Archie, the comic, goes gay – a little

When I was a kid one of the comics I used to read was Archie. I never bought the comic, but it seemed to be ubiquitous anyway. Now the publishers of the comic have revealed that they are introducing a gay character.

The new character will be introduced in the comics magazine Veronica, issue 202, which will be published on September 1^st this year.

– The introduction of Kevin is just about keeping the world of Archie Comics current and inclusive. Archie’s hometown of Riverdale has always been a safe world for everyone. It just makes sense to have an openly gay character in Archie comic books, Archie Comics Co- CEO, Jon Goldwater said in a press release.

The character Kevin Keller is introduced in a story titled "Isn’t it Bromantic?" There Keller bests Jughead in an eating competition, and gains the attention of Veronica – who wants the gay boy so bad she leaves Archie.

Archie isn’t readily availible in the UK from what I can tell, but if you live in the London area you can get the magazines from Gosh Comics on Great Russell Street. You can, probably, also order the comic through your regular dealer.

One in seven club gays in London has HIV

A sample done on the capital’s gay scene revealed a markedly higher prevalence of HIV than officially thought. The study sampled 1251 gay men at bars, clubs and saunas, and 12,5% of the sampled were revealed to have HIV.

This is much higher than the Health Protection Agency estimated for gay men in London in general. However, the sample did not of course include gay men that didn’t regularly visit the venues sampled.

Caution needs to be taken in using the number ‘1 in 7’ as a general estimation. Not all gay men visit the scene. However, for those that do, the numbers come as a stark reminder that HIV is still out there.

Today, HIV is more of a chronic disease than a killer ravaging through the demographic. However, HIV should not be considered just as ‘manageable’. It will still upturn lives, and if left untreated you still get to the AIDS stage eventually.

Many assumptions are also made about HIV, assumptions based in ignorance, such as ‘that you can see if someone has HIV’. The only way to protect oneself from HIV is to use condoms when having sex with someone.