Free Testing and Referrel for Free Treatment Available at Grab Ass-every Wednesday night

NYU Langone Medical Center offers free, confidential testing for HIV and sexually transmitted infections at Grab Ass every Wednesday night for men who have sex with men in New York City. This innovative project, under the direction of Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, combines the clinical service of HIV testing with NYU research in sexually transmitted infections and prevention. Accessible testing hours and a judgment-free environment streamline the availability of testing for infections impacting our community.

The Men's Sexual Health Project offers the following on a walk-in basis:

You do not need to pay the entry fee to gain access to our clinical services, you are welcome to get tested and then leave- we wish to encourage access to services for our community.

Rapid HIV antibody testing- results available in 20 minutes.

Testing for sexually transmitted infections, including Gonorrhea, Chlamydia, and Syphilis

Text Message: 917-568-2272

Voice: 212-562-8999

When he's not making his rounds in Bellevue's AIDS ward, you can find Demetre Daskalakis, M.D., hanging out at Manhattan's two remaining bathhouses: the West Side Club and the East Side Club. Surrounded by his pulchritudinous team of "sexual health counselors" who can do everything from drawing blood for an onsite HIV or STD test to providing specific, non-judgmental answers to any questions you may have regarding what you and your pals are doing in that room, the doctor is most enthusiastically in, in, in. More importantly, should you opt to test and discover you're positive, Dr. Daskalakis's team -- the Bellevue/NYU Men's Sexual Health Project -- can see to it that you are immediately routed to care, even if you don't have medical insurance or a regular physician.

"We're hooked into the Bellevue database even at the West Side Club. You'll walk away from our table with a doctor's appointment and a way of getting care." The program, which will be three years old in February '09, got him recognized by Mayor Bloomberg on World AIDS Day, which was, he says, "a total hoot because he couldn't say what I was doing because he couldn't say ‘bathhouse.'"

Daskalakis's description of the program is revelatory. "The bathhouse environment de-stigmatizes the whole process. You can have a frank conversation with someone who feels familiar to you -- we make it cool instead of some tragic disaster. And people love getting an HIV test at 1 a.m. on Sunday," he enthuses. "It's a total New York Moment." Peter J. McQuaid

www.hivinfosource.org/testingproject

This story was published on December 18, 2008 by PaperMag.