"In the Moment" webisodes entertain and send an important message...

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For a show with episodes just five-minutes long, there's an awful lot of drama happening on "In the Moment, a provacative online soap opera which will premiere its second episode tonight. It sounds like a doozy:

Mike confesses to his boyfriend Steve, with whom he is having unprotected sex, that he cheated on him. ... Adam nearly has a meltdown when he loses the wireless connection on his laptop. Is he addicted to cybersex? ... A new couple just moved in next to Adam; one of the partners is very flirtatious with him. Will it go any further? ... Edgar continues to drink excessively; can he or his ex-boyfriend ever develop relationships while continuing to live together?

I just gotta find out!!!

It wasn’t long after it premiered in late January that the first episode of the online soap opera, exploring the sex lives of young gay guys in West Hollywood, became a hit. Episode one of the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center’s "In the Moment" was viewed more than 30,000 times at www.WeHoLife.org.

It's entertainment with an important goal: getting gay guys to think and interact with others about actions that could result in HIV-infection or other health issues. Here's a sobering statistic that underscores the reality of what is happening in our community: In 2006, young men (ages 13-34) accounted for 41% of all the HIV/AIDS cases among males in the county, according to the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health.

Susan Cohen, director of Health Education and Prevention Services says: “We don’t want to lose another generation to AIDS. The statistics regarding the HIV infection rate among young gay men are alarming and traditional HIV education/prevention programs just haven’t been effective with this demographic. That’s why we created, and the city of West Hollywood helped fund, 'In the Moment.'”

(BTW, lotsa cute young actors on the show so it's a serious messagw with some serious eye candy.)

Once visitors to www.WeHoLife.org finish watching each episode, they’re invited to post their reaction on the site and to respond to questions regarding the issues the characters faced and the decisions they made.

"Moment" director and co-creator Dave Obrien observes: “Young people live their lives online. We’re trying to influence the YouTube generation, so it just makes sense for us to reach them this way. And with the premier of the second episode, we’ve expanded the opportunities for visitors to the site to interact with each other. Now they can create their own profile, interact with other users directly, start new discussion threads, and post video comments. The beauty of this campaign is that it reaches anyone with a computer, anywhere, enabling people to engage anonymously if they prefer.”

Here's the new episode:

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(Both episodes were funded by a grant from the city of West Hollywood. Partial funding for the second episode came from money raised by the Center’s Young Professionals Council.)

Here’s a link to the beta site: http://inthemoment.ning.com/ When it goes live with the site tonight, it will be at: www.WeHoLife.org.