About The Red and Black (Athens, Ga.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 30, 2014)
WWW.REDANDBLACK.COM Thursday, January 30, 2014 Vol. 121, No. 21 | Athens, GEORGIA Qinijnil Red Black SEX ISN'T SAFE <F es available to help the public combat bacterial and viral STDs. What many experts see Test Costs BY CHELSEY ABERCROMBIE @comma_freak Students who depend on their parents to pay their normal medical bills may be embarrassed to have STD testing appear as a charge. However, there is an option to pay with cash. Below are the rates for STD tests offered at the University of Georgia Health Center. and conversation about the consequences of sex amounts to less reporting of those consequences. The threat of social stigma also explains why reported cases of STDs are $62.00 STI PANEL $23.00 CHLAMYDIA $16.00 GONORRHEA $32.00 HIV $48.00 HERPES $22.00 SYPHILIS $73.00 HPV $33.00 HEPATITIS B Students may think they’re having safe sex, but rising sexually transmitted disease rates show a differ ent reality. In Athens-Clarke County, women ages 20-29 are statistically more likely to suffer from an STD than men, especially when it comes to the bacterial sex ually transmitted infection chlamydia. The rate of infection among women is almost three times the rate among men of the same age group. Chlamydia is some times called the “silent epi demic” because while affecting internal organs, symptoms do not show in 70 to 80 percent of women affected, and 50 percent of men, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Women are also more at risk of getting gonorrhea. While reported cases of gonorrhea are moderately increasing among local women, they are consis tently decreasing among men. Gonorrhea can affect the exterior of the body and can affect a woman’s ability to have children, according to the CDC. This trend of increase continues despite a wealth of information and resourc- as an epidemic on may in fact be even than it appears. Although these paper worse rates are reported by the local health department, they can be unreliable because they are made up of those who self-report having the diseases. Collection of information about STDs is forced to be selective. “The problem with sta tistics is that here at the [University] Health Center, we don’t see all [University of Georgia] students,” said Katy Janousek, the sexual health coordinator in the health promotion depart ment. Not everyone who is affected by an STD will report it because it’s possi ble that not everyone knows they are infected. Some remain unaware of their status either by over looking the symptoms. Others may ignore symp toms because of the shame caused by the social stigma surrounding STDs. “When we do survey people just to get info even if they haven’t come through our doors, a lot of people lie about their sta tus because of the stigma,” Janousek said. “Even when people are doing an anony mous survey they won’t be honest, so this is why this is such an issue.” This lack of knowledge rising especially among gay and bisexual men, a highly stigmatized group. While a culture of prej udice and misunderstand ing gains new casualties every day, Janousek safe, young people may have even more to fear from a culture of silence on the topic. When Janousek talks to students, asking them why there were still new cases of infections while the findings of science grow with time, she said the silence is what stops the line of communication. “Because the culture is we don’t talk about sex, that’s a topic that’s inap propriate,” Janousek said. With the passage of the Affordable Care Act, insur ance companies are required to pay for STD tests, including the test for HIV, but even this measure may not aid in the fight against STDs. The UGA community is considered high risk because of its age, but many students still on their parents’ insurance plans don’t get tested for fear their parents will be able to see the bill and know they are sexually active. See STD, Page A9 WHEN: Feb. 4, 9 a.m.- 4:30 p.m. WHERE: Athens Neigh borhood Health Center WHEN: Feb. 5, 10 a.m.- 4:30 p.m. WHERE: AIDS Athens WHEN: Feb. 6, 10 a.m.- 4:30 p.m. WHERE: Clarke County Health Department WHEN: Feb. 7, 10 a.m.- 4:30 p.m. WHERE: First A.M.E. Church If you have questions or just want to talk about it: WHAT: Religion and Sex uality Panel Discussion: what sexuality means in the context of religion WHO: UGA Sexual Health Advocacy Group WHEN: Jan. 30, 7-8:30 p.m. WHERE: MLC, room 148 PRICE: Free Hip-hop awards place recognition on ignored music scene BY RANDY SCHAFER @randylschafer With voting nominations open until Feb. 10, for the 2nd Annual Athens Hip-Hop Awards Show, co organizers Jasmine and Knowa Johnson are looking to pull back the ropes on a scene that has elusively remained behind the curtain. “Since being here, it seems like there’s not a hip-hop scene,” said Jasmine, who moved to Athens with her husband Knowa, aka “Knowa Logic,” a year and a half ago, from Gwinnett County. “But there is. There’s just not a forum or a place. I don’t know what it is, if it’s just the disenfranchisement, but that’s why we brought the Hip-Hop Awards.” By letting the people of Athens make their choice on who should be dubbed the “Best of” in hip-hop cul ture — and who will have to turn up the microphone the following year — the Johnsons want to remove any rumors of bias. The Johnsons have also organized similar hip-hop events to this one in Orlando, Fla., where the two previ ously lived before moving to Georgia in 2009. Knowa said he’d like to work on collaborating with locals and stu dents to further cultivate the scene he has recently embarked on expanding. “Not only that, but we also want ed to give the nomination process to them, to see what’s really going on,” Knowa said. “We keep encouraging people to get themselves nominated ... and if we start to tap into those acts we could come up with a decent Pharoah Gottie (left) has been nominated for “Barber of the Year," and “Best Group or Band," in the 2nd Annual Athens Hip-Hop Awards. RANDY SCHAFER/Staff franchise in the hip-hop community here.” Hip-hop aficionado and African- American studies major Montu Miller is singing the same note. “It not only gives the hip-hop scene a place to unify, but also just for people who are just looking,” said Miller, who is also acting as stage director for the event. “There’s not a lot of venues downtown that you can do stuff at ... and I’m hoping a lot of other music scenes will come support what we’re doing.” He hopes some of the same peo ple that attend the Flagpole Music Awards and musicians from different scenes can find the same appreciation from the hip-hop version. In attempts to recognize and harness more stu dent participation, the Johnsons asked WUOG 90.5’s hip-hop radio host Akeeme Martin, AKA “DJ Blacque Starr,” to act as master of ceremonies for the event. On the hip-hop side of things, there are still some people who say there’s a slight bias to who wins the awards. Or a bias as to who gets fair recognition going into its second year. “People come by this barbershop and they talk about it, they’re excited about it,” said Pharoah Gottie, a local barber at Wilson’s Barbershop, who’s up for “Barber of the Year.” “And I think some people are kind of mad, because some of them didn’t get nom inated ... but the ones that got nomi nated out here are campaigning.” Gottie, who is also up for “Best Group or Band,” for his work in the group Jet Squad, which he founded, thinks the nominations came down to web presence. “Some folks are living off old cred its that aren’t doing anything,” Gottie said. “If you’re not doing anything, you’re not relevant ... and I see on the Internet, people are saying, ‘Vote for me, vote for me.’” More importantly for Knowa, the awards showcase a group with a genre of talent that doesn’t normally get to see the light of day. And that is what he is trying to bring light to. “We are trying to uplift what we feel there is a void in,” he said. “We feel a void in the hip-hop community, in the urban community. It’s really about changing the image of hip-hop ... it seems like hip-hop is viewed as a neg ative, gangster image here in the town, and we know it more as an interna tional sound.” See AWARDS, Page A3 NEWS, A2 • VIEWS, A4 • VARIETY, B5 • SPORTS, Bl • SHOWCASE, B7 • PUZZLES, B9 An independent student newspaper serving the University of Georgia and Athens Communities Established 1893, Independent 1980
