Don't Make Assumptions About HIV - A Major New Campaign Tells Gay Men, UK

Main Category: HIV / AIDS
Also Included In: Men's health
Article Date: 22 Sep 2009 - 9:00 PDT

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Terrence Higgins Trust (THT) launches a major new awareness raising campaign aimed at gay men in London. 'Assumptions' is aimed at men who don't use condoms because they think they have correctly identified their partner's status. This campaign urges men not to assume that they 'know' the HIV status of a new partner.

Research shows that some gay men 'sort' potential sexual partners based on first impressions and assumptions rather than actual disclosure. Many still believe that they can tell someone's HIV status based on a person's appearance, or their approach towards unprotected sex. This campaign challenges men to reconsider this assumption. It also highlights the fact this strategy significantly increases the risk of HIV transmission and acquiring other sexually transmitted infections (STIs).

'Assumptions' consists of a series of three adverts. Each advert features two men having sex and in each scenario, the differing points of view of each man are presented with one man believing: 'He's not mentioned condoms. He's gotta be positive like me', whilst the other thinks: 'No condom, so he's probably negative too'. The strapline of the campaign says: 'Don't assume you're both thinking the same thing.'

Marc Thompson, Deputy Head of Health Promotion for THT said: "We know that some men make a decision to have unprotected sex with someone who they believe shares their HIV status - whether that's positive or negative. The fact is this approach dramatically increases the risk of HIV as well as other STIs being passed on. We hope this campaign will encourage gay men to think about the assumptions they make about the status of their partner before they have sex. Ultimately we hope 'Assumptions' will reduce the number of new HIV infections amongst gay men in London.

The new campaign will run for twelve weeks. There will be adverts in the gay press, posters in bars and saunas and a banner ad online directing men to find out more about 'Assumptions'.

The 'Assumptions' campaign has been funded by the Pan London HIV Prevention Partnership. Men can find out more by visiting http://www.gmfa.org.uk/assumptions.

Source
Terrence Higgins Trust

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