June 15, 2025 • 51 mins
In this lively episode of the 'Happy Hour' podcast, hosted by Rick Hunter (aka Spyder-Pup), the gang welcomes Darren Ho, the Health Services Director of the Health Initiative for Men (HIM Clinic). The discussion covers the clinic's role in providing healthcare services to the LGBTQ+ community, specifically focusing on HIV prevention through medications like PrEP and post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP). Darren shares insights about the organization's operations, its inclusive scope, and the availability of Doxycycline for STI prevention. Alongside the informative talk, the episode features fun banter among the hosts and Darren about music, fandoms, and personal passions, creating an engaging blend of health education and lighthearted conversation. Shout-outs are given, and the episode concludes with plans for a subsequent, more relaxed visit .
Links:
HIM Clinic
9-8-8
BC Crisis Centre
https://www.crisiscentre.bc.ca/
Pumpjacks Pub
https://www.pumpjackpub.com/
Golden Parrots Pub
https://www.goldenparrotspub.com/
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
Welcome back to another fantastic happy hour special.
Welcome back to the Squirrel Hour, everybody.
I am your host, Rick Hunter AKA Spider Pup, and I am happy to be
here today with an amazing cast.We have a full cast with us
today and as well, we have another special guest with us
today. We actually have someone which I
(00:22):
reached out to and I'm very excited that he accepted.
We have Darren Ho, who is the health services director of the
Health Initiative for Men, joining us today.
Did I say? Hello.
Yeah, that's right. OK, good.
I want to make sure I set up properly.
So what we're going to do, we'regoing to introduce ourselves.
Number one, this is a not Safe for work podcast.
We definitely talk about weird things, our expressions on our
(00:44):
own. We don't talk about the religion
or politics because they're justbad.
And we say fuck. A lot, yeah.
It's, it's, it's it's we've actually had some of our cast or
guests on the show and they're like, can we say that?
I'm like, yes, we make sure whenever we put it up it's an
explicit. We have the E rating, yeah, for
a reason. It's 6 to 8 people, adults who
(01:06):
spend happy hour having some drinks and socializing.
And before we begin that, beforewe go around and introduce who's
there on today's episode, pleasewould you like to start us off,
hubby? And this podcast is recorded and
brought to you from the traditional territories and
unseded lands of the Coquitlam First Nation.
And we thank you for allowing usto be here.
(01:26):
Thank you very much Hun. And we I'd also like to make a
shout out that we have two before I do it.
I don't really don't look at my phone, but I did make a note we
do have two new countries that have begun following us.
So I wanted to say thank you to our two twoest new countries,
Serbia, Yep, and that is we haveBosnia and Spain.
(01:49):
Oh, I thought you said Serbia. Cool.
Oh, no. They've been there.
They've been there for a while. They're growing.
So how many total now? We have 72 countries.
I thought it was 70. Very cool.
Now it used to be 768-7072, so it keeps growing, which is
crazy. So thank you to all of our
listeners that take time out of their schedules and you know,
and follow us and listen to thisabsolute chaos that we which we
(02:12):
absolutely love. And with that being said, let's
go around the table, introduce who's here besides Dareham.
We know you're here. So I'll go around the normal
cast and we're going to come back because we're going to have
a whole bunch of questions for you.
Hey it's jukey fun fact about me, I can make mugs now.
I am excited to show that mug and we can start selling our
merch. Yep.
(02:32):
We're going to have a merch store.
Oh, you sound like a YouTube podcast podcaster.
Yeah. We are on YouTube.
Who? Who is that?
That's pup Titan, I don't have afun fact or a dad joke right
now. Take.
Take your time. Take your time.
I might have to look at my phone.
Don't call pineapple. I will if you're if you are
(02:53):
looking for a dad joke, I will. We will allow that.
I guess you should already have this in your head.
Shame, shame, shame, Sharon Dubois.
I'm here. I'm happy.
I'm not hungover, slightly sick but not quite, and drinking
grosche beer I know not gross grosche.
Is it good or grosche? Touché it's it's.
(03:19):
Different. Acceptable.
OK. And.
We got T-bone, got my full license for my writing.
Night riding is a thing. It's a vibe.
I get it. I understand now.
Thank you. Yeah.
Congratulations. Thank you.
Good job buddy. Keep driving safe please.
I suddenly hear the night rider.Theme in my head.
Yes, me too. Yeah, that's what I heard too.
(03:41):
Totally heard that and. Sprinkles, I am the bargain
queen. Booked a vacation for six days
and flight for 550 each. Down turn the.
Microphone. Damn.
There you go, Perfect. Thank you.
And in the background we have. Silent Peter and the kids.
We're enjoying themselves, so wehave an absolute full cast
(04:03):
today, which is amazing. Anybody have any positive
things? And Darren is the first time on
the show. So what we like to do is we go
around of course to what what's going on in the last couple of
weeks. Excuse me, you have to introduce
yourself. I did at the beginning.
Did you, Rick Hunter? AKA spider pup.
I apologize. Way even didn't forget about me
for the first time. I'll start off, you know what,
(04:25):
the last couple of weeks have been relatively calm for me I
think. I know it's always crazy.
We did get to enjoy our pop social, which I do enjoy going
down at the Pump Jacks pub. We always give them a shout out
because we're amazing, great event, had a wonderful time and
as always, it's great to meet and connect with all of our
lovely friends down at the Pump Jacks.
(04:46):
And as as sad as it is, we are on the tail end of the
Crossroads Hospice Society. We have 3 left for us to be
doing. We've been volunteering for the
last six months. Oh my God, every Saturday.
You know, I'm so happy we've raised and helped raise $17,000,
which without us stepping in, they would have raised nothing.
(05:07):
It would have practically been shut down.
We're happy to do it, but at thesame time we need to take our
own mental health, take a littlestep back and you know, take
next year off and and enjoy thatwhich we will still be involved,
but we're just taking a little step back to enjoy and the
importance of our own mental health.
If any of our listeners would like to volunteer.
Absolutely. We have two weeks left and
(05:28):
there's three total left for this season.
Thank you. Correct.
So the last one will not be there.
We will still be involved, but that's my couple of weeks.
Still really calm, you know thatI'm usually super active.
So that's calm for me. Who else has got something
positive to share? Since the last podcast, I got to
go to the ministry concert. I was.
Very excited. And you have a vacation coming.
(05:51):
Yes I'm going to Orlando, FL to epic universal and Disney World.
Excellent. And me being the bargain queen
and being cheap as F. Frugal, Frugal.
The Muslim side of her. It is.
It's 100% the brown side of me, 100% six night, 6 days, five
(06:12):
nights and flight from Vancouver, 550 each.
Nice at the hotel that's 10 minutes away.
Yeah, a nice hotel, not like. A mode.
Day yeah, so that's the cheapestI've traveled for mind you it's
gonna be more expensive down there but.
Yes, that's. Fine, that's a bargain.
We're this, we're the same way. It's a great bargain.
Like we're, we're going down as well.
(06:33):
We're going down for our 20th anniversary, 10 years of
marriage together, celebrating our 10 year marriage at and you
know, at the Disney World at theMagic Kingdom.
And we're going to be spending 20.
That's so 10 years of marriage, 20 years together.
Oh, I OK, yeah, I had that confused in my head.
OK, that makes sense. I thought it was 20 years
(06:54):
marriage. No, no.
I. Feel the same way as well. 20
years of marriage. All right, I know Juky.
And I knew Juky had her hand up as well.
I know. Yeah, very uneventful except for
yesterday. We got to go to a wedding, my
husband's cousin Alicia and her new husband James, and it was
amazing. It was outdoors.
It was at 1 Ock Lake in Maple Ridge, which is a gorgeous a
(07:18):
gorgeous place to get married. Really.
This little lodge ceremony was outside by the lake.
They actually got in a canoe in her dress and his suit.
Nice. It was just such a beautiful
ceremony and such a wonderful reception, and all right,
they're gonna have an amazing life together.
It's a Viking. Guy, what about your Mother's
Day performance? That was before the last.
Podcast, yes. It was OK.
Talked all about that. Yes, we did.
(07:39):
Sorry. That's OK.
That's OK. Refer back to episode 1111.
Yeah, that's right. How excited I am for you I.
Thank you. All right, who's next?
Who's got something positive this year?
2 weeks. What's happened?
I knew I loved J Rod. He's like nothing.
I had gay sex, sorry. What?
Why is joking? No, we all wish that was.
(08:01):
True that that was. I would have let you guys.
Know yeah that would that was that was Friday night awakening
that might have happened at the bathhouse after the pump jacks
maybe yeah. That was that was Friday night
was a good night. And that was a Friday night
adventure. One thing you, my loving husband
Spider has forgot to mentioned in your two weeks is you ran the
(08:24):
shop for two days. Oh, that's old news.
That's that's, that's, that's old news.
I've run the shop a few times. I've I've actually at my
company, I've been fortunate enough after how many years that
I I get to be the they. Trust him to be the boss for the
night. Yeah, I get to.
So that is to say, nobody does anything.
Yeah, Daddy, so I get to be the active lead hand of an
(08:45):
absolutely massive size shop, which is a gained very it is an
honor that I'm allowed to be trusted by, you know, the owner
and the managers to actually runa shop.
So yeah, good for you. Thank you.
I don't believe I had anything overly too exciting, did I?
No, no, it was. Oh yeah.
Went and saw Lela on stitch. Thank you, Sprinkles.
(09:07):
Thank you, Sprinkles. I have mixed feelings about
that. That's that's a whole whole
discussion. I liked it, but I didn't like
it. Would I pay to go see it again?
No, I'll wait for it to come outon free on Disney Plus.
And when it does come out, I'll probably watch it like a dozen
times 100%. OK, show of hands, who at the
(09:29):
table today has seen the new live action Lilo and Stitch
just. The two of you.
So just that. Would be spider and I OK?
Just wanna take my lady friend to it.
I. It it is enjoyable, yes, but
there I mean, don't go in with the animated high standards of a
(09:49):
cute, funny movie. I mean, there's, there's some
serious aspects that were discussed in the movie, which
kind of like almost brought the joyfulness of it down a little
bit. Obviously with the whole CPS
interesting side of it. It it, it got a little bit more
serious into the, the CPS Child Protective Services, you know,
(10:12):
with the the that aspect of it touched on that a little bit
more. So, Oh, no, what's happening?
We are not leaving the session. Yep, still here that.
Was weird. That's a first.
What's that all about? I don't know, just.
Popped up on the screen. So yeah, anyways, that happened.
Not much else. Work's been OK and tolerable, so
(10:35):
no drama there. I'm getting my tan on lots of
rock beach days. It's been good.
Jealous. Absolutely jealous.
We haven't made it down there yet.
So nice. But you will, all right.
Anybody else have anything positive to say?
Well. I really like his dimples.
Thanks. People can't see it unless
(10:58):
they're watching. That's so cute, I love it.
It's just like. I've just been smiling this
whole time You guys have been talking about your like positive
last two weeks cuz I don't know it sounds fun like the whole
well and also I'm sounding because I also have thoughts
about the lilo and stitch movie,but because I haven't seen the
movie, I can't really comment onit.
I'm just chronically online and I've seen other people's takes
on it, so I'll leave my. Hopes out of that so where do I
(11:21):
fall with what you've seen online I.
Accurate. Yeah, I think most people feel
what you feel about it. Yeah, it's it's mixed feelings,
but then again, it's also one ofthose with all Disney movies
that have gone from animated to real life.
It's the same thing. There's mixed feelings.
When the real life first comes out, Jukie and I rat of it.
(11:46):
Watched it again and I've seen it about like 20 times already.
Well, we're expecting it to be too much like the original, and
you can't hear them. It's a first love situation.
Yeah, yeah. 2nd, 100%. Yeah.
Yeah. Are we ready to move on Rick,
and introduce? I think so.
I'm just thank you Sprinkles fornoticing that I, I, I told you
every. Introduce yourself.
(12:27):
Yes, hi everyone, I'm very happyto be here.
My name is Darren Ho and just a bit about myself before I get
into maybe the professional sideof things and talking about
where I work and what him is health initiative for men.
I'll maybe just introduce myselfas a person.
Absolutely, please. So I am a gay man.
I grew up here in Coquitlam. So I'm actually very happy to be
(12:49):
back here because I don't often get chances to come back to
Coquitlam. My, I now live in East Vancouver
and my parents make their way out to me to see me.
And yeah, so I grew up here in Coquitlam.
My background is in linguistics of all things.
But now I work in like public health, sexual health, HIV
(13:10):
prevention. But outside of work, I, I feel
right at home at, at this podcast studio slash home
because it's so nerdy. I'm also a geek at heart.
I love X-Men comic books, I lovevideo games.
The Switch 2 just came out and Ido like like like low level
(13:30):
amateur cosplay sometimes. Role play.
At spiders, spiders, spiders. Right there with the.
I'm a cosplay. Cool, cool, cool.
Yeah, he hasn't gotten too extreme with it yet, but yes, he
is. He's he's.
Low level. Low level.
Low level, yeah, yeah, yeah. So, so the term that I use is
closet cosplay cuz I like to notthat well, I'm like closeted
(13:50):
about it, but I tend to prefer like costumes where I can just
like pull stuff out of my closet.
Yes, to, you know, yeah. Yeah, just augment and have some
fun, yeah? Yeah, like the civilian version
of Peter Parker versus like the Spider Man.
You know I. Love that cosplay.
Fair. Yeah, I have a lot of Spiderman
cautions those things. I think it may be casual, is
that a good word? Casual.
Yeah. Casual.
Possible. Yeah, Yeah.
(14:12):
That's yeah. Look at that age term has been
coined. In this squirrel.
Hour I like. Is that cash play?
Yeah, cash play casual cosplay. There you go.
Can I talk a bit about trademark?
And register. You may talk.
You are here. Talk away, OK?
Cool. So I work at Health Initiative
for Men. The acronym is him.
So we make a lot of puns with our name.
(14:33):
Our organization, our website ischeck himout.ca And so at Health
Initiative for Men. At Health Initiative for Men,
I'm the director of Health Services.
We are an organization that began in 2008 as a response to
the HIV epidemic and kind of theways in which gay men
(14:54):
specifically were not receiving the best healthcare services in
Vancouver. And so our organization began
just to kind of bridge that gap and kind of give good competent
sexual healthcare to gay men andother men who have sex with men.
And now as the years have gone by, we've expanded our gender
(15:14):
mandate to include guys who are gay, bisexual, queer, trans
folks to spare folks and folks who are gender diverse just
knowing that HIV and sexual health effects everyone more
outside broadly than just gay men.
And so many folks might know us for for our Health Center clinic
that we have, but we also do counseling.
(15:35):
We also do social groups, we have yoga, etcetera.
But my question for you folks here, has anyone been to him
clinic him Health Center? I'm gonna go now.
I've heard of it through. I have spider pub.
All right, so myself and my hubby have both been there many
times even though I don't go as often anymore because I am on
(15:58):
prep and I am on Doxycline. So most of it's which is a
great. Talk all about that too.
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, which is a great service.
Most of my appointments now we're done on just through the
phone, which is where I get to do my first shout out because I
have a wonderful, I don't know if hubby has who you get your
phone calls from, but I'm doing my shout out to nurse Darcy
(16:21):
because Darcy is the one who usually, I typically talk to you
all the time when I get my follow up calls.
And he's just great and he's super friendly.
And whenever we talk, he's always, he remembers he's like,
oh, how are you doing? How's the podcast?
So which is really exciting because I told him, Darcy, that,
you know, Darren was coming on the episode.
Suddenly he's like, Oh my God, that's so great.
(16:43):
I'm like, you know, I'm gonna doa shout out.
You're gonna have to listen to the show to see where you are.
But he's a sweetheart, super kind and very empathic,
compassionate. And he's just he's.
I always enjoy receiving the phone call from him.
I don't think I ever have the same nurse call me twice in a
row. I I 11 call will be a female
(17:04):
nurse and the next one will be amale nurse and then a female and
then another female but different from the 1st and it's
like I never seem to have the same nurse ever call me.
Really. So I'm the only one who Darcy
calls me every time I feel so special.
I literally, yeah, I've only, I've only talked to Darcy in
like. Three years my plus and benefit
is I've never had to do an an office appointment since I've
(17:27):
been on Prep. It's all been phone well over
the phone. I have been there and again,
the, the, we've gone there many times.
It's welcoming, it's calming. That's where I met my first
appointment. I, I can't remember.
There's one real sweetheart I know a lot of it's run by
volunteers. He's an older person.
(17:50):
He usually he's the one who calls me to follow up.
He's on the main desk. The name escapes me right now
too, but we do have a lot of volunteers.
Yes, maybe Jonathan, it might be.
I know we've been there for a long time.
I've always seen him. But I, I OK, I have to do my due
diligence and extend your shadowto actually the whole team, the
whole nursing team. Absolutely.
(18:11):
Vancouver Coastal Health nursingteam, you guys are the best.
Thank you for everything that you do.
Yeah, and thank you for being sonice and kind when you call
people about their STI results. And I and I and I say that
because often times I hear feedback that's not great, you
know, and because, you know, a lot of times with like any work
situation that you're in, like you only get people complaining,
(18:33):
like, oh, the appointment list was full or the wait time was
too long or, you know, whatever the bad experience is.
So I'm really happy to hear thatyou have had such great
experiences with our nurses and that they remember you.
I but I get I I'm terrible at it.
Like whenever we go anywhere. He makes an impression, he
(18:53):
leaves an impression on everybody he talks to, so they
always remember him. Ain't nobody home.
No me from a hole in the wall. Just just call me Glory.
Wow, wow, wow. Some guys do remember that so.
Well, and This is why we love this show, because it's just
(19:15):
right down into the dark space. Which is.
Kind of exciting. So with that being said, was
there anything you'd like to share?
Well, actually you brought up Prep and Doc Z, Yes, and I do
want to talk about that because I'm not sure how familiar your
listeners might be about Prep and Doc Z.
Let's start. Can we start with Prep?
Absolutely. How about what, what, what do
(19:36):
you well, can you tell me your knowledge about Prep and how you
feel about just the whole medication?
And you know what drove you to take Prep?
Well, and what is Prep first of all?
For those of us that are on it. So there are, there is not only
there's prep, but there's also. Doxy.
Pep PEP doxycycline yes yes, so I know there's pap and prep.
(19:58):
We decided to get involved with it because being.
You know, we've been married fora long time and you know, we, we
have an open, you know, semi open relationship and we enjoy,
you know, having fun. So being when it became
available, it was in its early stages because we've been on it
for a long time now, since the very beginning.
Yeah, I have. It took him a long time to
actually convince him to go on it.
(20:19):
But to be involved with it, it was great.
I mean, Prep is a preventative medication that prevents 99.9.
It's nothing's 100 like 99.9% ofHIV taking hold.
Doesn't prevent it helps preventinfection.
So I mean, you're both correct there.
Prep stands for pre exposure prophylaxis and it's a pill that
(20:43):
you take once a day, every day. And after two weeks or so, then
your body starts developing waysto kind of block HIV the virus
if you come in contact with HIV the virus.
So the the medication itself actually, OK, I don't know if
this is like scientific or foreign for folks, but the
medication itself actually is derived from HIV medication that
(21:07):
people living with HIV have taken all their lives to be
healthy. And so Prep is kind of like the
version of it that's for HIV negative people that we take
free exposure. So like before exposure.
And then you mentioned PEP, which is post exposure
prophylaxis, that if you happen to be someone who is not on Prep
(21:29):
and you may have come into contact with HIV, that you have
72 hours to take this other typeof medication called PEP to kind
of like stop the virus from taking on.
I don't. Know anchoring.
Yeah, anchoring into your body. And so PEP has also been around
for a long time because nurses have used folks in the medical
field have used PEP for a long time in case they've come into
(21:52):
contact with HIV in their like professional practices.
OK. But also it's a bit confusing
because now there's this newer thing called Doxy PEP, which OK,
so Prep P exposure prophylaxis and PEP is both for the
prevention of HIV. And now we have this new
medication that we take called Doxy PEP that's for doxycycline
(22:12):
and it's for syphilis and chlamydia.
So not all STI's but like 2 of. The more common, the more
common. Yeah, and, and the reason why
it's Doxy pap is because it's also a pill that you take after
you think that you may have beenexposed to STI's, correct?
So what a time to be alive. And and that's what we do.
What? A time to have sex.
(22:33):
I know and and like we have it and, and it's great and it's
really, we are blessed being in Canada and blessed being here
because it is all covered for free.
Yes, that's right. Well covered.
Under MSP MSP but we don't. Technically isn't.
Our taxes pay that. MSP.
Yeah. OK.
So our employers pay for it. Lame.
(22:54):
OK, fine. Just a random question there.
So after what you've said Prep, does that just focus on HIV or
does that also work to on the other St. is as well?
That's a great question because this is a kind of a
misconception that if you take Prep, then you don't need to
worry about a lot of other St. is.
(23:16):
But Prep is only for HIV, Only for HIV.
And so if you are, you know, worried about syphilis,
chlamydia, gonorrhea, HPV, things like that, you would have
to take other steps like use condoms, get the HPV vaccine,
you know, talk to your partner about their status, correct?
Things like that. Yeah.
(23:37):
Which is why I'm on the Doxycline.
You know, prep and Doxycline both are covered, which is why
we get we get both of those. So I know Spider just had
mentioned that he's on Prep and the Doxy, yes, is Prep and Doxy,
does that cover like the whole spectrum or just the HIV?
(24:01):
So what was it? Syphilis and gonorrhea.
Yes, that's right. So I mean that HIV, syphilis,
gonorrhea are very common. I mean, I don't know if it's
very common, but there are common STI's, but you know, it's
still possible. I mean, OK, so that taking prep
and taking doxy is 2 big steps already.
So it's, I don't want to sound like I'm shaming people like
(24:22):
you're not doing enough because you're not covered for like
herpes and HPV and chlamydia, chlamydia or like syphilis, you
know, like, you know, like, you know, every step that you take
is a lot already. But but yeah, I mean, there's
also gonorrhea, which doxy does not cover.
There were some like research that thought that maybe doxy
could also help you prevent gonorrhea, but now we find that
(24:42):
it does not. Yeah, already.
Yeah, thank you for sharing. It's very educational, very
cool. Right, that that that the more
you. Know actually, but but I will
say that that the one tool that does cover most like 99% of
STI's are condoms. And I feel like such like, you
know an old fashioned nerd saying that, but condoms are
still one of the best ways to protect yourself from STI's.
(25:05):
Like, if you don't know, like, like, oh, there's so many, like
technological advances, all these pills, what is what if it
gets too confusing, I mean, you could default to comments.
I know it's not the funnest thing to say.
No, no, no, absolutely understandable.
And thank you for clarifying that because I am definitely one
of probably the millions that are out there that are under the
misinterpretation that Prep basically protects you from
(25:29):
everything. I was actually not fully aware
that it was just for HIV. Now I know which obviously HIV
is the worst of them all. You know, but again, like I
said, that's why we have it today, which is why I'm happy to
have you on the show today and hopefully a lot of our listeners
learn from today and learn something new from this episode.
(25:50):
What are the side effects, if there are any?
Yeah, the side effect of prep are, that's a very good question
because a lot of people are concerned to start Prep because
of the side effects. I will say that the side effects
are very minor. So they're things like nausea,
headache, they're kind of like the the side effects that you
would get from taking like pillsin general if you're not used to
(26:11):
it because it is a pill that youhave to take once a day, every
day for a while for it to work. But yeah, I don't think there's
very like there's a lot of like the major side effects.
However, Prep is very similar tothe medication PEP, the one that
you take after exposure, the oneyou have like you have 72 hours
and you take this and then and then you don't have to worry
(26:32):
about like HIV latching onto your blood cells.
PEP, however, is super harsh on your body, yes, because it's
like all of the HIV medication concentrated trying to like
fight off the HIV in your body within a short amount of time.
So that one you will feel like super fatigue.
Some people vomit like super nausea.
(26:54):
I don't even know what the medical terms.
I call it super nausea, a super headache, but it's, well, yeah,
it's a lot harder in your body. So yeah, prep versus PEP prep is
definitely less harsh on your body in terms of side effects.
Yeah, so it almost. Sounds like the Plan B in a way.
Yes, actually, that is a good way to think about it.
It's kind of like your morning after pill versus my gosh, it's
(27:14):
blank. What's the 1 you could take
birth control pill versus morning after?
Literally just gonna that just proved he was gay.
I was. Literally just gonna say that
this sounds a lot like birth control in the morning after.
Yeah. And it's exactly it.
Yeah. But you know what they're
really, they're really great because when you're on the
program and you do the one a daylike we are, you have to go
(27:37):
every three months and you have to get a clean bill of health
before you get a prescription filled.
You need to get your blood work done.
They take a full on STI test. You have the swabs, they test
your liver, they test to make sure that there's no damage to
you and they monitor it. So it's a great program.
And can I ask, do have the nurses ever explained to you why
they go through all of that? Absolutely.
(27:59):
Can you? Explain like it's been a long
time. It's never been explained to me.
Honestly, I just, I go in and I get stabbed every three months
and a week later I get a phone call saying, yeah, all your
results are negative, we'll renew your prescription for
another 90 days. So yeah, I'll shed some light
here. The reason why the process is so
thorough like that is because wewant to make sure that if you're
(28:22):
continuing to use Prep, that in the mean like in the meanwhile,
you hadn't seroconverted, so youhadn't become HIV positive.
Because if you had become HIV positive and you continue to
take Prep, Prep because it's a form of HIV medication, your
body might start building immunity to HIV medication if
(28:42):
you were HIV positive. And so kind of the reason why I
guess the main, one of the main reasons why we have to keep
checking like, are you HIV negative?
Because that's like the biggest eligibility criteria for Prep is
to make sure that you know the medication that you're taking is
still like the correct medication for your body.
Right. So just out of curiosity, why if
(29:05):
every three months when we go into get our, you know, blood work
done and do the swabs and everything else, why isn't it
just basically an HIV blood testas opposed to the full spectrum?
That's a bit of a more complicated question.
I don't know if I have a full answer to that other than I feel
like it's just good to do that and every three months is.
(29:27):
I mean, I don't get me wrong, I'm perfectly OK with getting a
full spectrum done every three months knowing that I'm clean
and negative across the. Board some, there are some
places that don't do that and I think like if the like the
clinic or nurses have capacity to do the full spectrum testing,
they might offer and they will. But I feel like maybe in some
(29:47):
more like smaller urban areas where it's just like nurses are
more at. Capacity not readily available.
Yeah, then it's just the HIV does.
Fair enough. I've always assumed that it's, I
always tell people like, you know, again, it's just a good
practice. They just want to make sure that
you're clean, you know, have a clean bill of health across the
board. So there's nothing, there's no
negative to it. It's nothing but positive.
(30:09):
It's great knowing that your, your status and I'm very happy
because in the community becausethat it's not, you know, there's
no cost to it anymore, you know,to individual costs.
You know, there are so many people, I think 90% of everyone
we've talked to in the community, they were like,
they're on prep. Like we went to a camping trip
(30:31):
and we went there and someone forgot their prep at home and
they were, and they had doxycline, whatever.
And you know, there's a lot of fun activity.
And he said he's like, oh, hey, I forgot my prep at home.
I forgot my doxycline. He's like, oh, I have some.
And it was like. Everybody threw up their hands.
Everyone like, oh, which one areyou on?
Are you? On I love this community, I love
the queer community, I love how we're all there for each other.
(30:51):
Isn't that great? Like they literally all they're
like, oh, I have extra. So it was, it was again, it's
great. It's an amazing, you know.
Like trading Pokémon cards. I have one.
I have one. It's a It's a lot of fun.
Rick said it took, it took a while for me to get onto Prep
myself. He was, Rick was onto it for
(31:13):
about almost two years before I got onto it.
Yeah, My biggest fear was prior to me getting onto Prep, me
prior to the, you know, general ER, wherever medical clinics for
STI and HIV testing was prior to.
(31:47):
Invasive. Barbaric.
Thank you, Jukie. Invasive.
I mean it, it was not pleasant. I'm not going to lie.
This is straight up truth. The first time I ever got went
in and got my St. IS and HIV tested they took what
looked like a microscopic toiletbrush.
(32:09):
Yeah. And shoved it down my urethra.
For those of you who don't know,the that is the exit hole of the
penis shoved it down there, twisted it, and then yanked it
out. It wasn't a pleasant experience.
I don't feel so bad about pap smears anymore.
So that was we're good the firsttime.
(32:32):
But not sounding. That was like the first time I
ever went and got tested for, you know, AIDS, HIV, all the
STI's and everything else. And it was traumatizing because
back then it was about 2 1/2 weeks waiting for any results to
come in. It was a long it was a very
(32:53):
stressful time to be around Sprinkles.
You have your hands up and you have a question.
First of all, thank you for offering these safe spaces for
men to do this and sorry about your your experience but I just
feel like. Traumatizing.
If that's the reason why men don't get tested is because of
how invasive this is, it's not because of irresponsibility.
It was not anymore. It was.
(33:15):
Now all I have to do is pee in acup, maybe stick a cotton swab
up the rear end and down the throat.
Not the same one, love. Not not the same swab.
I thought the same thing. Not the same one.
However, I have heard horror stories because sometimes the
people opt to do a self swab andyou know, there's like people
(33:36):
are nervous, you know, there's not much room in the bathroom
stall. You know, they mix up the swab.
Yeah, I I've, I've heard horror.Stories.
Yeah. OK, so there's there's two
separate swabs, one for the throat, one for the rear end.
Then you go to the to the clinic.
Rick and I go to Life Labs. Yeah, they draw the blood like I
taste 98 vials of blood. I don't think they leave
(33:58):
anything left. And then you pee in a cup and
you're good to. Go All right, And with that
being said, moving on, let's getto the actual questions that all
the cast, because we're like halfway through the show.
Let's get on to the actual questions that the cast prepared
for Darren prior to this episode.
(34:19):
For the record, I didn't prepareany questions whatsoever.
These were questions as just kind of spawned off of what he
was going off of. Well, most of the policies for
that, that's OK. Most of the questions we already
like. The reason why we do 2 episodes
is because a lot of times if we do not cover everything in the
first episode, we can get the carry over for the next one.
The very beginning of the next one, because any later than that
(34:39):
and we'll never get to it. Yeah.
So with that being said, which of the questions would you like
to answer? Was everyone's.
Prepared Yeah, thanks for emailing me some questions
before we start. OK, so a lot of the questions we
were like some of the questions were related to my work, but the
one that I was like Oh my God, Iwant to talk about this.
You got someone asked like what my favorite music is?
(35:01):
Yeah, thank you, whoever asked that.
That was. T Wait, no, I know it was J rod
dash music. T bones are different when you
say. Yeah, yeah.
Well, I. Appreciate that just because
oftentimes I talk about sexual health and condoms, Prep,
whatever, but this is like a break that I got to.
OK, so. Good job, J Rod.
I really love Tegan and Sarah and OK, yes, they are OK.
(35:24):
So I love rock, alternative indie folk and synth like synth
is kind of like this like new thing that I'm kind of it's not
new, but like I've I like I'm getting into it.
New to you synth pop? Synth rock?
I didn't know that one. Not Star.
Wars related. No, no for.
Like for like churches? It's a really fun synth.
Yeah, Oh my God, I love churchestoo.
We'll talk later. I got Lauren's solo album.
(35:46):
We talk later. We'll talk later.
Awesome. Amazing.
Yes. But yeah.
OK, so T and Sarah, they really helped me get through with the
pandemic, listening to their music and there was like this.
They have this really they have a big fan base, but one of their
fans goes to a lot of their concerts and just records Tegan
and Sarah, the lesbian sisters, not a couple.
They they record them like banter on stage and throughout
(36:09):
the pandemic, late at night, I would just listen to Tegan and
Sarah's banter on stage. And you know what?
Actually that's very podcast of them pre podcast era.
They just batch her on stage. They're sisters.
So they're yelling at each otherand mad at each other and then
they batch her and then they sing.
My God, they're sisters. I know that person that does
that because I've done Baby Yoda.
(36:31):
I've done Baby Yoda videos with your friends banter Tegan and
Sarah in the background for my baby or Instagram so I know that
girl. OK, Yeah.
We talk. Later.
OK, cool. They're not twins, right?
They're just. Sisters.
They are twins. They're identical twins.
They are twins and they're sisters and they're lesbians and
they make amazing music. Yeah, I've never actually seen a
picture of Tegan and Sarah. I do enjoy their music, but I
(36:52):
actually thought they were not sisters, they were just.
Yeah, I didn't know. They were besties.
Yeah. I feel like they're definitely
not lesbian lovers. I never ever would have thought
that. I just thought they were
besties. If you like Tegan and Sarah,
there's a really good book abouttheir autobiography from High.
School I've read it of. Course my God, the logger story
we talk later. And and and the TV show that
(37:13):
they made, yes. Yeah.
Yeah. All right.
Next question. All right, moving on, moving on.
I know, I know. I'm like, I'm I got to keep the
show moving because there's a lot of questions.
Well done. What is the next?
I don't remember. I don't remember the other
question. Someone asked how to.
Yeah, don't worry. But the other question I asked
was what song you could listen to on repeat that may have been
(37:34):
the longest. AI is gonna have a hell of a
time, that one. Currently it's You are Always on
My Mind by the Pet Shop Boys. Cool.
OK, we talk later. OK, I have the 45 of that with
remix. We talked later.
Does anybody else remember theirquestion?
I do. But mine were answered and they
were about. And mine as well again.
So that's the nice thing about it.
(37:55):
We knew this was going to happen.
Spirit animal. Ebone always has an apple.
Did you say a Pet Shop Boys? Is that the band?
Yeah. Someone he's looking at.
Someone on the list I remember reading there's a question like
how did I get involved with the work that I do now?
Yeah, that was me, I think. That was mine.
Okay, I'll tell all of us. Story that was mine.
(38:16):
I'm always interested in how youstarted.
How did you get involved with Health Initiative for Men or HEM
Clinic? And yeah, so here's the thing.
I don't have a medical background.
I'm not a nurse by trade. I don't have any medical
training and like I said, my background in university, I went
to SFU for linguistics. So I taught English as a second
(38:37):
language or additional language for many years.
But but how I got to him is through just volunteering in the
gay community, in the like gay men's health community, queer
men's health community as it's called now or queer people's
health community. And so I, I did a lot of like
leadership. I did a couple of leadership
training workshops and programs and things like that.
(39:00):
And then, and yeah, I've just worked in other nonprofit
organizations that have a focus on HIV education, Youth Coach.
Shout out to them for being one of the ones that taught me a lot
about HIV when I was younger. And then I just kind of like
volunteered, worked slash, worked my way to where I am now.
Awesome. Thank you for sharing.
(39:21):
Again. It's always nice to know where
the beginnings and you know how you became involved with with
that. Your your position is.
Director of Health Service. I know it sounds so important
so. Where so Daddy.
Daddy. So on that note, now that you've
said that, where, where would you stand per SE on the totem
pole of him? So him we OK, so I have to say
(39:45):
that we try to like run on this like non hierarchical leadership
structure. So we have a board of directors
and then we have an executive director who is my boss.
The executive director has two people reporting to him.
One of them is me, director of health services and also
director of programs. So a little bit about that
because him is more than just a health clinic.
(40:07):
We also do like health campaigns, like all of the bus
ads that you see about like at your Prep or.
Or epox is still around etcetera, etcetera.
That's also us. And then Director of Health
programs does all of our social programmings that we do, our
support programs, counseling folks who are into PNP, which is
party and play Kem sex, that kind of stuff.
There's a lot that happens and without the health initiative
(40:29):
for men, like the Health Initiative for men, Hem Clinic
is just an amazing organization.And you know, just again, thank
you not only to yourself, but everybody that's involved.
Yeah, I want to thank them too, because as a young gay person
living or growing up in Coquitlam, I also used him
services growing up and they were amazing.
And I and I also had like the same like, like really like
(40:53):
positive experiences with nursesthat made me feel like, OK, it's
like gay sex is not that scary after all.
Yeah, it's it's just, yeah, the experience has been amazing.
From the nurses to everybody at the front to the back of house.
It just, you know, shout out to everybody that's in the
organization. What are we?
Sorry, believe it or not, I actually have another question.
(41:16):
I feel like sprinkles right now.It's awesome.
So I have been approached by coworkers and friends, straight
coworkers and straight friends inquiring about getting tested
for STI's and HIV and AIDS and everything else.
And you know, if they're if the if the men are basically
(41:39):
eligible for getting involved with the prep situation.
I basically told him, I said I can't answer that.
All I can do is say get in contact with him clinic and if
they will, they will point in the right direction.
Now, is him open to straight menas well?
OK, this is a very nuanced question, so I have to take my
(42:01):
time to answer this. The short answer is yes, kind
of, but also no. So, so OK, so we we.
A cat mindset. Yes, so you know, our medic, we
serve more than just gay men. It's gay, bisexual, queer, trans
men included, and some trans menmight identify as straight.
(42:22):
And you are more than welcome towalk through the hand clinic
doors and get our services. In those cases, Prep is
available kind of regardless of how you identify because it more
with the eligibility for Prep ismore so your practices.
So so for many nuanced reasons, there may be some men out there
(42:43):
who might not identify as gay orbisexual.
Perhaps they're closeted or they're partnered with a woman
and you know, the identity is just not as close to them.
So then they don't identify as gay or bisexual, but they have
sex with men and in those cases they would be eligible for Prep.
OK, but I have to make the also the nuance clarification that
(43:04):
our HIM clinics, we have one in Vancouver, one in commercial, we
have one in Surrey once a week and sometimes one in amateur.
Our appointment and our wait times are often full.
And so we have to prioritize ourcommunity of gay, bisexual,
queer men, trans people and gender diverse people.
(43:28):
And so if you are someone who could get services like testing
services somewhere else and you feel safe and comfortable
getting those services somewhereelse, and maybe like a queer
competent, a nurse is not something that you are looking
for and like just any random oldnurse can do because maybe
you're not a good person, then Iwould say please don't take up
(43:49):
our appointment slots because our nurses have limited slots.
But that's a great answer. Thank you because.
That's true. That's a very good answer.
That's that. That is what I told them.
I'd I'd tell them I'd be like, well, yeah, I deal with the hem
clinic being a gay person, I said.
But all I can tell you to do is contact them and they could
(44:11):
point in the right direction to somebody.
Yeah, we could definitely refer folks.
There's yeah, there's lots of helpful, competent.
But you guys would never actually turn away per say
somebody. Just because it should.
We have not yet started to do that.
However, we are getting feedbackthat a lot of folks are not able
(44:34):
to make appointments or the walkin is always full, things like
that. So we are trying to adjust the
way that we talk about who our clinic is for.
So basically. Be respectful of a community
that's maybe in more of need, because I do realize that
somebody who is straight, I do have a lot of gay friends and
they're not a lot of gay resources or LGBT resources.
(44:56):
So thank you for that. And sometimes I don't feel
comfortable or they're just not good at it when it's outside of
the community for that. So I guess it's a matter of
respect of just making sure thatthe need is there for the
specific community. Yeah, for sure.
But also like we are more than just a clinic.
So if you see us like with a booth at a Pride or where, you
(45:17):
know, we're just like giving outwhatever, like, yeah, come, come
up, whoever you are, however youlike, chat with us, talk to us
about harm reduction, ask questions, things like that.
Yeah. See you at.
Yeah, See you at Pride. Yeah.
Yeah, we're excited, T-bone. You got a question, aside from
your involvement with this community and all the great work
you're doing. Thank you.
What is a big passion of yours? Is there a passion?
(45:39):
The passion question. That's what it was, music and
passion. I forgot the tube mixed up.
And spirit animals. Yes.
OK, can someone else tell me their passion while I think of
mine? Music.
PDSM. Wow, that went from light
hearted and sunshine to. X-rated.
The back alley triple. X the ball busting what?
(46:02):
About and mine is podcasting andpodcasting.
Mine's crafting. You're definitely crafting.
My passion is just getting to the next day at work and dealing
with whatever my husband has purchased.
Disney. Disney is your passion.
And volunteering, yes. And smoking.
That's why I got excited about you when you said Pet Shop Boys.
(46:23):
Do you have a cassette player? No, I do, but I probably haven't
used it. And I'm I'm, I'm born in the
80s. I'm a 90s kid so yes.
You need help repairing it because I can hook you up with
tapes. It's easy.
OK, we'll talk. VHS Head cleaner we all know.
Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, just wipe that on the reading head and I clean it up.
Do not want to waste my poppers on on technology that would
(46:47):
never be. Your VHS Head cleaner, I don't
know what you're talking. About Thank, thank goodness
you're here. You know the name.
I watch VHS tapes. I've got head cleaner if you
need all. Right.
Well. All gay men have VHS Head
cleaners. You have a very beautiful smile.
Smile by the. Way.
Thank you very. Contagious.
Thank you. Thank you.
OK, So my passion I, OK, I'm gonna give 2 answers.
(47:09):
I really love like nerdy fandom things as I've said.
So I am passionate about like like being more integrated into
those fandoms like Avatar the Last Airbender or Marvel X-Men,
things like that, like that kindof stuff.
That's like my nerd passion and then and then my not so nerdy
passion. I mean, it's still nerdy for
some people. I really OK the the community
(47:32):
that's within the queer community that I really care
about that's really near and dear to me is the queer people
of color community. And I am passionate about, you
know, bringing more visibility to queer people of color in
Vancouver and the Lower Mainland.
And just like, supporting like the.
Party in general, yeah. Everywhere in general, like
supporting, you know, the parties that they throw, the,
(47:55):
you know, the artsy things that we all do, things like.
That well, maybe in the future you said you knew some
individuals that might enjoy being on the podcast and
expressing that So if you had noothers people of the community
of color that want to be on the podcast for.
Sure. We would love to have them on.
(48:15):
OK, cool. That's what this show wants to
be about, is to express and givepeople the ability to have that
platform and we would love to have them on.
OK. One last final question from me,
I promise. Good, cuz you got 5 minutes.
Cuz this this may or may or may not determine whether or not
you're invited back. Wow, pressure.
(48:37):
Ouch. Star Trek or Star Wars?
OK I know I'm not gonna be invited back cuz my answer is
neither. No, I still.
You're fine. We knew the question.
We already knew this question. OK, I'm but but in that genre.
Voltron legendary defender. I'd love Voltron.
Good job. Voltron was great.
(48:59):
I'm too young for Voltron. That's a Mario one.
Go ahead, J Rod. It's not Marvel or DC.
Marvel 100. Percent.
OK, now that's. More Bruce Springsteen or Billy
Joel. I think Billy Joel.
OK, can you be my best friend because you like OK?
(49:20):
I feel like that last question was a more controversial
question. Your favorite?
I. Know my favorite ice man, right?
Thank you for the question of favorite X-Men.
My favorite X-Men is Kitty pride, shadow cat.
She faces through walls. Ice.
Ice Man. OK, I'm going to quickly get the
shout outs because we only have a couple of minutes left.
We want to make sure it's available for the YouTube
channel. We want to make thank all our
(49:43):
listeners, make sure and of course that we always finish an
episode with that. It's OK not to be OK.
It's the importance of mental health matters.
If you need anybody reach out, please reach out to us.
There are many resources out there on the web.
We have the national 988 Number International.
It's available in the states as.Well it is and we have, you
(50:03):
know, the Foundry BC, we have the BC crisis, we have the HM
Clinic. These are all advertised.
We do a shout out and before we guessed would Darren like to
create the secret word because Ihave a loving group of puppies
international which I love this stinky pop my little pack.
But we always throw in a secret word that they must listen and
(50:28):
they need to read it back to me to make sure that they they.
Listen to the episode. OK, OK, today's secret word is
poppers. Perfect choice.
Beautiful. We'll have a second secret word
for. Yeah, we do a second.
One for after dark. That's great and we always love
it cuz all of a sudden I'll justget random messages and I'm like
(50:48):
last week was purple so I just got a message and like purple.
On that note, shout out to the stinky pups, Billy Tegel, Ellos
handler Chase. We love y'all Miss y'all.
Can't wait to meet half of you. Yeah, so we've known them and
they're together. They're family to us right at
this point. So we were excited.
We're gonna finish up this episode.
Love peas and chicken grease. I gotta pee.
(51:10):
Yeah, we're gonna wrap this up, take a 15 minute break, reset,
do some processing, editing, andthen we will be back for the
next episodes. My husband's episode, Squirrels
After Dark, which is complete, absolute chaos.
Chaos complete, complete love explosion.
All right, you kids, we will love you all.
We will be back momentarily. Take a break.
(51:31):
Grab your drink. Rare.
Welcome back to another fantastic happy hour special.
Welcome back to the Squirrel Hour, everybody.
I am your host, Rick Hunter AKA Spider Pup, and I am happy to be
here today with an amazing cast.We have a full cast with us
today and as well, we have another special guest with us
today. We actually have someone which I
(00:22):
reached out to and I'm very excited that he accepted.
We have Darren Ho, who is the health services director of the
Health Initiative for Men, joining us today.
Did I say? Hello.
Yeah, that's right. OK, good.
I want to make sure I set up properly.
So what we're going to do, we'regoing to introduce ourselves.
Number one, this is a not Safe for work podcast.
We definitely talk about weird things, our expressions on our
(00:44):
own. We don't talk about the religion
or politics because they're justbad.
And we say fuck. A lot, yeah.
It's, it's, it's it's we've actually had some of our cast or
guests on the show and they're like, can we say that?
I'm like, yes, we make sure whenever we put it up it's an
explicit. We have the E rating, yeah, for
a reason. It's 6 to 8 people, adults who
(01:06):
spend happy hour having some drinks and socializing.
And before we begin that, beforewe go around and introduce who's
there on today's episode, pleasewould you like to start us off,
hubby? And this podcast is recorded and
brought to you from the traditional territories and
unseded lands of the Coquitlam First Nation.
And we thank you for allowing usto be here.
(01:26):
Thank you very much Hun. And we I'd also like to make a
shout out that we have two before I do it.
I don't really don't look at my phone, but I did make a note we
do have two new countries that have begun following us.
So I wanted to say thank you to our two twoest new countries,
Serbia, Yep, and that is we haveBosnia and Spain.
(01:49):
Oh, I thought you said Serbia. Cool.
Oh, no. They've been there.
They've been there for a while. They're growing.
So how many total now? We have 72 countries.
I thought it was 70. Very cool.
Now it used to be 768-7072, so it keeps growing, which is
crazy. So thank you to all of our
listeners that take time out of their schedules and you know,
and follow us and listen to thisabsolute chaos that we which we
(02:12):
absolutely love. And with that being said, let's
go around the table, introduce who's here besides Dareham.
We know you're here. So I'll go around the normal
cast and we're going to come back because we're going to have
a whole bunch of questions for you.
Hey it's jukey fun fact about me, I can make mugs now.
I am excited to show that mug and we can start selling our
merch. Yep.
(02:32):
We're going to have a merch store.
Oh, you sound like a YouTube podcast podcaster.
Yeah. We are on YouTube.
Who? Who is that?
That's pup Titan, I don't have afun fact or a dad joke right
now. Take.
Take your time. Take your time.
I might have to look at my phone.
Don't call pineapple. I will if you're if you are
(02:53):
looking for a dad joke, I will. We will allow that.
I guess you should already have this in your head.
Shame, shame, shame, Sharon Dubois.
I'm here. I'm happy.
I'm not hungover, slightly sick but not quite, and drinking
grosche beer I know not gross grosche.
Is it good or grosche? Touché it's it's.
(03:19):
Different. Acceptable.
OK. And.
We got T-bone, got my full license for my writing.
Night riding is a thing. It's a vibe.
I get it. I understand now.
Thank you. Yeah.
Congratulations. Thank you.
Good job buddy. Keep driving safe please.
I suddenly hear the night rider.Theme in my head.
Yes, me too. Yeah, that's what I heard too.
(03:41):
Totally heard that and. Sprinkles, I am the bargain
queen. Booked a vacation for six days
and flight for 550 each. Down turn the.
Microphone. Damn.
There you go, Perfect. Thank you.
And in the background we have. Silent Peter and the kids.
We're enjoying themselves, so wehave an absolute full cast
(04:03):
today, which is amazing. Anybody have any positive
things? And Darren is the first time on
the show. So what we like to do is we go
around of course to what what's going on in the last couple of
weeks. Excuse me, you have to introduce
yourself. I did at the beginning.
Did you, Rick Hunter? AKA spider pup.
I apologize. Way even didn't forget about me
for the first time. I'll start off, you know what,
(04:25):
the last couple of weeks have been relatively calm for me I
think. I know it's always crazy.
We did get to enjoy our pop social, which I do enjoy going
down at the Pump Jacks pub. We always give them a shout out
because we're amazing, great event, had a wonderful time and
as always, it's great to meet and connect with all of our
lovely friends down at the Pump Jacks.
(04:46):
And as as sad as it is, we are on the tail end of the
Crossroads Hospice Society. We have 3 left for us to be
doing. We've been volunteering for the
last six months. Oh my God, every Saturday.
You know, I'm so happy we've raised and helped raise $17,000,
which without us stepping in, they would have raised nothing.
(05:07):
It would have practically been shut down.
We're happy to do it, but at thesame time we need to take our
own mental health, take a littlestep back and you know, take
next year off and and enjoy thatwhich we will still be involved,
but we're just taking a little step back to enjoy and the
importance of our own mental health.
If any of our listeners would like to volunteer.
Absolutely. We have two weeks left and
(05:28):
there's three total left for this season.
Thank you. Correct.
So the last one will not be there.
We will still be involved, but that's my couple of weeks.
Still really calm, you know thatI'm usually super active.
So that's calm for me. Who else has got something
positive to share? Since the last podcast, I got to
go to the ministry concert. I was.
Very excited. And you have a vacation coming.
(05:51):
Yes I'm going to Orlando, FL to epic universal and Disney World.
Excellent. And me being the bargain queen
and being cheap as F. Frugal, Frugal.
The Muslim side of her. It is.
It's 100% the brown side of me, 100% six night, 6 days, five
(06:12):
nights and flight from Vancouver, 550 each.
Nice at the hotel that's 10 minutes away.
Yeah, a nice hotel, not like. A mode.
Day yeah, so that's the cheapestI've traveled for mind you it's
gonna be more expensive down there but.
Yes, that's. Fine, that's a bargain.
We're this, we're the same way. It's a great bargain.
Like we're, we're going down as well.
(06:33):
We're going down for our 20th anniversary, 10 years of
marriage together, celebrating our 10 year marriage at and you
know, at the Disney World at theMagic Kingdom.
And we're going to be spending 20.
That's so 10 years of marriage, 20 years together.
Oh, I OK, yeah, I had that confused in my head.
OK, that makes sense. I thought it was 20 years
(06:54):
marriage. No, no.
I. Feel the same way as well. 20
years of marriage. All right, I know Juky.
And I knew Juky had her hand up as well.
I know. Yeah, very uneventful except for
yesterday. We got to go to a wedding, my
husband's cousin Alicia and her new husband James, and it was
amazing. It was outdoors.
It was at 1 Ock Lake in Maple Ridge, which is a gorgeous a
(07:18):
gorgeous place to get married. Really.
This little lodge ceremony was outside by the lake.
They actually got in a canoe in her dress and his suit.
Nice. It was just such a beautiful
ceremony and such a wonderful reception, and all right,
they're gonna have an amazing life together.
It's a Viking. Guy, what about your Mother's
Day performance? That was before the last.
Podcast, yes. It was OK.
Talked all about that. Yes, we did.
(07:39):
Sorry. That's OK.
That's OK. Refer back to episode 1111.
Yeah, that's right. How excited I am for you I.
Thank you. All right, who's next?
Who's got something positive this year?
2 weeks. What's happened?
I knew I loved J Rod. He's like nothing.
I had gay sex, sorry. What?
Why is joking? No, we all wish that was.
(08:01):
True that that was. I would have let you guys.
Know yeah that would that was that was Friday night awakening
that might have happened at the bathhouse after the pump jacks
maybe yeah. That was that was Friday night
was a good night. And that was a Friday night
adventure. One thing you, my loving husband
Spider has forgot to mentioned in your two weeks is you ran the
(08:24):
shop for two days. Oh, that's old news.
That's that's, that's, that's old news.
I've run the shop a few times. I've I've actually at my
company, I've been fortunate enough after how many years that
I I get to be the they. Trust him to be the boss for the
night. Yeah, I get to.
So that is to say, nobody does anything.
Yeah, Daddy, so I get to be the active lead hand of an
(08:45):
absolutely massive size shop, which is a gained very it is an
honor that I'm allowed to be trusted by, you know, the owner
and the managers to actually runa shop.
So yeah, good for you. Thank you.
I don't believe I had anything overly too exciting, did I?
No, no, it was. Oh yeah.
Went and saw Lela on stitch. Thank you, Sprinkles.
(09:07):
Thank you, Sprinkles. I have mixed feelings about
that. That's that's a whole whole
discussion. I liked it, but I didn't like
it. Would I pay to go see it again?
No, I'll wait for it to come outon free on Disney Plus.
And when it does come out, I'll probably watch it like a dozen
times 100%. OK, show of hands, who at the
(09:29):
table today has seen the new live action Lilo and Stitch
just. The two of you.
So just that. Would be spider and I OK?
Just wanna take my lady friend to it.
I. It it is enjoyable, yes, but
there I mean, don't go in with the animated high standards of a
(09:49):
cute, funny movie. I mean, there's, there's some
serious aspects that were discussed in the movie, which
kind of like almost brought the joyfulness of it down a little
bit. Obviously with the whole CPS
interesting side of it. It it, it got a little bit more
serious into the, the CPS Child Protective Services, you know,
(10:12):
with the the that aspect of it touched on that a little bit
more. So, Oh, no, what's happening?
We are not leaving the session. Yep, still here that.
Was weird. That's a first.
What's that all about? I don't know, just.
Popped up on the screen. So yeah, anyways, that happened.
Not much else. Work's been OK and tolerable, so
(10:35):
no drama there. I'm getting my tan on lots of
rock beach days. It's been good.
Jealous. Absolutely jealous.
We haven't made it down there yet.
So nice. But you will, all right.
Anybody else have anything positive to say?
Well. I really like his dimples.
Thanks. People can't see it unless
(10:58):
they're watching. That's so cute, I love it.
It's just like. I've just been smiling this
whole time You guys have been talking about your like positive
last two weeks cuz I don't know it sounds fun like the whole
well and also I'm sounding because I also have thoughts
about the lilo and stitch movie,but because I haven't seen the
movie, I can't really comment onit.
I'm just chronically online and I've seen other people's takes
on it, so I'll leave my. Hopes out of that so where do I
(11:21):
fall with what you've seen online I.
Accurate. Yeah, I think most people feel
what you feel about it. Yeah, it's it's mixed feelings,
but then again, it's also one ofthose with all Disney movies
that have gone from animated to real life.
It's the same thing. There's mixed feelings.
When the real life first comes out, Jukie and I rat of it.
(11:46):
Watched it again and I've seen it about like 20 times already.
Well, we're expecting it to be too much like the original, and
you can't hear them. It's a first love situation.
Yeah, yeah. 2nd, 100%. Yeah.
Yeah. Are we ready to move on Rick,
and introduce? I think so.
I'm just thank you Sprinkles fornoticing that I, I, I told you
every. Introduce yourself.
(12:27):
Yes, hi everyone, I'm very happyto be here.
My name is Darren Ho and just a bit about myself before I get
into maybe the professional sideof things and talking about
where I work and what him is health initiative for men.
I'll maybe just introduce myselfas a person.
Absolutely, please. So I am a gay man.
I grew up here in Coquitlam. So I'm actually very happy to be
(12:49):
back here because I don't often get chances to come back to
Coquitlam. My, I now live in East Vancouver
and my parents make their way out to me to see me.
And yeah, so I grew up here in Coquitlam.
My background is in linguistics of all things.
But now I work in like public health, sexual health, HIV
(13:10):
prevention. But outside of work, I, I feel
right at home at, at this podcast studio slash home
because it's so nerdy. I'm also a geek at heart.
I love X-Men comic books, I lovevideo games.
The Switch 2 just came out and Ido like like like low level
(13:30):
amateur cosplay sometimes. Role play.
At spiders, spiders, spiders. Right there with the.
I'm a cosplay. Cool, cool, cool.
Yeah, he hasn't gotten too extreme with it yet, but yes, he
is. He's he's.
Low level. Low level.
Low level, yeah, yeah, yeah. So, so the term that I use is
closet cosplay cuz I like to notthat well, I'm like closeted
(13:50):
about it, but I tend to prefer like costumes where I can just
like pull stuff out of my closet.
Yes, to, you know, yeah. Yeah, just augment and have some
fun, yeah? Yeah, like the civilian version
of Peter Parker versus like the Spider Man.
You know I. Love that cosplay.
Fair. Yeah, I have a lot of Spiderman
cautions those things. I think it may be casual, is
that a good word? Casual.
Yeah. Casual.
Possible. Yeah, Yeah.
(14:12):
That's yeah. Look at that age term has been
coined. In this squirrel.
Hour I like. Is that cash play?
Yeah, cash play casual cosplay. There you go.
Can I talk a bit about trademark?
And register. You may talk.
You are here. Talk away, OK?
Cool. So I work at Health Initiative
for Men. The acronym is him.
So we make a lot of puns with our name.
(14:33):
Our organization, our website ischeck himout.ca And so at Health
Initiative for Men. At Health Initiative for Men,
I'm the director of Health Services.
We are an organization that began in 2008 as a response to
the HIV epidemic and kind of theways in which gay men
(14:54):
specifically were not receiving the best healthcare services in
Vancouver. And so our organization began
just to kind of bridge that gap and kind of give good competent
sexual healthcare to gay men andother men who have sex with men.
And now as the years have gone by, we've expanded our gender
(15:14):
mandate to include guys who are gay, bisexual, queer, trans
folks to spare folks and folks who are gender diverse just
knowing that HIV and sexual health effects everyone more
outside broadly than just gay men.
And so many folks might know us for for our Health Center clinic
that we have, but we also do counseling.
(15:35):
We also do social groups, we have yoga, etcetera.
But my question for you folks here, has anyone been to him
clinic him Health Center? I'm gonna go now.
I've heard of it through. I have spider pub.
All right, so myself and my hubby have both been there many
times even though I don't go as often anymore because I am on
(15:58):
prep and I am on Doxycline. So most of it's which is a
great. Talk all about that too.
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, which is a great service.
Most of my appointments now we're done on just through the
phone, which is where I get to do my first shout out because I
have a wonderful, I don't know if hubby has who you get your
phone calls from, but I'm doing my shout out to nurse Darcy
(16:21):
because Darcy is the one who usually, I typically talk to you
all the time when I get my follow up calls.
And he's just great and he's super friendly.
And whenever we talk, he's always, he remembers he's like,
oh, how are you doing? How's the podcast?
So which is really exciting because I told him, Darcy, that,
you know, Darren was coming on the episode.
Suddenly he's like, Oh my God, that's so great.
(16:43):
I'm like, you know, I'm gonna doa shout out.
You're gonna have to listen to the show to see where you are.
But he's a sweetheart, super kind and very empathic,
compassionate. And he's just he's.
I always enjoy receiving the phone call from him.
I don't think I ever have the same nurse call me twice in a
row. I I 11 call will be a female
(17:04):
nurse and the next one will be amale nurse and then a female and
then another female but different from the 1st and it's
like I never seem to have the same nurse ever call me.
Really. So I'm the only one who Darcy
calls me every time I feel so special.
I literally, yeah, I've only, I've only talked to Darcy in
like. Three years my plus and benefit
is I've never had to do an an office appointment since I've
(17:27):
been on Prep. It's all been phone well over
the phone. I have been there and again,
the, the, we've gone there many times.
It's welcoming, it's calming. That's where I met my first
appointment. I, I can't remember.
There's one real sweetheart I know a lot of it's run by
volunteers. He's an older person.
(17:50):
He usually he's the one who calls me to follow up.
He's on the main desk. The name escapes me right now
too, but we do have a lot of volunteers.
Yes, maybe Jonathan, it might be.
I know we've been there for a long time.
I've always seen him. But I, I OK, I have to do my due
diligence and extend your shadowto actually the whole team, the
whole nursing team. Absolutely.
(18:11):
Vancouver Coastal Health nursingteam, you guys are the best.
Thank you for everything that you do.
Yeah, and thank you for being sonice and kind when you call
people about their STI results. And I and I and I say that
because often times I hear feedback that's not great, you
know, and because, you know, a lot of times with like any work
situation that you're in, like you only get people complaining,
(18:33):
like, oh, the appointment list was full or the wait time was
too long or, you know, whatever the bad experience is.
So I'm really happy to hear thatyou have had such great
experiences with our nurses and that they remember you.
I but I get I I'm terrible at it.
Like whenever we go anywhere. He makes an impression, he
(18:53):
leaves an impression on everybody he talks to, so they
always remember him. Ain't nobody home.
No me from a hole in the wall. Just just call me Glory.
Wow, wow, wow. Some guys do remember that so.
Well, and This is why we love this show, because it's just
(19:15):
right down into the dark space. Which is.
Kind of exciting. So with that being said, was
there anything you'd like to share?
Well, actually you brought up Prep and Doc Z, Yes, and I do
want to talk about that because I'm not sure how familiar your
listeners might be about Prep and Doc Z.
Let's start. Can we start with Prep?
Absolutely. How about what, what, what do
(19:36):
you well, can you tell me your knowledge about Prep and how you
feel about just the whole medication?
And you know what drove you to take Prep?
Well, and what is Prep first of all?
For those of us that are on it. So there are, there is not only
there's prep, but there's also. Doxy.
Pep PEP doxycycline yes yes, so I know there's pap and prep.
(19:58):
We decided to get involved with it because being.
You know, we've been married fora long time and you know, we, we
have an open, you know, semi open relationship and we enjoy,
you know, having fun. So being when it became
available, it was in its early stages because we've been on it
for a long time now, since the very beginning.
Yeah, I have. It took him a long time to
actually convince him to go on it.
(20:19):
But to be involved with it, it was great.
I mean, Prep is a preventative medication that prevents 99.9.
It's nothing's 100 like 99.9% ofHIV taking hold.
Doesn't prevent it helps preventinfection.
So I mean, you're both correct there.
Prep stands for pre exposure prophylaxis and it's a pill that
(20:43):
you take once a day, every day. And after two weeks or so, then
your body starts developing waysto kind of block HIV the virus
if you come in contact with HIV the virus.
So the the medication itself actually, OK, I don't know if
this is like scientific or foreign for folks, but the
medication itself actually is derived from HIV medication that
(21:07):
people living with HIV have taken all their lives to be
healthy. And so Prep is kind of like the
version of it that's for HIV negative people that we take
free exposure. So like before exposure.
And then you mentioned PEP, which is post exposure
prophylaxis, that if you happen to be someone who is not on Prep
(21:29):
and you may have come into contact with HIV, that you have
72 hours to take this other typeof medication called PEP to kind
of like stop the virus from taking on.
I don't. Know anchoring.
Yeah, anchoring into your body. And so PEP has also been around
for a long time because nurses have used folks in the medical
field have used PEP for a long time in case they've come into
(21:52):
contact with HIV in their like professional practices.
OK. But also it's a bit confusing
because now there's this newer thing called Doxy PEP, which OK,
so Prep P exposure prophylaxis and PEP is both for the
prevention of HIV. And now we have this new
medication that we take called Doxy PEP that's for doxycycline
(22:12):
and it's for syphilis and chlamydia.
So not all STI's but like 2 of. The more common, the more
common. Yeah, and, and the reason why
it's Doxy pap is because it's also a pill that you take after
you think that you may have beenexposed to STI's, correct?
So what a time to be alive. And and that's what we do.
What? A time to have sex.
(22:33):
I know and and like we have it and, and it's great and it's
really, we are blessed being in Canada and blessed being here
because it is all covered for free.
Yes, that's right. Well covered.
Under MSP MSP but we don't. Technically isn't.
Our taxes pay that. MSP.
Yeah. OK.
So our employers pay for it. Lame.
(22:54):
OK, fine. Just a random question there.
So after what you've said Prep, does that just focus on HIV or
does that also work to on the other St. is as well?
That's a great question because this is a kind of a
misconception that if you take Prep, then you don't need to
worry about a lot of other St. is.
(23:16):
But Prep is only for HIV, Only for HIV.
And so if you are, you know, worried about syphilis,
chlamydia, gonorrhea, HPV, things like that, you would have
to take other steps like use condoms, get the HPV vaccine,
you know, talk to your partner about their status, correct?
Things like that. Yeah.
(23:37):
Which is why I'm on the Doxycline.
You know, prep and Doxycline both are covered, which is why
we get we get both of those. So I know Spider just had
mentioned that he's on Prep and the Doxy, yes, is Prep and Doxy,
does that cover like the whole spectrum or just the HIV?
(24:01):
So what was it? Syphilis and gonorrhea.
Yes, that's right. So I mean that HIV, syphilis,
gonorrhea are very common. I mean, I don't know if it's
very common, but there are common STI's, but you know, it's
still possible. I mean, OK, so that taking prep
and taking doxy is 2 big steps already.
So it's, I don't want to sound like I'm shaming people like
(24:22):
you're not doing enough because you're not covered for like
herpes and HPV and chlamydia, chlamydia or like syphilis, you
know, like, you know, like, you know, every step that you take
is a lot already. But but yeah, I mean, there's
also gonorrhea, which doxy does not cover.
There were some like research that thought that maybe doxy
could also help you prevent gonorrhea, but now we find that
(24:42):
it does not. Yeah, already.
Yeah, thank you for sharing. It's very educational, very
cool. Right, that that that the more
you. Know actually, but but I will
say that that the one tool that does cover most like 99% of
STI's are condoms. And I feel like such like, you
know an old fashioned nerd saying that, but condoms are
still one of the best ways to protect yourself from STI's.
(25:05):
Like, if you don't know, like, like, oh, there's so many, like
technological advances, all these pills, what is what if it
gets too confusing, I mean, you could default to comments.
I know it's not the funnest thing to say.
No, no, no, absolutely understandable.
And thank you for clarifying that because I am definitely one
of probably the millions that are out there that are under the
misinterpretation that Prep basically protects you from
(25:29):
everything. I was actually not fully aware
that it was just for HIV. Now I know which obviously HIV
is the worst of them all. You know, but again, like I
said, that's why we have it today, which is why I'm happy to
have you on the show today and hopefully a lot of our listeners
learn from today and learn something new from this episode.
(25:50):
What are the side effects, if there are any?
Yeah, the side effect of prep are, that's a very good question
because a lot of people are concerned to start Prep because
of the side effects. I will say that the side effects
are very minor. So they're things like nausea,
headache, they're kind of like the the side effects that you
would get from taking like pillsin general if you're not used to
(26:11):
it because it is a pill that youhave to take once a day, every
day for a while for it to work. But yeah, I don't think there's
very like there's a lot of like the major side effects.
However, Prep is very similar tothe medication PEP, the one that
you take after exposure, the oneyou have like you have 72 hours
and you take this and then and then you don't have to worry
(26:32):
about like HIV latching onto your blood cells.
PEP, however, is super harsh on your body, yes, because it's
like all of the HIV medication concentrated trying to like
fight off the HIV in your body within a short amount of time.
So that one you will feel like super fatigue.
Some people vomit like super nausea.
(26:54):
I don't even know what the medical terms.
I call it super nausea, a super headache, but it's, well, yeah,
it's a lot harder in your body. So yeah, prep versus PEP prep is
definitely less harsh on your body in terms of side effects.
Yeah, so it almost. Sounds like the Plan B in a way.
Yes, actually, that is a good way to think about it.
It's kind of like your morning after pill versus my gosh, it's
(27:14):
blank. What's the 1 you could take
birth control pill versus morning after?
Literally just gonna that just proved he was gay.
I was. Literally just gonna say that
this sounds a lot like birth control in the morning after.
Yeah. And it's exactly it.
Yeah. But you know what they're
really, they're really great because when you're on the
program and you do the one a daylike we are, you have to go
(27:37):
every three months and you have to get a clean bill of health
before you get a prescription filled.
You need to get your blood work done.
They take a full on STI test. You have the swabs, they test
your liver, they test to make sure that there's no damage to
you and they monitor it. So it's a great program.
And can I ask, do have the nurses ever explained to you why
they go through all of that? Absolutely.
(27:59):
Can you? Explain like it's been a long
time. It's never been explained to me.
Honestly, I just, I go in and I get stabbed every three months
and a week later I get a phone call saying, yeah, all your
results are negative, we'll renew your prescription for
another 90 days. So yeah, I'll shed some light
here. The reason why the process is so
thorough like that is because wewant to make sure that if you're
(28:22):
continuing to use Prep, that in the mean like in the meanwhile,
you hadn't seroconverted, so youhadn't become HIV positive.
Because if you had become HIV positive and you continue to
take Prep, Prep because it's a form of HIV medication, your
body might start building immunity to HIV medication if
(28:42):
you were HIV positive. And so kind of the reason why I
guess the main, one of the main reasons why we have to keep
checking like, are you HIV negative?
Because that's like the biggest eligibility criteria for Prep is
to make sure that you know the medication that you're taking is
still like the correct medication for your body.
Right. So just out of curiosity, why if
(29:05):
every three months when we go into get our, you know, blood work
done and do the swabs and everything else, why isn't it
just basically an HIV blood testas opposed to the full spectrum?
That's a bit of a more complicated question.
I don't know if I have a full answer to that other than I feel
like it's just good to do that and every three months is.
(29:27):
I mean, I don't get me wrong, I'm perfectly OK with getting a
full spectrum done every three months knowing that I'm clean
and negative across the. Board some, there are some
places that don't do that and I think like if the like the
clinic or nurses have capacity to do the full spectrum testing,
they might offer and they will. But I feel like maybe in some
(29:47):
more like smaller urban areas where it's just like nurses are
more at. Capacity not readily available.
Yeah, then it's just the HIV does.
Fair enough. I've always assumed that it's, I
always tell people like, you know, again, it's just a good
practice. They just want to make sure that
you're clean, you know, have a clean bill of health across the
board. So there's nothing, there's no
negative to it. It's nothing but positive.
(30:09):
It's great knowing that your, your status and I'm very happy
because in the community becausethat it's not, you know, there's
no cost to it anymore, you know,to individual costs.
You know, there are so many people, I think 90% of everyone
we've talked to in the community, they were like,
they're on prep. Like we went to a camping trip
(30:31):
and we went there and someone forgot their prep at home and
they were, and they had doxycline, whatever.
And you know, there's a lot of fun activity.
And he said he's like, oh, hey, I forgot my prep at home.
I forgot my doxycline. He's like, oh, I have some.
And it was like. Everybody threw up their hands.
Everyone like, oh, which one areyou on?
Are you? On I love this community, I love
the queer community, I love how we're all there for each other.
(30:51):
Isn't that great? Like they literally all they're
like, oh, I have extra. So it was, it was again, it's
great. It's an amazing, you know.
Like trading Pokémon cards. I have one.
I have one. It's a It's a lot of fun.
Rick said it took, it took a while for me to get onto Prep
myself. He was, Rick was onto it for
(31:13):
about almost two years before I got onto it.
Yeah, My biggest fear was prior to me getting onto Prep, me
prior to the, you know, general ER, wherever medical clinics for
STI and HIV testing was prior to.
(31:47):
Invasive. Barbaric.
Thank you, Jukie. Invasive.
I mean it, it was not pleasant. I'm not going to lie.
This is straight up truth. The first time I ever got went
in and got my St. IS and HIV tested they took what
looked like a microscopic toiletbrush.
(32:09):
Yeah. And shoved it down my urethra.
For those of you who don't know,the that is the exit hole of the
penis shoved it down there, twisted it, and then yanked it
out. It wasn't a pleasant experience.
I don't feel so bad about pap smears anymore.
So that was we're good the firsttime.
(32:32):
But not sounding. That was like the first time I
ever went and got tested for, you know, AIDS, HIV, all the
STI's and everything else. And it was traumatizing because
back then it was about 2 1/2 weeks waiting for any results to
come in. It was a long it was a very
(32:53):
stressful time to be around Sprinkles.
You have your hands up and you have a question.
First of all, thank you for offering these safe spaces for
men to do this and sorry about your your experience but I just
feel like. Traumatizing.
If that's the reason why men don't get tested is because of
how invasive this is, it's not because of irresponsibility.
It was not anymore. It was.
(33:15):
Now all I have to do is pee in acup, maybe stick a cotton swab
up the rear end and down the throat.
Not the same one, love. Not not the same swab.
I thought the same thing. Not the same one.
However, I have heard horror stories because sometimes the
people opt to do a self swab andyou know, there's like people
(33:36):
are nervous, you know, there's not much room in the bathroom
stall. You know, they mix up the swab.
Yeah, I I've, I've heard horror.Stories.
Yeah. OK, so there's there's two
separate swabs, one for the throat, one for the rear end.
Then you go to the to the clinic.
Rick and I go to Life Labs. Yeah, they draw the blood like I
taste 98 vials of blood. I don't think they leave
(33:58):
anything left. And then you pee in a cup and
you're good to. Go All right, And with that
being said, moving on, let's getto the actual questions that all
the cast, because we're like halfway through the show.
Let's get on to the actual questions that the cast prepared
for Darren prior to this episode.
(34:19):
For the record, I didn't prepareany questions whatsoever.
These were questions as just kind of spawned off of what he
was going off of. Well, most of the policies for
that, that's OK. Most of the questions we already
like. The reason why we do 2 episodes
is because a lot of times if we do not cover everything in the
first episode, we can get the carry over for the next one.
The very beginning of the next one, because any later than that
(34:39):
and we'll never get to it. Yeah.
So with that being said, which of the questions would you like
to answer? Was everyone's.
Prepared Yeah, thanks for emailing me some questions
before we start. OK, so a lot of the questions we
were like some of the questions were related to my work, but the
one that I was like Oh my God, Iwant to talk about this.
You got someone asked like what my favorite music is?
(35:01):
Yeah, thank you, whoever asked that.
That was. T Wait, no, I know it was J rod
dash music. T bones are different when you
say. Yeah, yeah.
Well, I. Appreciate that just because
oftentimes I talk about sexual health and condoms, Prep,
whatever, but this is like a break that I got to.
OK, so. Good job, J Rod.
I really love Tegan and Sarah and OK, yes, they are OK.
(35:24):
So I love rock, alternative indie folk and synth like synth
is kind of like this like new thing that I'm kind of it's not
new, but like I've I like I'm getting into it.
New to you synth pop? Synth rock?
I didn't know that one. Not Star.
Wars related. No, no for.
Like for like churches? It's a really fun synth.
Yeah, Oh my God, I love churchestoo.
We'll talk later. I got Lauren's solo album.
(35:46):
We talk later. We'll talk later.
Awesome. Amazing.
Yes. But yeah.
OK, so T and Sarah, they really helped me get through with the
pandemic, listening to their music and there was like this.
They have this really they have a big fan base, but one of their
fans goes to a lot of their concerts and just records Tegan
and Sarah, the lesbian sisters, not a couple.
They they record them like banter on stage and throughout
(36:09):
the pandemic, late at night, I would just listen to Tegan and
Sarah's banter on stage. And you know what?
Actually that's very podcast of them pre podcast era.
They just batch her on stage. They're sisters.
So they're yelling at each otherand mad at each other and then
they batch her and then they sing.
My God, they're sisters. I know that person that does
that because I've done Baby Yoda.
(36:31):
I've done Baby Yoda videos with your friends banter Tegan and
Sarah in the background for my baby or Instagram so I know that
girl. OK, Yeah.
We talk. Later.
OK, cool. They're not twins, right?
They're just. Sisters.
They are twins. They're identical twins.
They are twins and they're sisters and they're lesbians and
they make amazing music. Yeah, I've never actually seen a
picture of Tegan and Sarah. I do enjoy their music, but I
(36:52):
actually thought they were not sisters, they were just.
Yeah, I didn't know. They were besties.
Yeah. I feel like they're definitely
not lesbian lovers. I never ever would have thought
that. I just thought they were
besties. If you like Tegan and Sarah,
there's a really good book abouttheir autobiography from High.
School I've read it of. Course my God, the logger story
we talk later. And and and the TV show that
(37:13):
they made, yes. Yeah.
Yeah. All right.
Next question. All right, moving on, moving on.
I know, I know. I'm like, I'm I got to keep the
show moving because there's a lot of questions.
Well done. What is the next?
I don't remember. I don't remember the other
question. Someone asked how to.
Yeah, don't worry. But the other question I asked
was what song you could listen to on repeat that may have been
(37:34):
the longest. AI is gonna have a hell of a
time, that one. Currently it's You are Always on
My Mind by the Pet Shop Boys. Cool.
OK, we talk later. OK, I have the 45 of that with
remix. We talked later.
Does anybody else remember theirquestion?
I do. But mine were answered and they
were about. And mine as well again.
So that's the nice thing about it.
(37:55):
We knew this was going to happen.
Spirit animal. Ebone always has an apple.
Did you say a Pet Shop Boys? Is that the band?
Yeah. Someone he's looking at.
Someone on the list I remember reading there's a question like
how did I get involved with the work that I do now?
Yeah, that was me, I think. That was mine.
Okay, I'll tell all of us. Story that was mine.
(38:16):
I'm always interested in how youstarted.
How did you get involved with Health Initiative for Men or HEM
Clinic? And yeah, so here's the thing.
I don't have a medical background.
I'm not a nurse by trade. I don't have any medical
training and like I said, my background in university, I went
to SFU for linguistics. So I taught English as a second
(38:37):
language or additional language for many years.
But but how I got to him is through just volunteering in the
gay community, in the like gay men's health community, queer
men's health community as it's called now or queer people's
health community. And so I, I did a lot of like
leadership. I did a couple of leadership
training workshops and programs and things like that.
(39:00):
And then, and yeah, I've just worked in other nonprofit
organizations that have a focus on HIV education, Youth Coach.
Shout out to them for being one of the ones that taught me a lot
about HIV when I was younger. And then I just kind of like
volunteered, worked slash, worked my way to where I am now.
Awesome. Thank you for sharing.
(39:21):
Again. It's always nice to know where
the beginnings and you know how you became involved with with
that. Your your position is.
Director of Health Service. I know it sounds so important
so. Where so Daddy.
Daddy. So on that note, now that you've
said that, where, where would you stand per SE on the totem
pole of him? So him we OK, so I have to say
(39:45):
that we try to like run on this like non hierarchical leadership
structure. So we have a board of directors
and then we have an executive director who is my boss.
The executive director has two people reporting to him.
One of them is me, director of health services and also
director of programs. So a little bit about that
because him is more than just a health clinic.
(40:07):
We also do like health campaigns, like all of the bus
ads that you see about like at your Prep or.
Or epox is still around etcetera, etcetera.
That's also us. And then Director of Health
programs does all of our social programmings that we do, our
support programs, counseling folks who are into PNP, which is
party and play Kem sex, that kind of stuff.
There's a lot that happens and without the health initiative
(40:29):
for men, like the Health Initiative for men, Hem Clinic
is just an amazing organization.And you know, just again, thank
you not only to yourself, but everybody that's involved.
Yeah, I want to thank them too, because as a young gay person
living or growing up in Coquitlam, I also used him
services growing up and they were amazing.
And I and I also had like the same like, like really like
(40:53):
positive experiences with nursesthat made me feel like, OK, it's
like gay sex is not that scary after all.
Yeah, it's it's just, yeah, the experience has been amazing.
From the nurses to everybody at the front to the back of house.
It just, you know, shout out to everybody that's in the
organization. What are we?
Sorry, believe it or not, I actually have another question.
(41:16):
I feel like sprinkles right now.It's awesome.
So I have been approached by coworkers and friends, straight
coworkers and straight friends inquiring about getting tested
for STI's and HIV and AIDS and everything else.
And you know, if they're if the if the men are basically
(41:39):
eligible for getting involved with the prep situation.
I basically told him, I said I can't answer that.
All I can do is say get in contact with him clinic and if
they will, they will point in the right direction.
Now, is him open to straight menas well?
OK, this is a very nuanced question, so I have to take my
(42:01):
time to answer this. The short answer is yes, kind
of, but also no. So, so OK, so we we.
A cat mindset. Yes, so you know, our medic, we
serve more than just gay men. It's gay, bisexual, queer, trans
men included, and some trans menmight identify as straight.
(42:22):
And you are more than welcome towalk through the hand clinic
doors and get our services. In those cases, Prep is
available kind of regardless of how you identify because it more
with the eligibility for Prep ismore so your practices.
So so for many nuanced reasons, there may be some men out there
(42:43):
who might not identify as gay orbisexual.
Perhaps they're closeted or they're partnered with a woman
and you know, the identity is just not as close to them.
So then they don't identify as gay or bisexual, but they have
sex with men and in those cases they would be eligible for Prep.
OK, but I have to make the also the nuance clarification that
(43:04):
our HIM clinics, we have one in Vancouver, one in commercial, we
have one in Surrey once a week and sometimes one in amateur.
Our appointment and our wait times are often full.
And so we have to prioritize ourcommunity of gay, bisexual,
queer men, trans people and gender diverse people.
(43:28):
And so if you are someone who could get services like testing
services somewhere else and you feel safe and comfortable
getting those services somewhereelse, and maybe like a queer
competent, a nurse is not something that you are looking
for and like just any random oldnurse can do because maybe
you're not a good person, then Iwould say please don't take up
(43:49):
our appointment slots because our nurses have limited slots.
But that's a great answer. Thank you because.
That's true. That's a very good answer.
That's that. That is what I told them.
I'd I'd tell them I'd be like, well, yeah, I deal with the hem
clinic being a gay person, I said.
But all I can tell you to do is contact them and they could
(44:11):
point in the right direction to somebody.
Yeah, we could definitely refer folks.
There's yeah, there's lots of helpful, competent.
But you guys would never actually turn away per say
somebody. Just because it should.
We have not yet started to do that.
However, we are getting feedbackthat a lot of folks are not able
(44:34):
to make appointments or the walkin is always full, things like
that. So we are trying to adjust the
way that we talk about who our clinic is for.
So basically. Be respectful of a community
that's maybe in more of need, because I do realize that
somebody who is straight, I do have a lot of gay friends and
they're not a lot of gay resources or LGBT resources.
(44:56):
So thank you for that. And sometimes I don't feel
comfortable or they're just not good at it when it's outside of
the community for that. So I guess it's a matter of
respect of just making sure thatthe need is there for the
specific community. Yeah, for sure.
But also like we are more than just a clinic.
So if you see us like with a booth at a Pride or where, you
(45:17):
know, we're just like giving outwhatever, like, yeah, come, come
up, whoever you are, however youlike, chat with us, talk to us
about harm reduction, ask questions, things like that.
Yeah. See you at.
Yeah, See you at Pride. Yeah.
Yeah, we're excited, T-bone. You got a question, aside from
your involvement with this community and all the great work
you're doing. Thank you.
What is a big passion of yours? Is there a passion?
(45:39):
The passion question. That's what it was, music and
passion. I forgot the tube mixed up.
And spirit animals. Yes.
OK, can someone else tell me their passion while I think of
mine? Music.
PDSM. Wow, that went from light
hearted and sunshine to. X-rated.
The back alley triple. X the ball busting what?
(46:02):
About and mine is podcasting andpodcasting.
Mine's crafting. You're definitely crafting.
My passion is just getting to the next day at work and dealing
with whatever my husband has purchased.
Disney. Disney is your passion.
And volunteering, yes. And smoking.
That's why I got excited about you when you said Pet Shop Boys.
(46:23):
Do you have a cassette player? No, I do, but I probably haven't
used it. And I'm I'm, I'm born in the
80s. I'm a 90s kid so yes.
You need help repairing it because I can hook you up with
tapes. It's easy.
OK, we'll talk. VHS Head cleaner we all know.
Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, just wipe that on the reading head and I clean it up.
Do not want to waste my poppers on on technology that would
(46:47):
never be. Your VHS Head cleaner, I don't
know what you're talking. About Thank, thank goodness
you're here. You know the name.
I watch VHS tapes. I've got head cleaner if you
need all. Right.
Well. All gay men have VHS Head
cleaners. You have a very beautiful smile.
Smile by the. Way.
Thank you very. Contagious.
Thank you. Thank you.
OK, So my passion I, OK, I'm gonna give 2 answers.
(47:09):
I really love like nerdy fandom things as I've said.
So I am passionate about like like being more integrated into
those fandoms like Avatar the Last Airbender or Marvel X-Men,
things like that, like that kindof stuff.
That's like my nerd passion and then and then my not so nerdy
passion. I mean, it's still nerdy for
some people. I really OK the the community
(47:32):
that's within the queer community that I really care
about that's really near and dear to me is the queer people
of color community. And I am passionate about, you
know, bringing more visibility to queer people of color in
Vancouver and the Lower Mainland.
And just like, supporting like the.
Party in general, yeah. Everywhere in general, like
supporting, you know, the parties that they throw, the,
(47:55):
you know, the artsy things that we all do, things like.
That well, maybe in the future you said you knew some
individuals that might enjoy being on the podcast and
expressing that So if you had noothers people of the community
of color that want to be on the podcast for.
Sure. We would love to have them on.
(48:15):
OK, cool. That's what this show wants to
be about, is to express and givepeople the ability to have that
platform and we would love to have them on.
OK. One last final question from me,
I promise. Good, cuz you got 5 minutes.
Cuz this this may or may or may not determine whether or not
you're invited back. Wow, pressure.
(48:37):
Ouch. Star Trek or Star Wars?
OK I know I'm not gonna be invited back cuz my answer is
neither. No, I still.
You're fine. We knew the question.
We already knew this question. OK, I'm but but in that genre.
Voltron legendary defender. I'd love Voltron.
Good job. Voltron was great.
(48:59):
I'm too young for Voltron. That's a Mario one.
Go ahead, J Rod. It's not Marvel or DC.
Marvel 100. Percent.
OK, now that's. More Bruce Springsteen or Billy
Joel. I think Billy Joel.
OK, can you be my best friend because you like OK?
(49:20):
I feel like that last question was a more controversial
question. Your favorite?
I. Know my favorite ice man, right?
Thank you for the question of favorite X-Men.
My favorite X-Men is Kitty pride, shadow cat.
She faces through walls. Ice.
Ice Man. OK, I'm going to quickly get the
shout outs because we only have a couple of minutes left.
We want to make sure it's available for the YouTube
channel. We want to make thank all our
(49:43):
listeners, make sure and of course that we always finish an
episode with that. It's OK not to be OK.
It's the importance of mental health matters.
If you need anybody reach out, please reach out to us.
There are many resources out there on the web.
We have the national 988 Number International.
It's available in the states as.Well it is and we have, you
(50:03):
know, the Foundry BC, we have the BC crisis, we have the HM
Clinic. These are all advertised.
We do a shout out and before we guessed would Darren like to
create the secret word because Ihave a loving group of puppies
international which I love this stinky pop my little pack.
But we always throw in a secret word that they must listen and
(50:28):
they need to read it back to me to make sure that they they.
Listen to the episode. OK, OK, today's secret word is
poppers. Perfect choice.
Beautiful. We'll have a second secret word
for. Yeah, we do a second.
One for after dark. That's great and we always love
it cuz all of a sudden I'll justget random messages and I'm like
(50:48):
last week was purple so I just got a message and like purple.
On that note, shout out to the stinky pups, Billy Tegel, Ellos
handler Chase. We love y'all Miss y'all.
Can't wait to meet half of you. Yeah, so we've known them and
they're together. They're family to us right at
this point. So we were excited.
We're gonna finish up this episode.
Love peas and chicken grease. I gotta pee.
(51:10):
Yeah, we're gonna wrap this up, take a 15 minute break, reset,
do some processing, editing, andthen we will be back for the
next episodes. My husband's episode, Squirrels
After Dark, which is complete, absolute chaos.
Chaos complete, complete love explosion.
All right, you kids, we will love you all.
We will be back momentarily. Take a break.
(51:31):
Grab your drink. Rare.
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