BootmanLA

Well, luckily, neither you nor I would have to make that decision, because it's up to the discretion of the local ecclesiastical authorities (and I presume that you, like me, are not one of those). It depends on circumstances, and that's not a difficult concept to grasp. From another realm entirely, for example: A man is standing on my front porch. Can I just pull out a gun and shoot him, legally? No, I can't. But if he pulls a knife and makes moves to stab me, yes, I can. Circumstances. The example I keep coming back to, for ecclesiastical blessings of a same-sex union, would be where one partner is ill or disabled, and the other is taking care of him, and they seek the Church's support. It's a case where, theoretically, the priest can ignore the fact that this is a pair of men having sex and focus on blessing the bond between them that allows one to care for the other (which is a Christ-like thing to do on the part of the non-ill/disabled partner). Not all cases will be that easy, of course, but that's why the Pope is directing people away from formulaic rules and focusing on the specifics of a particular situation. Circumstances.

I'm not sure when this magical time that you think Obama got "everything" he wanted from voters was. Please clarify. When Obama took office in 2009, it was with a Senate that had 59 Democrats - one short of the number needed to overcome any filibuster. Mitch McConnell made it clear, even before inauguration, that the Republican minority would block anything and everything that Obama proposed - with the exception of a handful of bills related to recovering from the ongoing GOP-initiated Great Recession. It took until July 7, 2009 for the legal challenges to the Minnesota election to be resolved, putting Al Franken in the Senate (giving the Democrats the ability to move legislation without Republican support). That lasted about three weeks, until Congress went on its customary August break, during which time Ted Kennedy died, leaving the Democrats with 59 votes again. Kennedy's replacement, Scott Brown, was appointed and took office on September 24, 2009. The Democrats again had between then and February 4, 2010 - when Republican Scott Brown, elected in the special election to replace Kennedy, took over the seat. Given the regular flow of holiday breaks, etc., this second period of 60 Senators on the Democratic side actually involved only about 5 weeks of actual legislative activity, Combine that with the 3 weeks in July, and you're at roughly 2 months - TOTAL - when Obama and the Democrats held enough of a majority to pass anything. That's the facts. Despite those headwinds, we got the stimulus bill out (which itself was crippled because some Democrats didn't want it to be as big as the president wanted) and the ACA - which also was limited because some Democrats insisted on gutting some major provisions. The problem is not and was not the party. The problem is that certain members of the party don't support the party's aims because it's not advantageous for them, politically.

You'll need at least a few weeks before any sort of test has a positive reaction. You'll need longer for a quality test that can confirm definitively whether you've been infected. In the interim: assuming you are NOT seeking to get pozzed, the solution is to avoid unprotected sex until you can get those confirming tests and they come back negative at least 45-60 days out (to allow time for any infection to manifest itself). Sucks, but if you keep having unprotected sex in the meantime, you won't know if that was the sex that pozzed you, or maybe some later sex act. And once you've confirmed you're negative, then get on PrEP so you don't go through this. You say "just had" an encounter: if it was within the last 48 hours, you could seek PEP (Post-Exposure Prophylaxis), which prevents any infection from taking hold by hitting it with medication before you're stuck with it. But 48 hours is really the outside time limit; it's most effective within a few hours of sex, and the effectiveness diminishes over time. At 48 hours it's still more likely to work than not, but.... If you ARE trying to get pozzed, then your discussion belongs in the Bug-Chasing area, not the health area.

This is true, but again, in US politics at least, conservatives try mightily to equate lack of support for (the current government of) Israel with anti-Semitism - if you're not in favor of whatever Israel does/wants, you must hate the Jews. They've oversimpified the issue such that anyone opposed to anything Netanyahu does is one step from Nazism. I wouldn't count on that. I doubt seriously that Netanyahu gives a fig about rebuilding Gaza. Remember that the extremists on his side (not in his party but in the parties with whom he consistently aligns) believe Gaza and the West Bank and the Golan Heights should be part of a vastly-majority-Israeli state. There is no room, in their conception, for several million Palestinians on that land. (To be fair, there are extremists in the Palestinian camp who see no room for a Jewish state in the region, either; but the difference at this point is, one side has most of the guns and missiles and bombs, all of the planes, and the US military's credit card at its disposal. And I don't think the Biden administration really has any plan for how to rebuild Gaza. We haven't been able to convince Netanyahu to stop building new settlements in the West Bank. further carving up territory that was (for decades) envisioned as a Palestinian state. How we're going to convince him to spend money to actually repair the damage in Gaza is beyond me.

Cheating, by definition, always is, because it concerns breaking the rules the two people have set up for themselves. It's not a legal case, where you can go to the statutes and look up what constitutes cheating and what doesn't. Which is why I'm asking if he's discussed what his husband thinks. It may be that his fears of cheating are unfounded because his husband would give his blessing to outside play. It may be that they're well founded because his partner expects strict monogamy. But he won't know where, if anywhere, they fall along the spectrum between those two positions without communication.

It's definitely *possible*. It's not highly likely, but there are a lot of factors that would be at play to determine the risk. If a top fucks you while he has any sort of cut, abrasion, or whatever on his cock, his risk is higher because of a more direct means for HIV to enter his system. If a top fucks you right after the unmedicated poz guys fucks you, he's at a higher risk than someone who fucks you hours later. It's certainly better for the non-poz tops if they don't fuck you at the same time as an unmedicated poz guy, but the odds of infection are still somewhat low - just not zero, and certainly not "negligible". One alternative might be to only let the poz guy(s) go last. Another thing to remember: you don't know what the status of any other top is. He can say he's on PrEP, he's UD, whatever, but you can't KNOW that for certain. That said, I think any top who barebacks in a bathhouse or sauna or whatever probably has to know the risks.

A few points: 1. You say "he is getting older" but as far as I know, given linear time, that means you're getting older too, right? I get that you're a lot younger, but still. 2. Regardless, it's certainly a thing that some people lose libido earlier and faster than others, and it's unsurprising (if not guaranteed) that your husband would be farther along that path than you are, given the age gap. 3. Have you thought about asking him what he thinks y'all should do about it?

Considering the last part was posted over a year ago, I would not hold your breath waiting, unless blue is your favorite color.

It's possibly real (I imagine a cock would show up on a sonogram in someone's ass, depending on the angle) but honestly, it seems kind of... overly clinical? ... to me.

Based on him calling himself "Tradie" and referring to "mates", I'd say he's either in the UK or Australia.

"script" is also used here, but it's short (both here and in the UK) for "prescription", ie a doctor prescribes a medication via a prescription.

Good reminder to folks! "Rx" is derived from the Latin "recipere" - the verb meaning "to take". If you still get any paper prescriptions, you may see "Rx" pre-printed on the prescription pad, and the doctor adds the name of the drug, the dosage, and how often it should be taken, sometimes along with the designation "PRN", which is short for the Latin "pro re nata", or "as the thing is needed". Things like antibiotics don't get prescribed "PRN", but drugs that relieve symptoms (like pain meds, gastro meds, etc.) often are - they'll have a limit suggested like "every 4-6 hours" but then add "as needed" - so you don't have to take the pain med if you don't need it.

I will clarify this: It's not that Johnson doesn't necessarily have a bank account. Rather, the disclosure rules require disclosure of any bank accounts which have had a certain balance over the reporting period. I believe that amount is $1,000, but I'm not sure whether that's "Balance at least $1,000 at any point in the quarter/year/whatever" or "An average balance over the period of at least $1,000" or "A balance of $1,000 for the entire period covered in the report." Depending on what the rules actually require, he could keep, say, $800-900 in his checking account but routinely spend his entire paycheck on whatever - mortgage, loan/credit card payments, food, etc. And further clarifying this: if, in fact, Johnson lives paycheck to paycheck, that means he could be under some financial pressures, possibly overextended (ie lives high on the hog with a fancy house and cars he can't afford). Those are prime worry spots for, say, national security, because financial vulnerability is not infrequently the reason some people become ensnared with foreign agents. If you're desperate for cash (not even necessarily to survive, but to live the way you want to live), foreign money from dubious sources can look very attractive. See, for instance, Donald Trump and Russia; Donald Trump and Saudi Arabia; Jared Kushner and Qatar; Jared Kusher and Saudi Arabia; Ivanka Trump and China.

Considering you have virtually nothing filled out in your profile, I'm not sure why you're surprised that people aren't falling all over themselves trying to contact you. But again, as @viking8x6 noted, this isn't a hook-up site, and if that's what you're looking for, I'd use the DISCUSSION sections of this site - its primary purpose - to find discussions about which sites might be better suited for your needs. I realize you may not have understood this, but basically this is like going into a Chinese restaurant and complaining that they don't serve lasagna.

You know that even in Texas, you can use a VPN connection located in a state that isn't blocked, right? There are free VPN services, but as with anything "free" online, if you're not paying for it, you're not the customer, you're the product (meaning they're collecting data of some sort about you to sell). I use NordVPN, which is a little more expensive than some services, but it's highly rated for privacy concerns.

At this point the general assumption among politicos is that Johnson basically lives paycheck to paycheck. He apparently has a very nice house in Benton, Louisiana - which is a pissant little place so for the dollar range of the value of the house he reported, it is either a huge house or on a great deal of property. But he has a high mortgage debt on the property as well, so it's very possible he never has more than a few thousand dollars in his account at any given point. He has significant liabilities (read: debt) in addition to his mortgage, and while his salary as a congressman has been substantial, he's only been doing that since 2017; prior to that, he was an attorney in private practice mostly representing the ADF, plus a state legislator here (which pays less than $25,000). And of course, he's got to keep a place in DC to live as well as the house back in his district. The high cost of housing in DC is one reason several members sleep in their offices and shower in the House gym. The government provides limited funding for travel to/from one's home district, but anything above that is the responsibility of the member and/or his campaign, and until recently, Johnson had never raised significant campaign money either, so most of what he did raise probably went for expenses like that. It's of course possible that he's got secret slush funds of money out there somewhere. But I think the more logical answer is, he's just a spendthrift who doesn't practice any discipline regarding savings.

Not necessarily. In most states, there are programs that pay the health insurance premiums for uninsured persons who become HIV+ (part of the Ryan White Act funding). For instance, in Louisiana, if you have an income low enough to qualify for our expanded Medicaid program (basically, less than $17,000/year), you'll get enrolled on expanded Medicaid with copays, etc. covered by the program. If you make between that amount and (roughly) $48,000, they will pay for a silver-level individual plan on the federal marketplace - here, it's almost certainly going to be Blue Cross - as well as coverage for dental. They also cover the copays, deductible, and out-of-pocket max under the individual policy. The program covers the individual policy even in some cases where the person could get coverage through his work, depending on what percentage of the person's income would have to go to pay for the employer-sponsored plan. I'm sure the details vary from state to state but I am pretty sure every state has something similar for HIV+ people. Providing that coverage, which encourages people to become undetectable, is a key part of the federal government's efforts to control the spread of HIV, which (along with PrEP) is one reason new infections have fallen so dramatically over the last 15-20 years. Again, of course that's talking about cost to the individual, not the cost to the government or the system. As they say, there isn't any such thing as a free lunch. But in terms of costs, an HIV- uninsured person may not be able to access PrEP cheaply or free; an HIV+ uninsured person can almost certainly get insured at no cost, at least in the United States.

Correct - again, UNLESS there was some provable connection between the two.

This is true, but again, there are a significant number of people in this country who do not have health insurance, and for them, PrEP is not free (unless they qualify for some program sponsored by their state or by the drug manufacturer).

I'll relate an anecdote about this kind of thing. Many, many years ago, in my mid-30's, I was playing with an older guy who claimed to be a very inexperienced bottom with no interest in topping. I told him we'd be limited to toys, and he was fine with that. So he was on all fours, and I got out my smallest plug - I'd say the cock part was smaller than the average guy, and it had a base that was about five inches long and about an inch and a half wide - something that should be somewhat easy for an "inexperienced bottom" to take but easy to control. Well. I lubed it up and went to slide it in, and the shaft of the plug slid in like a hot knife into butter, going its full depth with the slightest of pushes. Barely a reaction on the part of Mr. Inexperienced. So I figured maybe wiggling it a little so it rubbed against his prostate might get a bit of reaction. When I put the slightest pressure on the base, his ass just sucked the entire thing in, base and all. I told him that it should easily come back out, but I'd have to slide fingers into grab it and hope the base would collapse in reverse on the way out, the way it had just folded up going in. Two fingers in him couldn't reach it. But then again, two fingers didn't seem to cause the slightest distress for his anus, either. So I pushed up with my four fingers, tightly close together, figuring I could grab it better. Next thing I know, everything but my thumb is inside him, and the plug is working its way deeper. So I retracted a bit, added my thumb, and slid into him with virtually no pressure whatsoever - and I was able to grab the plug and pull it back out with my hand. Mr. Very Inexperienced Bottom did not seem to grasp that I could tell he was accustomed to a lot more than my little toy going inside him. I told him we could either switch to the big toys or we could call it an evening. He chose the latter, apparently determined to maintain the image he'd created for himself.

What strikes me as especially silly about the OP's phrasing of the question is the focus on bulges in sports uniforms. Is the OP unaware that many, if not most, higher-level athletes wear special padding or cups to protect their genitals during play?

Far be it from me to suggest anything about your intelligence, but I will say your observational skills seem to be, well, suspect. I normally won't even engage with assholes who insist on calling it the "Democrat Party" (knowing full well that the name of the party is the Democratic Party, but "Democrat Party" somehow sounds...sinister, I suppose). But if you're going to "stand for" Republikkklans" who will "back America and Israel", be specific about what you think "backing America" means. For the GOP, it means tax cuts for the wealthy while increasing taxes on the working classes. It means cutting more out of our already tattered and fragile safety net. Unlike most people on this site, I've known Mike Johnson for years, and I can assure you he is a snake. A snake in a very nice suit, but a snake nonetheless, one who would cheerfully eliminate every protection you have as a gay man while telling you he's doing it for your own moral good. And as for backing Israel: the only reason Johnson and his religious ilk "back Israel" is because they think somehow their vision of Armageddon and Christians taking over the world relies on Israel's existence. Mind you, they expect fully that all Jews will be either converted or killed in the final battle, so keep THAT in mind when you talk about their support for Jews. And for that matter: Johnson and his ilk firmly believe it's not only constitutional, but a good idea in practice, that Christians in America get preferential treatment for everything, completely aside from their views about gays. As a Jew, you should know they consider you a second-class citizen at best.

That one part of being HIV+ is similar to PrEP, yes. The other parts - the constant monitoring of all sorts of bodily functions for signs that your HIV medication is ruining your kidneys, or your liver, or any of a number of other things, is much less of an issue under PrEP than HIV treatment. That's just one way, among many, that the two are very much not the same.

Indeed. There is literally zero cause-and-effect between getting one disease under control and the rise and spread of another, UNLESS there is some specific interaction between, say, the pathogens that control each. Getting HIV under control is not going to cause a new virus or bacterium to suddenly explode and become epidemic.

Well, not in the west, at least. There are still places in the world where treatment is scarce and it's still a huge problem. And to the extent we're not dying in droves, it's because of a lot of work. We take medication every single day. We often watch that medication gradually shred some other part of our biology - our kidneys, our livers, whatever. I'm all for a message that says "If you become poz, it doesn't have to be the end of the world." I'm very much opposed to the message being "It's not a big deal because if you become poz, you can just take one pill a day and nothing changes." To me, that second message sounds almost like Big Pharma telling people not to worry about prevention because if something happens, we've got you. At a cost of $2-3K a month for the rest of your life, that is.