CHAPS off-message » Other THT

What a difference a day makes

Ian — Sat, 30 Jul 2011 18:23:39 +0000

From the THT news feed (if I thought it'd stay constant, I'd give a URL):

July 25, 2011
THT reminds local LGBT community to look after their sexual health at Telford Pride

July 26, 2011
Terrence Higgins Trust reminds gay men to stay safe at Brighton Pride

(italics mine)

Broken links

Ian — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 21:50:21 +0000

Because the person in charge of the THT website does not understand the importance of keeping links valid, they've been broken several times since writing the original articles. I'll have download links from here soon…

Don't expect to see many reports of this

Ian — Thu, 10 Aug 2006 15:52:13 +0000

Particularly given the Damilola Taylor result dominating the papers and the airport security alert radio and TV..
.. but, at fucking last, there's been an acquittal in a UK HIV tranmission trial. A clueful defence team, helped by THT, used a combination of expert evidence and the behaviour of the complainant to show that there was no proof of who had, in fact, infected who.

In comparison to the large and instant flow of stories following last month's conviction of Sarah Porter – where someone she'd had sex with heard rumours about her being HIV+, knew they hadn't been infected, but complained to the police who launched a year-long investigation into her sex life until they found one who had been – I can only find three reports on this on Google News.

Relationships and Sex for…

Ian — Wed, 07 Dec 2005 22:48:28 +0000

There are three in the series, produced by the then 'Living well with HIV team', and not all of these are part of the CHAPS partnership.

But see what they are:

Relationships and Sex for Gay Men – perhaps surprisingly, the first edition of this did have "to have children" as one of the reasons why "some people with HIV say they either have sex or want to have sex?" for readers to say they share or really disagree with… and "to avoid having a child" as a possible answer to "why would a person with HIV want to have safer sex?"

The text is definitely aimed at gay men though – I can find lots of "other gay men" and "you're not the only gay man who.." and no use of the word "bisexual".

(I can't find this one on the current website.)

Relationships and Sex for Straight Men – now in its third edition. It doesn't mention having sex with other men, yet we know that's crap. My favourite spotted personal ad: "straight man seeks other straight men to have sex with" (ITV Teletext!)

So it's "when we talk about sex between men and women…" – and it doesn't talk about any other sort, remember – and "if a woman without HIV sucks your cock", rather than "if someone".

Surprisingly, while "to have children" is listed here too as one of the reasons why "other men with HIV say they either have sex or want to have sex?", there's no mention of "to avoid having a child" as a possible answer to "why do other HIV men want to have safer sex?" (Another missing option is "to keep the sheets clean"!)

In its second and third editions at least, this is a shorter booklet than the ".. for gay men" one: 20 pages vs 28.

You'll find it here.

(Note different naming style of the actual file compared to the CHAPS ones.)

and

Relationships and Sex for Women – despite not having a sexual orientation in the title, it still also only explicitly mentions "When we talk about sex between men and women…".

You're presumably supposed to guess that, immediately after talking about "as a woman with HIV you perform oral sex on a man", that the "someone" who "performs oral sex on you" might be a woman.

It does mention "I like them to use condoms, then I don't have to worry about contraception" as a reason for other HIV positive women to say they want to have safer sex in its 20 pages.

Here for this one.

Note the missing title!

So which does THT think is true:

That bisexual men don't get HIV?
That bisexual men with HIV don't have relationships and sex?
That bisexual men with HIV's relationships and sex aren't worth mentioning?

Given that gay-identified men's relationships and sex with women – which, again, Sigma has been saying for years happens in larger numbers than some of the behaviours THT is prepared to talk about – is consistently ignored, I wonder.