The bottom line first: a surprisingly conventional drama cloaked in unconventional garb, this is a love story that’s both intensely familiar and, thanks to the use of dance segments which illustrate the action, unique and exciting.  Combine this formula with highly disciplined and skillful acting of the first order and you have a show that tries hard to please – and does, in spades.

What’s it about? Simple really – and all highly accessible. Fresh-faced young Alan is new in town from Espanola, Ontario exploring the bar/club scene.  One night at the bar he meets the attractive and experienced Bart who beds him and rejects him.  Trouble is young Alan likes older Bart – a lot, and won’t give up that easily. Meanwhile Bart’s partner, scholarly Calder, falls in love with Alan, but his love is not returned.  As they say, complications ensue.

This is a story of modern sexual manners – how men meet, mate (or not) and deal with the consequences. It’s zippy lines are clever and often funny, but also ring true with a keen sense of language and gritty realism that writer Sky Gilbert wields expertly.

The oddity here is the use of dance segments to illustrate the action, choreographed by Sky Gilbert and Keith Cole. Each scene here, which takes place in modern day Toronto, is followed by a stylized dance/movement piece with a highly different feel and look to the dramatic action preceding it. They are for the most part romantically orchestrated throwbacks to yesteryear, with the protagonists dancing out what the audience has just witnessed. 

The production positively sizzles with stellar performances on the part of all three leads. Newcomer Nick Green (above) as young Alan is a revelation, clearly someone to watch in both senses, with his very finely nuanced performance full of depth and maturity.  But impressive too, as one might expect, is seasoned favourite Ryan Kelly, of The Normal Heart and Living with Henry.  We also liked David Benjamin-Tomlinson  who rounded out the trio.

If one has issues with this show it is inevitably how the two main elements of this production – drama and dance – meld.  At times, the transitions seem a bit ungainly, and the juxtaposition of such disparate elements may not work for everybody.  Personally I liked the idea – I thought it added freshness and intrigue and charm.

All in all, though, this quirky production is a success. Buddies tends to be a reliable source of contemporary queer theatre, and this production, mounted by Sky Gilbert's own The Cabaret Company, is no exception.  Go see it.

Dancing Queen is at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, 12 Alexander Street, Toronto until April 29.

Tickets via the Box Office at 416-975-8555 or T.O.Tix/Ticketweb 

This article first appeared in The Positive Side, a publication of CATIE.  

IT WAS SOMETHING you could probably only get away with at a house party in a small town: drinking directly from a wine bottle and alternating swigs with a young woman you just met. That was what 23-year-old George from Louisbourg, Cape Breton, was doing at a recent party — and having a blast.

The new buddies were getting cheerfully drunk when a couple pulled the young woman aside and told her that George was HIV positive and she probably had contracted the disease from sharing that wine bottle. She began screaming and crying.

“You don’t have anything to worry about! You have to drink 12 gallons of my saliva to have to worry about it,” George told her. (He was pulling numbers out of the air, but he was correct that the amount of HIV in saliva is so low that it’s considered impossible to transmit the virus this way.)

Soon, the young woman calmed down and apologized. But the whole incident reinforced for George something he already knew: It’s a huge challenge to live with HIV in small-town Canada. Studies show that rural Canadians have very poor knowledge of the disease. Stigma — and fear of it — has led to silence around the condition in many communities. Meanwhile, people with HIV/AIDS (PHAs) struggle to get timely access to medical care and support service. “There are a lot of challenges for people with HIV and those trying to respond to it in rural areas,” says Tiffany Veinot, a Canadian researcher on HIV awareness in rural communities who is now an assistant professor with the Schools of Information and Public Health at the University of Michigan.

“But it’s not all bad news,” she adds. There are significant benefits to living outside of cities for PHAs, including lower cost of living, family support and service organizations that are constantly improving outreach. We’re not there yet, but HIV may one day be a disease that’s understood across the country.

ABOUT 65,000 CANADIANS live with HIV, but no one collects information on how many of them reside outside of cities. Up until recently, the disease has been looked at by researchers as an urban phenomenon. Now, there’s a growing interest to study HIV in small towns and to document, among other things, education levels about the disease.

 “The biggest problem is ignorance,” George says. “Many people only know what they hear from their friends.” George’s experiences are backed up by facts: A study recently published in the Journal of Rural Health showed that among a surveyed group of 1,177 rural Canadians, nearly 25 percent thought the disease was transmitted through casual contact. In contrast, just 19 percent of urban dwellers believed the same misinformation. Lead author Veinot still marvels that her study revealed that one in four rural residents thought you could get HIV by sharing a glass.

Veinot partly attributes this ignorance to the fact that few people in small towns talk about HIV — her study found that rural dwellers were much less likely to have discussed HIV with anyone. “A lot of people with HIV that I’ve spoken to, as well as their family members and friends, tell me there was a lot of silence about the disease in their community.”

The characteristics of rural populations, Veinot adds, make it more likely that they will have health knowledge that is less current: Poverty rates are higher, people are less likely to be university educated and the population tends to be older. “We have a lot of people in our area who are 55-plus,” says Martino Larue, a PHA living in Price, Quebec, on the Gaspé Peninsula. “They’re still stuck back in the 1980s. The new generation here knows a lot more about HIV; they read about it on the Internet.”

Religion can also have an impact on HIV knowledge: While some rural Canadians have seen certain churches become very supportive after a member’s diagnosis, other congregations contribute to the knowledge gap by refusing to talk about HIV. John Baker, outreach coordinator for the AIDS Committee of Newfoundland and Labrador (ACNL), sees this when he tries to book speaking engagements at rural schools. “I often get schools that aren’t very welcoming, that just don’t have time for me. These are often schools in tightly knit communities, where what I have to say is deemed inappropriate or not needed in the community. It’s a NIMBY [not-in-my-backyard] mentality.”

Many communities are simply in denial that HIV — along with the activities that pass the virus, such as high-risk sex or injection drug use with shared equipment — exists in their midst. “There’s a real invisibility cloak around certain issues in this community,” says Gary Dalton, of the AIDS Network Kootenay Outreach and Support Society (ANKORS), in the group’s Cranbrook, BC office.

WHILE RURAL CANADIANS don’t talk about the illness itself, neighbours still quickly spread news of a diagnosis. When Martino got his test results in 1997, he was with his cousin. “I’m going to wait a few months before I tell anyone,” Martino told her. But back in their town of just 1,100, Martino’s cousin was so upset that she confided in her father. Within days, everyone in the area knew.

Knowing how word spreads in small communities, many PHAs guard their status with extreme care. In rural Newfoundland, where medications are often delivered by mail, Karen Thompson of ACNL has heard of PHAs sending a friend or family member to the post office to pick up the package, simply so others won’t see them doing it. PHAs in small-town Ontario, meanwhile, will visit walk-in clinics or drug stores in faraway towns just to avoid seeing someone they know. “There’s a real or at least perceived lack of privacy,” says Jenny Gritke, HIV regional resource coordinator for the Regional HIV/AIDS Connection in London, Ontario, which serves not just the city but six adjacent, mostly rural counties.

Caution about disclosure, for small towners, is all about guarding against stigma. “It’s not safe to say in public that you’re HIV positive around here,” says ANKORS’ Dalton, who’s seen newly diagnosed PHAs beaten up and fired from their jobs. After about 20 people became infected in the Newfoundland region of Conception Bay North in the early 1990s, stigma became a huge issue for not just those living with the virus but also many others in the area. For instance, young hockey players from the area struggled to find families that would billet them when they travelled for tournaments — and none of these kids was HIV positive.

Stacey, a PHA now living in Sarnia, Ontario, was diagnosed in 2008 while living in her hometown of Alcona, a small Ontario town outside of Barrie. When news got around, a woman who knew the man who had infected Stacey showed up at her door throwing punches — she said Stacey had driven him out of town, as he had recently moved. One of her daughter’s classmates was pulled out of school (to avoid contact with Stacey’s daughter). Within months, the negativity in town was so overwhelming that Stacey moved.

ALONG WITH THESE SOCIAL OBSTACLES, small-town PHAs face practical challenges. Getting high-quality medical care, and getting it promptly, remains a serious concern. Because HIV specialists typically work out of major centres, the vast majority of rural PHAs must travel to get care. For Dalton’s clients in BC’s Interior, that means a 13-hour bus ride to Vancouver — “not an easy trip,” he says. Not only is the ride exhausting, but it’s pricey and requires an overnight stay. In the winter, long commutes to the doctor can be made worse — or impossible — by the weather. Some PHAs don’t own cars, so that means relying on family, friends or AIDS service organizations (ASOs) simply to get to an appointment. Seemingly minor policies on the part of clinics, such as not allowing medical information to be sent via e-mail, can further affect the care and support that a rural PHA receives.

People in rural communities also struggle to find good primary care. About four million Canadians don’t have a family doctor, and the shortage is most extreme in rural areas. And many PHAs find there’s little point being on a waiting list: Overworked general practitioners in smaller towns know little about HIV and many are reticent to add a PHA to their already-full patient rosters. Those PHAs who do have a doctor report a wide range of experiences: Some have doctors who are eager to learn about HIV and keep in close contact with the specialist. Others find that their physicians struggle to figure out where everyday medical care ends and HIV treatments begin — an issue that can strain the relationship with their patients.

Gaining access to other healthcare professionals is also difficult. For three years, Martino searched for a dentist close to home in the Gaspé Peninsula. He got numerous polite brushoffs after revealing his status. Eventually, he found a dentist who agreed to see him. She booked him in the last slot of the day — so she could disinfect her tools with additional care afterward — and still, after the second appointment, she asked him to not return. Martino finally stopped looking locally and went back to a dentist in Montreal — a six-hour drive away — who has experience with HIV.

BUT PHAs IN RURAL CANADA don’t just need healthcare, they need other kinds of assistance as well: help getting to appointments, emotional support, information about treatment and links to other service organizations. In cities, ASOs provide that kind of practical help. But ASOs that serve rural Canada struggle to stretch their budgets to serve their diverse, spread-out clientele. ACNL, for instance, runs on a small staff and a limited budget, trying to serve the huge expanse of both Newfoundland and Labrador. But most of the organization’s information workshops take place in St. John’s. Its rural clients receive mailings and their face-to-face support is largely limited to times when they come to St. John’s for appointments.

While many of these ASOs cannot offer a wide range of services, they focus on the basics, such as driving clients to their appointments. “Mileage is by far and away my greatest expense,” says Elma Plant, a PHA from Blyth, Ontario, and education coordinator at the Huron County HIV/AIDS Network.

It’s not just financial difficulties that leave these ASOs struggling to stay in operation. In 2005–06, researcher Veinot and study principal investigator Roma Harris of the University of Western Ontario conducted a study on how rural Canadians gain support and pass on information about HIV. During the course of the study, two organizations out of the six with whom they collaborated closed down due to lack of funding (larger ASOs took over service in those areas). “We found there was a lot of reliance on central people who acted as hubs of information,” Veinot says. “If they leave or get sick, the entire information network becomes unstable.”

And there are other barriers to getting good care. Lack of broadband infrastructure means some rural Canadians don’t have good Internet connections, reducing their ability to communicate with their support team and get information. As well, government housing programs are few and far between in small communities, leaving low-income PHAs with fewer housing options. And prevention programs offering needle exchanges or free condoms, for instance, are rare outside of cities.

STILL, DESPITE the multilayered challenges of living with this disease in smaller communities, the benefits are compelling enough that many PHAs prefer small-town life — both for personal and practical reasons.

One reason is the affordability of rural life. Martino, for instance, was able to buy a home two years ago, and his mortgage payments are far below the rent he used to pay while living in Montreal — plus, now he has a huge yard.

Family support is another key reason PHAs swear by small-town life. Martino works at his brother’s business and can customize his schedule to work around his health, appointments and volunteer work. And while healthcare is hours away and he often has to rely on the emergency room at a nearby hospital for care, the slower pace of rural life has been much better for his health. In Montreal, Martino worked in a bar, but life in Gaspé is less stressful and it is easier for him to get enough sleep and follow a healthy diet.

The slower pace of his community in Cape Breton fits George’s needs as well. Here, his quieter life affords him more time to spend with friends. And while stigma may exist around him, his friendships are close ones because “people also have more time to get to know you.”

Elma, who was diagnosed along with her husband back in November 1991, finds community support can be powerful. “By January, everyone knew and the doorbell started ringing with people bearing casseroles and pie.” While she admits it might be easier for her as a straight woman, she’s seen little stigma in her community, directed at her personally or her PHA clients. “Given enough education not based on fear, people in rural areas respond with compassion and generosity.”

HELPING TO INCREASE the HIV awareness and acceptance in small-town Canada is the hard work of ASOs. Despite their limited budgets and geographical challenges, these organizations have come up with an ever-growing list of ways to help even their most faraway clients.

Lack of funding and infrastructure means these groups have become increasingly adept at linking up with other organizations. “We network,” says Elma Plant, of the Huron County HIV/AIDS Network. “That’s why we have ‘network’ in our name.” The same tight-knit structure of small-town communities that makes keeping a diagnosis secret difficult helps these organizations stay connected. ASO leaders are well known in the community so they get called on to for instance, speak at events. Plus, newly diagnosed PHAs don’t simply receive a phone number — they get a personalized referral with a name, address and email address.

In Newfoundland, HIV care providers occasionally travel to remote towns to see patients. Not only does this reduce travel for PHAs, but it encourages people who are HIV positive to find peers in their own communities. The ACNL tries to further communication by hosting an annual summer retreat that offers workshops and conversations.

These efforts are making life for those living with HIV in rural communities incrementally better. People in these communities report that they are seeing awareness increase and stigma decrease, and they are also seeing more newly diagnosed PHAs opt to stay put, close to family and friends. This improved environment is helping PHAs. But beyond that, Dalton says, celebrating diversity makes small towns more welcoming and better for all who live there. “Everyone has a piece of them that needs to be supported. That’s what community needs: Community needs everybody.”

Support for PHAs outside Canada’s largest cities

To find an AIDS service organization (ASO) in your area, visit ASO 411 online at www.aso411.ca or contact CATIE at 1-800-263-1638  or www.catie.ca.

This information was provided by CATIE (Canadian AIDS Treatment Information Exchange). For more information, contact CATIE at             1-800-263-1638  or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

CATIE also maintains a blog on PositiveLite.com which you can find here.

Did you know that three-quarters of people in Canada believe people who don’t disclose their status to sexual partners should be imprisoned? Or that only 29% have ever gone for an HIV test? Or that only one in two describe condoms as a “very effective” means of HIV prevention?

These are some of the more interesting findings of a just released draft report on Canadian Attitudes, Behaviour and Knowledge Related to HIV/AIDS.  It comes from the CIHR Social Research Centre in HIV Prevention (SRC), commissioned by CANFAR.

The report is a mixture of encouraging news about how far we’ve come, particularly in the public’s knowledge of HIV and acceptance of people living with it, and some pointers to where we’ve fallen short and need to do more.

SRC invited me to be part of the panel at last week’s CAHR conference in Montreal discussing the newly-unveiled report and its implications for prevention, research and policy development. A high-powered panel, a topic which fascinates me, particularly its social media implications, plus a chance to visit a city I’m quite fond all beckoned all in one! (And, as it happened, it meant an opportunity to spend time with PositiveLite.com writers Ken Monteith and Denise Becker.)

The report  contains a huge amount of data. Much of it is both fascinating  and full of implications. My approach on the panel was to concentrate on just two pieces  - HIV testing and the role of social media in HIV prevention, while others commented on the report as a whole, or those pieces which reflected on their own work.

First, here are the some of the report highlights:

•  People living in Canada continue to report relatively high levels of knowledge about HIV and AIDS. In 2011, 93% of Canadians 16 years of age or older describe themselves as at least moderately knowledgeable about HIV and AIDS, with no significant change in self-reported knowledge evident since 2003.

 •  Canadians are significantly more likely in 2011 (89%) than they were in 2006 (80%) to believe that HIV and AIDS treatments are effective in helping people with HIV lead normal lives.

 •  There is almost universal recognition that HIV can be transmitted by sharing needles (99%) or having sexual intercourse without a condom (99%).

 •  A substantial majority (82%) recognize that HIV can be transmitted from an HIV-positive mother to her baby during childbirth.

 •   Only a minority (36%) recognize that the virus can be passed from an HIV-positive mother to her baby when breast feeding.

 •  Greater societal tolerance for people living with HIV is evident since 2006, with Canadians more inclined to report comfort with working in an office with someone with HIV, shopping at a store where an owner has HIV, and having a child attend school where another student has HIV'

 •  Half the population (47%) has never been tested for HIV. When key reasons for testing, including blood donation, insurance, immigration and research are removed as reasons for testing, two-thirds (65%) of Canadians have not been tested for HIV. No significant change in the prevalence of testing for HIV is apparent in Canada since 2003.

 •  Canadians strongly agree (91%) that people living with HIV should have the same rights as they themselves do, including the same right to employment, health care and housing.

 •  Only a minority of Canadians agree that people living with HIV have the right be sexually active, a finding that remains unchanged since 2006. When asked if people with HIV should have the same right to be sexually active if they practice safe sex or if they inform their sexual partners about their HIV status, agreement rises substantially.

 •  Almost nine-in-ten Canadians (87%) are aware that people with HIV can be criminally prosecuted for knowingly failing to disclose their HIV status to sexual partners.

 •  Three-quarters (74%) of Canadians believe it is appropriate to imprison people with HIV who knowingly fail to disclose their status to a sexual partner, with 55% reporting that it is “definitely” appropriate.

 •  No consensus within the population emerges around the effect of criminal prosecution of people with HIV who knowingly fail to disclose their status. Fewer than half (46%) agree that such prosecution is an effective way to deter people from transmitting HIV.

 •  Almost one-quarter (22%) of Canadians report that they have ever made a donation to a charitable or not-for-profit organization that deals specifically with HIV and AIDS. Among those who have not, almost half (48%) report that they would consider making a donation to an organization involved with HIV and AIDS research, treatment or cure.

Reading these highlights, you may notice that much of it reflects a
“glass half full/glass half empty” situation. And much of the summary date needs unpacking. For example a little over half of Canadians have been tested for HIV, but much of that testing has been by third parties needing to know your status in the course of their work – insurers, those in charge of blood donations and the like. Discount these tests and we find just 29% of Canadians  have actually sought out their HIV status, perhaps only once. Is that good or is that bad?

Some might say that’s disappointingly low. Others may say that realistically, although we often say everyone is at risk of HIV infection in Canada, many - the vast majority in fact - belong to groups where infection rates are extremely low and are perhaps thus at very little risk of infection. So one could perhaps view 29% as an achievement, but one to be built on.  

To completely unpack  the data, of course, one has to look at the full technical report, which will be available on the SCR website shortly . That document provides breakdowns of data by populations at risk, which is essential , for instance to understand where testing is working well or may be deficient and needs to be ramped up.

In Montreal last week it was interesting – and this is the intention of reports like this - to see how research forms the springboard for community discussions as to where to go next.  The testing data, for instance fuelled a fulsome discussion on the relative merits of highly focussed testing aimed at high risk groups (“seek and treat”), or more universal testing, such as that we are seeing in BC where HIV testing is being normalized and included, with your consent, as part of every sexually active adult’s annual physical. Adding to the mix, and the discussion,  was the re-emergence of over-the-counter home testing  as an option to be considered, notably by panel member Michael Bartos of UNAIDS (an idea also floated recently by Ken Monteith on PositiveLite.com.)

Turning again to the report, I want to comment briefly on the area that was most disconcerting, and that was the data relating to criminalization. The numbers here should set off alarm bells, a recognition that our community advocacy to halt the rising tide of prosecutions for non-disclosure in Canada is failing badly at getting the public on side. One could argue that it is necessary only to convince the Supreme Court, and not the general public that, criminalization is rarely appropriate.  In any event, this is the picture that the report presents. 

“Almost nine-in-ten Canadians are aware that a person with HIV can be criminally charged if they do not disclose their status to their sexual partners. Three-quarters of the population take the view that it is appropriate to imprison someone who knowingly fails to disclose their status. More than half believe that it is “definitely appropriate” to imprison people with HIV who knowingly fail to disclose their HIV status to sexual partners. Despite this resolute view, there is no public consensus on the outcome of such criminal prosecution. Canadians are divided in their views as to whether prosecution of people with HIV who fail to disclose their HIV status to sexual partners is an effective means of deterring people with HIV from transmitting the disease to sexual partners or whether it increases the stigma and discrimination against people living with HIV.  . . Overall, the data suggest that there is a strong view that criminal prosecution is appropriate, but the outcomes of such prosecution are unclear and divide the population.”

Whilst the high number of criminalization proponents is discouraging, I suppose we can take comfort in the fact that, even amongst those numbers, there is lack of agreement that those convictions actually achieve anything, a blow to those who argue that criminalization positively impacts HIV prevention.

 Overall, though, while we tend to focus on what is not working as well as it should, and even where we have failed, it’s important to look at the good-news aspects of the report too. And they are considerable. As the report says  . . . 

“In 2006, Canadians expressed relatively strong levels of knowledge about HIV and AIDS and revealed improving levels of tolerance and acceptance of people living with HIV in Canada. Findings collected in 2011 suggest further improvements in societal tolerance for people living with HIV and a more widespread understanding of how HIV is transmitted. Today, very few Canadians report that they could not befriend an HIV-positive individual….. Most Canadians recognize that HIV is not transmitted through casual contact…The research findings also reveal that some, specific knowledge about the virus is widespread. Almost all understand that neither a vaccine nor a cure for HIV and AIDS is available yet. ..Further, there is a broad public understanding that progress has been made over the last several years in HIV treatment such that people living with HIV can lead more normal lives.”

And significantly “Canadians are clear that people with HIV are entitled to the same rights as all other citizens. More than nine-in-ten Canadians agree that people living with HIV should have the same rights to employment, healthcare and housing as all others. Further, there is strong agreement that people living with HIV have the same right to be sexually active as all other Canadians as long as they inform their sexual partners of their HIV status.”

It's clear we've come a long way, haven't we?

Café Scientifique*: HIV and Aging for Men with HIV

When: Tuesday May 8, 6:30-9:00pm

Where: Fuzion Resto-Lounge 580 Church Street Toronto, ON

Who: RSVP This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 416 642 6486 x2303

Description: They say things get better with age. What does aging with HIV mean for men? What can we learn from people with experience aging with HIV?

What are some of the best resources available to you?

Join us in an informal, relaxed environment to share your views and stories with friends, peers and community. Chat with our speakers. Be part of a moderated conversation.

Refreshments will be provided. Space is limited. Reserve your space now!

SPEAKERS

• David J. Brennan, M.S.W., Ph.D. Assistant Professor, University of Toronto
• Lori Chambers, M.S.W.Research Coordinator, OHTN
• Duncan MacLachlan AIDS Committee of Toronto
• Kelly O’Brien, BScPT, BSc, Ph.D.Assistant Professor, University of Toronto
• Yvette Perreault AIDS Bereavement and Resiliency Program of Ontario
• Ron Rosenes Canadian Treatment Action Council
• Francisco Ibáñez-Carrasco, Ph.D. (Moderator)Universities Without Walls

Sponsored by OHTN and CIHR

* What’s a Café Scientifique?

The Café Scientifique program is made up of informal events, not lectures between the general public and health research experts regarding a particular health-related issue of popular interest. CIHR's Café Scientifiques cover a wide range of topics, from nutrition to mental health at the workplace to air pollution.

For that reason, these events are all about accessibility. CIHR Café Scientifiques take place at a café, a pub or a restaurant and do not require that the participants have a science degree. The informal conversations about a particular health subject may provide answers to any questions that are on the minds of Canada's general population.

CIHR Cafés start with the help of a moderator, who introduces the subject of discussion and is also a specialist in the field. Following the instruction, expert speakers each give a short presentation about what they know regarding the subject. While they are allowed to bring props along that highlight their presentation, these speakers must avoid technical jargon and are not allowed to have scientific slides.

A short break follows, which includes food/drink. The moderator then introduces a question/answer period between the audience and the speakers. 

This profile was fiist published on the Universities Without Walls (UWW) website. 

Name: Zack Marshall

Affiliation: PhD at Memorial University Consultant, Griffin Centre, UWW 3.0

Interests: Grassroots, community-based organizing, health care ethics, marginalized communities, sexuality, sexual health, intersectional analyses, critical social science perspectives

Influences: Community activists, people who bridge academic research and community environments

If I wasn't doing all of this... I would be doing similar work outside of the university environment. I would still be doing CBR, community organizing, and raising money.

Somewhere during the 600 kilometers between Toronto and Montréal, Zack Marshall realized that the Friends for Life Bike Rally was a good analogy for the collaborative work he loves to do. He saw teams riding in groups, taking turns expending energy as the leader of the pack and later using the team's momentum while drafting behind the group. This is exactly the approach Zack takes to the community-based research he does as a PhD student at the Memorial University of Newfoundland and through his UWW Field Mentorship Placement (FMP) with Dr. Mark Tyndall at the University of Ottawa.

Zack got his start in the HIV field as a volunteer – "I started out as buddy volunteer with AIDS Community Care Montreal (ACCM) in 1993 with someone in the later stages of AIDS – very isolated, with no family around and just a few friends. He only lived two weeks after I met him but the connection we made had a big impact on me." He later supported the development of support services for HIV-positive women, and got involved with groups focusing on sexual health and reproductive rights. The development of personal connections was something Zack, a gay trans man, was already well acquainted with from his involvement in LGBT communities where community work often takes the form of a very personal kind of activism. He explains that these relationships and grassroots processes are what fuel his ongoing involvement in engaging communities to work towards social change.

Zack has done some pretty amazing things with the communities he works with and lives in. As a member of the Gay/Bi/Queer Trans Men's Working Group, Zack was instrumental in developing Primed: The back pocket guide for trans men and the men who dig us, a project spearheaded by James Murray through the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-term Care AIDS Bureau. "It's been an amazing project to be a part of and such a highlight to see the impact it's had around the world. It's been translated into 7 languages now." At a recent global health meeting in San Francisco a delegate from South Africa told Zack about the one dog-eared copy, well-used by his community for education and advocacy purposes.

Zack's involvement in a research project about HIV prevention among youth labelled with intellectual disabilities brought him on to a diverse team of community members, researchers, and service providers. The team really fostered intellectual creativity, and ultimately led to Zack's decision to pursue his PhD, nearly a decade after completing his MSW at Wilfred Laurier University. After traveling to St. John's in 2010 to lead a workshop on creating accessible services for LGBT youth that lead to the development of the Coalition for LGBTQ Inclusion, he felt drawn to the island. "When I got accepted into the PhD program at MUN, I knew this is where I needed to be."

Zack credits his early involvement in the HIV field with his introduction to community-based research (CBR). Today, CBR and bridging the gap between research and communities are integral to his work. Through his doctoral studies and his FMP, Zack is addressing ethical issues in HIV CBR. The main project he has been working on in collaboration with Dr. Tyndall involves issues surrounding injection drug use and barriers to health care in Ottawa. While this is the first time he has worked with this aspect of HIV prevention and transmission, Zack says that the knowledge and experience he is gaining is opening up possibilities for the future. He is discovering his strengths in new areas of work, including knowledge translation and exchange, and peer engagement, and looking for ways to integrate these skills into upcoming work. Zack isn't the only person delving into new areas of research as a product of his FMP. As a result of the connections he's made with research teams in Ottawa, he has had the opportunity to initiate an HIV Primary Care and Ethics team including researchers from St. John's and Saint John, and to bring representation on a range of issues to the Atlantic.

Zack's positive experience with his FMP isn't all – he can't say enough about how great his involvement in UWW 3.0 has been. The online delivery format of weekly UWW webinars has allowed him to get involved with people and issues from across the country – an opportunity that doesn't always come all the way to Newfoundland. Through UWW, Zack has connected with both new and familiar faces, learned how the complexities of HIV research are positioned in a variety of different disciplines, and received feedback on writing successful grant applications. He particularly appreciates the support provided by other fellows and mentors involved with the program: "When facing barriers to implementing CBR, UWW reminds us, 'hey, there are a whole bunch of other people who see the value of this approach to research'. It's a form of moral support."

Recently, Zack's experiences in innovative CBR were recognized by a successful funding proposal to CIHR's Operating Grant in HIV/AIDS CBR competition as a co-principal investigator. The project, entitled the Trans MSM Sexual Health study, aims to use qualitative interviewing to collect in-depth information about the sexual health issues, concerns, sexual decision-making processes, and the social context of the lives of TMSM in Ontario and relate this information to HIV prevention and sexual health needs. The project will contribute to our understanding of the extent and scope of social exclusion in this community and the impact on sexual health, HIV risk, and access to HIV prevention services.

What is UWW?

UWW is the educational and training arm of the CIHR Centre for REACH in HIV/AIDS. We provide a national interdisciplinary learning and mentorship program, connecting academics, community members and policy makers to explore HIV research together. The program is funded by a Strategic Training Initiative in Health Research (STIHR) grant from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and housed at the Ontario HIV Treatment Network (OHTN).

Recently I wrote an article about my first time experience with practicing yoga. During this I had a great opportunity to get in contact with one of my first teachers, Jess Robertson.  Jess has been busy.  Not only is Jess the co-founder of Moksha Yoga, along with Ted Grand, and leading teacher training around the world with him, but Jess has still managed to keep her life simple.  Living not only as an example of this yoga way of life, but breathing those ideals and actions into the foundation of Moksha Yoga as well. 

At the start of May, yoga teachers, students from all walks of life, and the Moksha Yoga community at large will be taking part in a Living Your Moksha Challenge (LYM for short).  This is where each individual has an opportunity to challenge themselves in the seven pillars of what Moksha Yoga tries to embody:

• Be Healthy: We work to support lifelong health of the body and mind.
• Be Accessible: Make real the idea that yoga’s benefits are limitless and accessible to all.
• Live Green: Live to protect and serve our natural world
• Sangha Support: Believe in the power of community.
• Outreach: Use creativity and energy to help others locally and abroad.
• Live to Learn: Commit to always learning to stay humble, open, and inspired to serve.
• Be Peace: We offer the benefit of our practice to the benefit of all beings everywhere.

 (More information on the LYM challenge can be found here: )

I had a chance to ask Jess some questions before the start of this seven week long event and this is what she had to say.

What does yoga mean to you?

Yoga means union or oneness.  So for me union takes many forms - unifying what I feel or think about the world with what I do to manifest these thoughts/feelings.  To me, yoga is healing, it teaches me to live a happy life, even when things are difficult.  Yoga is my life however, so I could say a lot more about it...how long's this article!

Why Moksha yoga?

The Moksha is all about changing for the better through community.  Over the past century or so, with the loss of organized religion, the exodus away from rural communities into big cities, the ease of travel, the incredible health-giving support a community provides has been lost.  To me this is the best part of Moksha yoga, it is extant, living, breathing, fighting, loving, growing, evolving community at its best.  Moksha is part of my family.

What benefits are there to this practice?

For the muscles and joints we focus on opening the hips, toning and stretching all major muscle groups and lubricating the joints for long-term health of the knees, lower back, and entire spine.  Moksha is cardiovascular so it's great for the heart and lungs, and immune function.

If an HIV+ new yoga student was coming to your class, what information, if any, would you like to know?

I'd want to know everything they are able/willing to share.  The more a teacher knows about a student the more they can help.  Using HIV for an example - right after diagnosis the best thing yoga brings is anxiety relief. The yoga studio provides a safe and non judgemental place, period. This is often the best thing after a recent diagnosis. A place to rest and be. If someone is living with HIV for longer I would ask them about diet, addiction, goals so that I could help with their goals as much as possible.  

If you could say something right now to the HIV+ yoga student out there, what would it be?

Everything is already OK. This is actually the message of a yoga text from the Isha Upanishad.  I would however probably not 'say' it - I'd probably communicate it with a nice mid-class foot massage!  I would also say, you are welcome here, at the studio. And as usual - I'd remind them to AMPLIFY the benefits of practice by drinking at least 3L of water a day (not tea/coffee/juice/kombucha...water!). I would also say life is filled with challenges of varying degrees, and beyond the physical challenges and benefits, yoga gives practical tools that I have seen, and many yoga teachers have seen help with all forms of challenge.  We are all here in this world to serve, yoga helps take challenges - death in the family, cancer, HIV, poverty, abuse - and transform it into a way to give, to serve.  I believe in this stuff (can you tell) and hope you get to try it!  I would also say - start with doing the living your moksha challenge!

Thank-you so much Jess for sharing your thoughts with us.

If you wanted to try this style of yoga, and you live in Canada, there are ample locations to choose from. Check out: www.mokshayoga.ca and find a place near you. There are also locations in the US popping up all the time.  If you do go to a studio and check them out, tell them that Daniel Uy from Toronto says Hi.  Seriously!  We really are a close knit community!

 Metta