Tag Archives: identity

Emotionally Safer Sex – event

Posted on by

Sarah K Reece / SHINE SA, January 2018

Safer sex’ can be about much more than preventing unwanted infections. For many people, sexual experiences risk leaving emotional bruises, and sometimes our struggles and differences can make good sex seem out of reach.

Sarah K Reece is the SHINE SA Artist-in-Residence. We would like to invite you to Sarah’s SHINE SA launch screening of her TEDx video and exhibition of related art works, titled ‘Emotionally Safer Sex’.

It will be held on Friday 9th February at 5.30pm at SHINE SA – 57 Hyde Street, Adelaide. (NB: This is a free event, but please RSVP via link below, for catering purposes).

This is Sarah’s first ever TEDx talk – and she has ‘gone global’ bravely sharing personal stories, beautiful artwork, and practical advice about how seeking to make sex emotionally safer has helped her navigate challenges such as a trauma history, anxiety, queer identity, mental illness, chronic pain, and physical disability.

Her artworks are an intimate exhibition of 8 ink paintings exploring our physical relationship with our own bodies and our partners. The artworks are hand gilded with 24k gold embellishments and show very human, diverse experiences of the joys and sorrows of sex. The artwork does not display graphic sex acts, nudity, or abuse and is suitable for viewing by children.

Shame, secrecy and silence hobble migrant women’s sexual health, new research suggests

Posted on by

Sydney Morning Herald, August 5th 2017

Shame, secrecy, silence and fear were keeping many new migrant women in the dark about their own sexual and reproductive health, found a recent study published in the Archives of Sexual Behavior.

Cultural and religious beliefs were major barriers to many women accessing health services, warned the researchers who held focus groups with 169 single, married, divorced and widowed women who arrived in Australia or Canada from Sudan, South Sudan, Somalia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, India and Latin America within the past six years.

Purruna Miyurna 2-day health summit for ATSI students

Posted on by

SHINE SA, 25.5.2017

PURRUNA MIYURNA: Healthy People

Presented by SHINE SA’s Yarning On program, Purruna Miyurna is a 2-day health
summit for ATSI students in years 9–12 in high schools and education programs
within southern Adelaide.

This interactive and hands-on summit will cover:
• Respectful relationships
• Domestic violence
• Sexual health
• Self-worth and cultural identity

The objective of the summit is to provide an opportunity for our students to gain
information and understanding on the topic of “Healthy Relationships”, what a
healthy relationship looks like, feels like and sounds like.
The summit will be culturally safe and LGBTIQ inclusive.

Our aim is to start a conversation among our young people, educate and
share information in order to break down barriers and challenge the perceived
stereotypes/ideas of Aboriginal people in relationships.

The summit will include ActNow Theatre presenting “Speak out”. This is an interactive theatre performance tackling homophobia in high schools. Presented by young professional actors and a facilitator, “Speak Out” explores various forms of homophobia and the effect it has, while providing opportunities and a safe space to develop strategies to respond to homophobia.

Local Kaurna Narrunga man Jack Buckskin will also be presenting during the summit, facilitating a cultural identity workshop, strengthening the cultural knowledge of our Aboriginal young people and their understanding of cultural identity and self-respect.

COST: $50 per student, includes a summit shirt, catering and an information bag

VENUE: Hopgood Theatre, Ramsay Place, Noarlunga Centre

REGISTRATION: Go to: www.shinesa.org.au/events/purruna-miyurna/
Limited spaces available. Registration closes 1 June 2017.

FOR MORE INFORMATION: Jessica Wishart, SHINE SA, 8300 5344
15–16 JUNE 2017

No automatic alt text available.

Download flyer (PDF): Health Summit Purruna Miyurna

The laws that sex workers really want (video)

Posted on by

(Via SIN, April 2017)

Laws can be complicated, but the sex worker community agrees on decriminalisation. Watch sex worker and activist Juno Mac unpack the different legal frameworks that affect sex workers, and then explain that decriminalisation is the only way forward.

“If you care about gender equality or poverty or migration or public health, then sex worker rights matter to you,” she says. “Make space for us in your movements.”

  • Watch the TED talk here

 

LGBT Seniors Are Being Pushed Back Into the Closet

Posted on by

The Atlantic, August 31 2016

Reluctance to reveal their sexual identity is widespread among non-heterosexual senior citizens in long-term care. A recent national survey of this population by the National Resource Center on LGBT Aging—which provides support and services to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender elders—found that the respondents were frequently mistreated by care-center staff, including cases of verbal and physical harassment, as well as refusal of basic services. Some respondents reported being prayed for and warned they might “go to hell” for their sexual orientation or gender identity.

 

Decision-making about infant feeding among African women living with HIV in the UK

Posted on by

“It pains me because as a woman you have to breastfeed your baby”: decision-making about infant feeding among African women living with HIV in the UK

Sex Transm Infect 2016;92:331-336 doi:10.1136/sextrans-2015-052224

Abstract

Objectives UK guidance advises HIV-positive women to abstain from breast feeding. Although this eliminates the risk of postnatal vertical transmission of HIV, the impact of replacement feeding on mothers is often overlooked. This qualitative study examines, for the first time in the UK, decision-making about infant feeding among African women living with HIV.

Methods Between 2010 and 2011, we conducted semistructured interviews with 23 HIV-positive African women who were pregnant or had recently given birth. We recruited participants from three HIV antenatal clinics in London.

Results Women highlighted the cultural importance of breast feeding in African communities and the social pressure to breast feed, also describing fears that replacement feeding would signify their HIV status. Participants had significant concerns about physical and psychological effects of replacement feeding on their child and felt their identity as good mothers was compromised by not breast feeding. However, almost all chose to refrain from breast feeding, driven by the desire to minimise vertical transmission risk. Participants’ resilience was strengthened by financial assistance with replacement feeding, examples of healthy formula-fed children and support from partners, family, peers and professionals.

Conclusions The decision to avoid breast feeding came at considerable emotional cost to participants. Professionals should be aware of the difficulties encountered by HIV-positive women in refraining from breast feeding, especially those from migrant African communities where breast feeding is culturally normative. Appropriate financial and emotional support increases women’s capacity to adhere to their infant-feeding decisions and may reduce the emotional impact.

Read article (open access) here