HUGO (Health Unlimited for Guys in Ontario) is a website focused on the health of guys into guys and provides health information, tools and resources that are relevant and specific to gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men. We view health as not the absence of illness but as a positive life experience encompassing physical, mental, sexual, and social wellbeing. We celebrate gay men: their bodies, their minds, and their social and sexual interactions.

HUGO is part of a larger initiative called MAGIC in Ontario: Men’s Access to Gay Informed Care. Traditionally, the health of gay and other men who have sex with men has been focused almost exclusively on HIV and other sexually transmitted infections. While these health concerns are important to us, other aspects of our health and wellbeing are equally as important but have often been overlooked. We intend to change that.

Working with community groups and health-care organizations and in partnership with gay men, MAGIC in Ontario is creating a welcoming environment and an approach to gay men’s health that is relevant to, and meets the needs of gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men. MAGIC in Ontario includes a team of physicians, nurses, mental health workers and community members. It is championed by Dr. Paul MacPherson, a physician and scientist at The Ottawa Hospital and associate professor of medicine at the University of Ottawa, and has received support through peer-reviewed grants.

Dr. MacPherson has also championed a fundraising campaign to create a Research Chair in Gay Men’s Health at The Ottawa Hospital, to help improve health care for gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men.

Watch Dr. MacPherson explain the importance of improving health care for this community: