GAY ZAMBIAN DENIED REFUGE IN SOUTH AFRICA

By Gavin Hayward

A young gay man who left a well-paid government job and fled from Zambia because of his sexual orientation has been denied refugee status by the South African Department of Home Affairs.
Homosexuality is punishable by 14 years imprisonment in Zambia where sections 155 to 157 of the Penal Code says “carnal knowledge of any person against the order of nature” is a felony. This provision dates from when Zambia was Northern Rhodesia and part of the homophobic British Empire.
Anold Mulaisho realised he was gay when he was 14 at boarding school. In January 2016 he started working for the Zambian Department of Water Affairs but made the mistake a few months later of telling his boss that he was gay and had a boyfriend. The news spread rapidly and he had to leave Zambia in a hurry as he feared being arrested.
He entered South Africa in January 2017 on a bus from Zimbabwe and on arrival in central Johannesburg he received a typical South African welcome: he was robbed, and lost his laptop.
Since 1 July 2017, Anold (then just 22) has had to go often to the Department of Home Affairs in downtown Pretoria, sometimes being given an Asylum Seeker Temporary Permit valid for only one week.
In a sworn affidavit about this case, Anold says, “I was interviewed by a male officer…(who) asked me why I was there. I said because of my sexual orientation. The officer laughed and called another officer. They both laughed….. The officer (said)… that if I claim to be a ‘gay’, why is it that I am not wearing make-up…. He asked if I have sex – am I the woman or the man?”
The contents of the affidavit clearly call into question the qualifications and/or training of staff of the Department of Home Affairs to deal with asylum applications by gay people.

The History of Poppers

“Poppers” is a slang term for amyl nitrites, historically inhaled recreationally by the gay community during sex. The high is intense, but momentary, something you don’t have to commit to for any longer than ten, crazy seconds.
According to drugs.com, inhaling nitrites relaxes smooth muscles throughout the body (including the sphincter muscles, making it particularly helpful to gay bottoms.) “Poppers cause the vessels to dilate, resulting in an immediate increase in heart rate and blood flow throughout the body, producing a sensation of heat and excitement that usually lasts for a couple of minutes.”
As explained by Dr. Lucy Robinson, Sussex University history lecturer: “If you trace the bottle of poppers through late 20th-century history, you trace the legacies of gay culture on popular culture in the 20th century. We wouldn’t have had rave, disco or club culture as we know it today without the gay community.”

Are Side Effects the Price to Pay for Having HIV?

By Cliff, on TheBody

I became infected in early 2003 and I was diagnosed with HIV in June 2005. I didn't start taking meds until February 2010 and my doctor, of course, prescribed Atripla [efavirenz/tenofovir/FTC] -- very common.
Like so many others, the side effects were prevalent: dreams, dizziness and drowsiness during the day. Nothing special there; you've read that countless times! What I told myself was that I was going to adhere to this drug and soldier on. I drank coffee, I exercised, and I tried to meditate and concentrate on the task at hand at work because I needed the job I had because of the great health plan it offered. I felt fortunate to have access to the drug and to have started at a point where my CD4 was around 350. After several months of adherence, my viral load became undetectable and my CD4 climbed to within a normal range.
I thought that the side effects of Atripla were the price I had to pay for having HIV, for having let my guard down, for having failed. I really felt that I didn't deserve a normal life of not feeling tired, dizzy or depressed. I lived with low-level depression that more or less kept me down: I wasn't extremely depressed to the point of sinking further, but I wasn't really living, either.
In October 2013, I read an article on TheBody.com about patients switching from Atripla to Complera [rilpivirine/tenofovir/FTC]. I gathered the strength to print a copy and ask my doctor what he thought. He agreed to allow me to try it. It took a lot of courage for me to muster the "audacity" to ask him for something. I suppose I had "hit bottom" in terms of feeling shitty. I had had enough!
I feel so much better on Complera than Atripla. But I don't regret the period of nearly four years where I was depressed. In a way, the depression taught me a lot about myself and about how I can endure, and I developed a great deal of compassion for others, especially for those who are not privileged.
Read other stories in this series on thebody.com.

BIG DICK TIPS

“Nothing better than a big dick!”

Okay, but really though? There are sub-groups on Reddit that would beg to differ.

Hunties, it may be in vogue to wax lyrical about landing a guy with a big mass of man meat, but as the cliché goes, bigger aint always better, Boo!

Guys with gigantic ‘jiloges’ have their challenges too. I chatted to someone with a colossal cock about some of the problems he has to get to grips with packing that prime real estate penis in his briefs (he has chosen to remain anonymous, for various reasons) and this is what he said:

“Everyone thinks it must be so amazing to have a big dick, but I swear that it isn’t. Yes, it looks impressive once I get naked, but I can’t tell you how many times guys have turned me down before sex because they are scared it will hurt. ”

“Even the guys who are willing to try usually stop me very quickly when I barely have the tip in because they can’t take it anymore. I won’t even start when it comes to oral sex, long story short (excuse the pun) I don’t get any. I also always have to be the one to bottom if I want to have sex, and it’s fucking frustrating.”

Here are some ways that you can take it easier when considering enjoying sex that involves a prodigious penis.

Museum acquires glory hole for collection

The Western Australian Museum in Perth, Australia recently acquired a rather controversial new item for its collection: a glory hole from the city of Gosnells.
Its explicit nature, however, is stirring up controversy for the museum.
Neil Buckley, from Perth, saved the door from the train station when the city decided to redevelop the building in 1998. He has now donated the door to the museum, saying ‘It’s really an important part of social history and this is how we used to have sex at a time when it (homosexuality) was illegal.’ Covert glory holes — round holes in doors or walls — allowed people to discreetly engage in sexual acts. They were especially used by gay men, as homosexuality was illegal in western Australia at the time.
That part of Australia did not decriminalize private sexual acts between same-sex people until 1990. Further, only this year were people allowed to expunge such a conviction from their record. Buckley continued: ‘Because it was illegal we had to go to a beat that was off the main drag and that was the only place many men could meet other gay men because it was still illegal in clubs.’
What’s the controversy about?
Arts Minister Tony Krsticevic called the display of a glory hole ‘tacky’.