Friday Juicy Goodness

This morning I woke up to so much good stuff in my inbox and on the television. The first good thing I came to was a story about a young 17 year-old woman of Color, Fallon Smith, who created a 11 minute documentary in her school in Upper Marlboro, MD on sexuality and unprotected sex. She then worked with the students interviewed, had them trained to be sexual health advocates, then worked with her school to host an event where her documentary was shown to students and conversations were led on sexuality. I'm begging someone, anyone to give her a scholarship! If I had some money or access to resources that could help her I would send them her way. She's an amazing example for young activists!

Next, I got this email asking for urgent action to be taken by us to stand in support of President Obama's efforts to cut spending on abstinence-only education. Advocates for Youth have sent out this note and have helped generate letters so you can send to your congressional representatives.

In a more gender-equal-but-canceled-out-cause-of-gender-stereotyping news, Depends adult support has created new ads targeting both men and women. Historically I've only seen ads geared towards women and incontinence. Now they are including men as they have made Depends for men. Yet, these ads are a bit troubling in a gender stereotyping way. Take a look:

This one is with people of Color called "Driver"




This one is called "Rules the World"and has hints of heterosexism




FYI, to everyone with a vulva, if you are not yet at a place where you need Depends products, you can work on strengthening your PC muscles, which if they are weak, when we sneeze or cough, we may have a bit of urine that escapes from the urethra. You may have heard of Kegel exercises, but they do work and are helpful for childbirth and recovering from childbirth. You must do them right first! I learned this just a few years ago. When I do them right I feel pressure (and pleasure sometimes) near my clitoris and my tension extends all the way back to my bum, but that's how I know I'm doing them correctly!


Just like Depends, PC muscle exercises are not just for people with vulvas, people with penis can also work on their PC muscles to help with any "dribble" after ejaculation, help with pre-mature ejaculation (early ejaculation), and helping with your orgasms. You can do PC exercises without anyone knowing you are doing them!


Then, my homegirl Erika Lopez, announced she would share some of her works in progress live this weekend. So if you are in California, the Mission/San Francisco area, check her out at Make Out Room, 3225 22nd street, 7:30, San Francisco, CA. Also, follow her on twitter for other engagements & rants.

Walk To Beat The Clock

An organization close to my heart is one that I helped to co-found with an amazing group of women in the DC area: Tamika & Friends, Inc. The goal of Tamika & Friends, Inc is to end cervical cancer through prevention and education. I was the Director of Sexual Health until I moved back to NYC. One of the main events Tamika & Friends, Inc. sponsors are walks for cervical cancer. The DC Walk is May 16, 2009 and if you are in the MD, DC, VA area or anywhere close by (PA, DE, etc.) please consider attending.

Read more about the Walk and Register. If you are in NYC there is a walk that is being planned for the future. Also, look out for their new updated website coming soon with an article on coping and accepting your scars by yours truly!

On my mind: Harm Reduction

I've been thinking about harm reduction lately. I had a training with an organization I work for last weekend and we were asked how to facilitate a discussion on HIV prevention and education with youth who buy into an oppressive and stereotypical patriarchal ideology where men are more powerful and women less powerful. There was a lot of silence, and a lot of questions.

I started to think about harm reduction. We know harm reduction as "meeting people where they are at" and realizing that each person makes the best decision for them at that time in their life. Self-determination; agency as the feminists like to say. As an educator and activist, I choose to respect where people are as I hope others respect where I am at as we move through a situation or seek assistance or community.

I said that in such a situation where young people think, for example, that women should not have condoms because that's a man's responsibility, that harm reduction may not just be so far to the "left," that being progressive also can be meeting people where they are even if they are at the other/opposite end of the "left." You know, a similar argument that there are multiple forms of feminisms not just one form. Can there can be multiple forms of harm reduction not just one?

Now, I'm not one to do this often in my other forms of activism, but I do recognize that work within the HIV community and field, there are spaces that I am an outsider and the message will not be received by me in ways by insiders. I also realize that it may be possible to implement a harm reduction approach for someone who believes a male dominated society is the "right" society. If I am in front of a group that values that perspective, I think I may be able to meet them there and break down ideas of masculinity, what does it mean to be a provider, what kind of stress that puts on young boys and men? How does this intersect with HIV risk and decreasing such risks?

Can harm reduction work in that way too? Or are we keeping harm reduction as one specific form of activism and work? I really want to know what others think.

Sunday Night Common Sense

When I was not working I subscribed to get a ton of magazines for free. I had lots of big plans for art projects, I still do. But right now as I'm working the magazines are in my bathroom or taking up space in a corner. In the bathroom this week is May 2009 issue of Interview Magazine. The first full interview I read was with Yusuf Islam "the artist formally known as Cat Stevens" reads the first sentence in the headline.

Interview asked Islam:

"Why are spirituality and sexuality so often at odds with each other? It seems that most spiritual belief systems have a difficult time integrating those two energies."

Islam's response is this evening's Common Sense. He says:

"The sexual act--separating that from love itself--is centered solely in the body, whereas spirituality is connected to the whole self. Whether it's a female, a taste, or a sound, all these beautiful things affect our self. We are the perceivers of beauty, and that's why sex doesn't quite go far enough. You can go much further with the spiritual."

This is one of the best arguments for masturbation if I've ever heard one. I interpret this as an attempt to share with us how we separate the love from the act of sex. We can practice how to not seperate those two right now! You can merge the body, love, and the spirit and have an amazing orgasm. Get to work! May is Masturbation Month!

May: Teen Pregnancy Prevention Month

I gave you 3 other events that are celebrated in May, and Teen Pregnancy Prevention Month is another. It deserves its own post, and I think goes hand in hand with Masturbation Month. There is even a Latino Initiative with a list of resources.


The National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy always has free items for organizations and communities who want to spread the word on the issue (like the banners I found for this site). Here are a few highlights from their website:

If you are a parent, mentor, adult in a young person's life, they also have a Quiz you can take together, or that the young person in your life can take on their own. They offer scenarios for each question and the young people get to choose which way they would respond.

Watch the documentary Too Young which follows young mothers of different races and ethnicity discuss their experiences being a young parent, conversations with their parents that did/not help, and challenges they encounter. You also hear from a young father and the struggles he has with providing for his child.



Look at the Numbers:

The National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy's DCR Report (Data, Charts, Research), states that:

More than two-thirds of all pregnancies to African American women are unplanned (69%).

More than half of all pregnancies to Latina women are unplanned (54%).

Four in ten pregnancies to non-Hispanic white women are unplanned (40%).

SIDEBAR: "Latina women" is a double positive, and therefore grammatically incorrect. If you are saying LatinA you are already saying woman, it's a gendered term. If you say "Latino women" well then it's ok, but why when you can say "Latina"? This is an error many organizations make, so if you are attempting to reach us and our young Latinas, get the terminology together first. Also, what's the deal with using "Latina women" and then "non-Hispanic" terminology? Consistency would be nice, but I'd prefer "non-Latino" to replace "non-Hispanic" personally.


The Guttmacher Institute, which I have mentioned before, reports on pregnancy rates, birth rates, and abortion rates:

In 2002 (when the most recent data is available) 84% of Latinas who became pregnant gave birth.

In Puerto Rico alone, 60% of teens gave birth.

Of pregnant Latinas, 28.5% terminated their pregnancy

Not in their data, but I did find a CDC round up that shows Native youth have a birth rate of 55% and among Asian American youth the birth rate is 17%. All rates are for youth living in the US.

This is important data, because there is a lot of stereotypes about Latinas and their ideas and practices surrounding the option of abortion. This data challenges those stereotypes and shows that we are more complicated than they thought we were!

If you are looking for more information on the reproductive health of Native youth keep a look out for Native Youth Sexual Health it's coming soon!

FREE Giveaway

Free? Giveaway? That's a double positive right? Well that's because it is a double dose of juicy book goodness! If you did not know: May is not only Masturbation Month, but also Latino Book Month and Asian Heritage Month! (If you think books about Asian heritage seems odd on a Latino Sexuality blog, you NEED to sign up for the books to read how our histories intersect! You can't understand Latino history without understanding Asian history too!). Our supportive friends at Hachette Book Group will be giving away 5 FREE books for Latino Book Month AND Asian Heritage Month!

All YOU have to do to get FREE books is leave a comment on this blog and I'll select a winner each week in the Month of May! That's up to 5 winners this month! The best part is: if you are a winner you win all 5 books of that genre!

Here's what to do:

Leave a comment that has a link to how to reach you (personal blog, email address, etc.)

It's that easy!

Here are some rules:

1. You can leave as many comments as you want for May, but ONLY for this posting

2. I can only offer this giveaway to US and Canadian residents (sorry !if you have a friend in these places and win send me their info and we can ship it to them and they can ship it to you! (on their dime of course))

3. No PO Boxes please

Want to know what the books are? Check them out:





1. B as in Beauty By Alberto Ferreras ISBN: 0446697893

2. Into the Beautiful North By Luis Urrea ISBN: 0316025275

3. Hungry Woman in Paris By Josefina Lopez ISBN: 0446699411

4. The Disappearance of Irene Dos Santos By Margaret Mascarenhas ISBN: 0446541109

5. Houston, We Have a Problema By Gwendolyn Zepeda ISBN: 0446698520




1. Free Food for Millionaires By Min Jin Lee ISBN: 0446699853

2. Trail of Crumbs By Kim Sunée ISBN: 0446697907

3. The Fortune Cookie Chronicles By Jennifer Lee ISBN: 0446698970

4. Transparency By Frances Hwang ISBN: 0316166936

5. Strangers from a Different Shore By Ronald Takaki ISBN: 0316831301

Long Live QUEEN!

I saw an early screening of the latest on-screen collaboration with Gael García Bernal and Diego Luna, Rudo y Cursi. I'll post a link to my review when my editor publishes it next week. In short, if there were ever a film to spend $10 it would be this one! If you didn't know who is behind this film here's a rundown:

writer & director: Carlos Cuarón (Y Tu Mamá También)
Producers: Alfonso Cuarón (Children of Men)
Alejandro González Iñárritu (Amores Perros, 21 Grams)
Guillermo del Toro (Pan's Labyrinth)

You MUST go see this film!

But this is not a post about the film, it's more so a post about how shocked and eerie it was to see Diego Luna with a mustache. My shock and nostalgia was because Luna looks just like a young Freddie Mercury! Check these photos out!

Here is Diego Luna, photo credit to Sony Pictures and CineCineCine.com. Not convinced? Check this photo out of Luna.





Here is Freddie Mercury, musician and co-founder of the band Queen, photo credit MuchMusic & StarPulse.com.

Some may wonder why this is so eerie and nostalgic, well perhaps it's because you are not familiar with Queen or Freddie Mercury. They were amazing! Some of the most fantastic performances, lyrics, entertainment was created by the band. Part of this performance was playing with the idea of gender, masculinity, and blurring what one must look like to be a man. Plus, Mercury, as a man of Color, gay, out, and HIV positive (although not out about his status until the day before his death).

I caught a documentary of Freddie Mercury on the Logo Channel earlier in April while visiting my family. Mercury leaves us with an amazing legacy of his work and how he has uses his craft as a form of activism.

Rumors have it that a new film about Mercury is in the works and that Johnny Depp is said to play him. I'd argue for Luna to play him, although I wouldn't mind either of the two, and chances are Depp draws a larger audience than Luna. Nonetheless, seeing Luna in the film took me back to the days when music was like this where the call-and-response gives me chills!: