Queer Organisation Leads The Way In Mainstream Sexual Health
This week the Positive Speakers Bureau Victoria, a program created by queer organisation People Living With HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) releases a campaign that targets young heterosexuals and promotes ‘safe sex practices when traveling’ to the wider community.
The increase of international travel in recent years has seen heterosexual transmission of HIV and STDs take over as the main source of new infections in Europe and the UK, with trends indicating that Australia is suffering the same fate. Statistics show that the worldwide HIV epidemic is actually over 99% heterosexual. A recent survey of backpackers showed that only half occasionally use condoms, and quarter of those surveyed don’t use condoms at all. The campaign and subsequent program aims to address lack of safe sex practices in the wider community, and the mis-informed notion by much of mainstream Australia that HIV is a ‘gay disease’.
In the campaign that is in partnership with Lonely Planet, encourages school principals, corporate HR departments and politicians to book presentations from positive speakers will tell their stories and answer questions in a special online forum about safe sex on the road. It also targets corporate Australia with a ‘Call To Action’ to educate their young employees.
The program has already seen positive speakers deliver up to 250 talks to over 7000 Victorian young people, over the past two years, and the presentations proved to be effective in motivating the audience to protect themselves.
Supporters of the campaign include High Court Justice Michael Kirby, Victoria Chief Police Commissioner Christine Nixon, and Rock/Television personality Natalie Bassingthwaighte.
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