Gscene News Archive

GMFA, the gay men's health charity, are launching a new health promotion video, ‘Do You Have An HIV Detector?’, which aims to make men aware of the risks of making the wrong assumptions about a sexual partner’s HIV status. Studies have shown that about 40% of HIV negative men who say they know their sexual partner’s HIV status are actually guessing.

The video features a man using a fantasy HIV detector to try to find out if the guy he is picking up has the same HIV status. The message of the video is that you usually can not be sure of another person’s HIV status, but you can protect yourself and your partners by always having safer sex.

Matthew Hodson of GMFA, said:
“Lots of gay men believe that they can always tell the HIV status of their partners just by looking at them, or by where they meet or the sex that they’re into. The truth is that there are HIV positive and HIV negative men, of all shapes and sizes, in every city and in every gay venue across the country. Guesswork won’t keep you and your partners safe. Using a condom remains the best way to prevent the spread of HIV. The video is based on our previous ad campaign and we hope that it gets the message across in a way that’s a bit fun and a bit quirky.”

Studies have shown that while most negative gay men expect an HIV positive man to disclose his status before having sex, only 20% of diagnosed positive gay men say they always disclose. And with around a third of gay men with HIV not knowing that they are infected, trusting that someone will be able to tell you their HIV status can be risky.

Matthew adds:
“Our HIV detector ad campaign proved popular when we first ran it last year. We feel strongly about the subject, which is why we chose to tackle it through two new and very different resources. And with many gay men turning to the internet for information on health issues, the video is an ideal way for us to get across this serious message.”

The video can be viewed at:
tinyurl.com/gmfahivd

For more information on GMFA view:
www.gmfa.org.uk

Pictured: Matthew Hodson of GMFA