I just absolutely love their work, and y'all have to watch the videos!!
"[UN]SPOKEN is a new digital shorts campaign by the Asian & Pacific Islander Wellness Center uncovering the lives of real Asian & Pacific Islander guys with real sex stories, tangled in raw, unspoken situations. These narratives seek to provide tools for young folks to have safer sex by unsealing voyeuristic snippets of the lives of young men who have overcome real life sexual challenges." --from their Facebook page
How often do we see ourselves reflected in various media campaigns against HIV/AIDS as Queer API youth? Not too often, right? Plus, those campaigns have mostly been only against HIV/AIDS, and we have had few opportunities to talk about what we're actually for. I think these videos are very important because they can create a space where we can have that discussion. And here are some of the questions I'm interested in exploring with you.
What knowledge, skill, or experience do we really need to learn or have in order to talk about many different kinds of flexible and fluid relationships we have in reality?
What does it take to create a community where we can have a collective sense of support, respect, and love for each other?
How can we move beyond the narrative of "protection," "safety," "barrier," and "fight against," which demonizes the very people living with HIV and AIDS, and actually start talking about our real emotions and feelings around our sexual negotiations?
How do we imagine our relationships to be, not as the objects of public health interventions (as "at-risk," "MSM," and other statistical-epidemiological categories), but really as the subjects of our lives, as the agents of our communities?
These are not the easiest questions to answer. In fact, there is no right or wrong answer. Yet I believe the dialogue needs to happen. We have already begun, to some extent; let's keep asking more and more important, real questions. Together.
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2 comments for this post
This is GREAT!
love it