#hsv activism

[somethingpositive4positivepeople]

SPFPP 283: Married Celibacy & Government Herpes Funding Goals

Kim is 51 years old, newly diagnosed as of January, never had symptoms, and is coming out of a 10 year period of celibacy from marriage. That is the first 20 minutes of the podcast and is QUITE the story.

The rest of it we talk about an open discussion we sat in where the public health field received funding in 2021, and they want to finally include herpes in the STD prevention plans and throw some money at it. In this episode, we talk about how that went for those who weren't able to make it. We share some predictions and possible solutions for what we hope to see happen as a result of the herpes community's input.

[somethingpositive4positivepeople]

SPFPP Episode 166: Herpes Education - The Gateway to Sex Education

You see several social media pages that offer support to people diagnosed with herpes. They offer tips on disclosure, gaining confidence through self-acceptance, an example of living the life of your choice after your positive results. You don't just jump into that kind of thing. You seek education through a curiosity of what went wrong, how we failed, only to learn our sex ed just failed us.

Some quick takeaways from Jess here:

The most useful resource for navigating herpes comes from within the herpes community, while the worst are the health care providers diagnosing us with STIs consistently.

How is stigma so prevalent that your mom can be in the doctor's office with you when you're receiving an oral herpes diagnosis only for her later to say to you don't ever get herpes and then talk about how bad it is?

We talk of course about how sex ed failed us and how useful therapy is, and then we answer some questions from participants in the IG Live which was dope!

Thanks everyone for being here. I'll consistently record evenings at 7:30pm central time when I have a guest lined up. right now we have one scheduled for Thursday evening as well if you wanna join the next one.

[somethingpositive4positivepeople]

SPFPP Episode 126: Diary of a Multi-Faceted Boss

It’s important that we take a look at who we choose to disclose our STI status to. I genuinely believe people demonstrate their intentions fairly early on in communication, and that we often choose not to see what they’re showing us. Our guest this week shares her own way of advocating for herpes education, and she shares some not so pleasant experiences in doing so. While her intentions are positive and she just wants those close to her to know they have a go to person for if they need it, one member of her trusted group, with good intentions STILL ended up accidentally divulging that information to a person with ill intent. This is important to highlight because there is so much glamorization around public disclosure, yet people don’t really get to see the privilege that comes with first being able to do so. I share this episode and the several ones coming up with the intention of giving people who feel compelled to get involved with herpes advocacy several options.

We touch on how accepting the LGBT community is of the conversations around STI disclosure. We discuss what happens when you assume wrong. Our guest also shares how history with a past partner who knows you makes it easier to disclose and revisit, not because it’s necessarily easier, but because this is a person who knows the whole you versus the hole on you. Oh that was good haha.

Stay Sex Positive!