men’s group called Chatter, and participating in a new campaign photo shoot to promote the STI/HIV testing site Gay Zone.
At the end of February I also had the opportunity to attend the always excellent Gay Men’s Sexual Health Alliance Summit in Toronto. This year I participated by creating a display promoting ACO/Ottawa specific resources and initiatives at the Summits ‘Global Village’. After having presented last year, which I always find nerve wracking, I was happy to take part in a more relaxed way. (The above picture is of me and my co-worker Grant posing in front of said display)
Plus, I accepted a new part-time job freelancing for Xtra Ottawa and have begun documenting the Ottawa queer scene for the paper’s Xposed Column. All this is to say that I’m sorry I’ve been neglecting my responsibilities here, on Positivelite.com, but I’m back, feeling refreshed, and ready to resume regaling all my readers with my sexual exploits, internal struggles, and my shit-disturbing antics!
- Tags: AIDS, AIDS Committee of Ottawa, Chatter, gay, Gay Men’s Sexual Health Alliance, Gay Zone, HIV, HIV+ HIV-positive, lgbt, Michael Burtch, personal stories of people living with HIV, Positivelite_com_, Snowblower, Tattooed Activist
