Unless your son has slipped into the seedy underworld of gay London or other such capitals in the world where there are sex-clubs, you do not have a great deal to worry about except making sure he doesn’t slip into that world at some point in the future.

Having referred to London’s gay sex-clubs, we need to remember that London has a good many heterosexual sex-clubs as well! Remember this! Even if your son were straight, you could still spend your time worrying about him.

The only thing for everyone, gay or straight, to do is to treat every other person as if they HIV. Practice safe sex ALWAYS.

It’s easy advice to accept, but unfortunately after a good night out, after a good number of drinks (or “party pills”), people lose their inhibitions and their control and they slip up.

http://www.pinknews.co.uk/news/articles/2005-13675.html/
http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2009/11/02/comment-the-way-forward-for-hiv-prevention/

The good news is that therere is a momentum building after years of apathy and neglect in these institutions, but it would be great to have concerned mothers like you on board as well to pile the pressure on for a change of approach that puts your son’s right to make fully informed choices about sex that these enticements into a world of unsafe sex and toxic treatments that are bombarding youngsters these days.

All best wishes, William

May I suggest you subtly direct him towards gay groups which are not based bang-smack in the middle of the gay-scene, groups which are not sex-inclined. For example, there’s the Gay Outdoor Club. They have branches all over the country and organise walks in the countryside, allowing the walkers to get to know each other. The sort of gay men who join this kind of group are not GENERALLY addicted to the sleaze-pits. And there are lots of other Gay groups which have general interests.

I also think it is healthy for a gay man to be part of mixed groups. Yes, they’ll be dominated by heterosexuals, but these days people are generally open-minded. So in your town or area there are probably lots of different interest-clubs he can join. It’s probable that all of these will have at least one or two other gay men or lesbians as members. This is the healthy way to go. He can still go into town now and again for a drink at a gay bar, but if his life isn’t centred on gay bars and clubs or other gay meeting places, then he’s much more likely to avoid high-risk situations. Good luck.

You acknowledge the sex-saturated content of the gay market. I find it difficult to imagine why you have not perceived the link between such saturation and behaviour.

Give a young person nothing but biblical stories and he’ll grow up exhibiting behaviour dictated by his headful of Christianity.

Give a young person continual exposure to sex-saturated materials everywhere he turns on the gay-scene and his behaviour too will become guided and influenced by the images and thoughts he has been fed.

It’s a well-documented causal link. And one of which all sorts of idiologies are aware.

No, “James”, I do not think what you have suggested I do. (Do remember that no one, including you, can read other people’s minds.) I do not think that staff at GMFA and THT intend for people to become infected with HIV. That is an extremist’s appreciation.

Staff at GMFA and THT have generated HIV-prevention materials which encourage promiscuity and risky sex in risky situations. Fact.

Furthermore, I understand that a UK university academic, in a Department of Linguistics, has subjected GMFA and/or THT materials to linguistic scrutiny and proven this to be the case.

“James”, regarding your second post at #17, please know that you come across as the self-admitted consumer of that “crappy sexualised market” you speak of WHO like a child about to lose its sweeties has started screaming at the thought of being without it.

And that’s a tragedy.

You can be gay, you know, and very happy and well-adjusted, with no belief in Jesus or suchlike, without having to be, as you admit, a consumer of that “crappy sexualised market”.

Think HARD about it.

Good luck.

what makes people horny (amongst other things) are the DVDs, mags and a whole host of other products you can find in the back of Boyz. Now are you going to ban them too? I buy in to that crappy sexualised market, i’m not forced to and a leaflet about wearing a johnny doesn’t twist my arm and force me into Chariots

Now do your google search and do your reading
http://www.aidsmap.com/en/news/3C69D724-F69F-4DC1-A0D1-535A80A40436.asp

Now i’m not apologising for anyone or any organisation, I’m not a great fan of any of the over paid HIV careerists or the luvvie brigade who think that having a cilla black wear a ribbon is going to do jack sh*t for HIV+ people. I’m making a statement on the craziness that I read on here.

GMFA & THT safe-sex literature, as Lizzie has noted, is “explicit”, and this explicitness colludes with all of the powerful and lucrative sex industries, by getting men horny for sex, into the clubs and saunas, and encouraging them to think that casual and promiscuous sex should be a daily activity.

Our so-called “HIV Preventers” have failed abysmally. THEY are largely responsible for the dramatic rise in UK diagnoses which UNAIDS has documented.

SHAME on them.

I know THT do do work within clubs, info, condoms as well as someone to speak to. However the problem with this however good is a lot of people can consider it a ‘blight’ on a night out. If they thought actually not protecting themselves could be more of a blight.

A lot of young people seem to think they can tell whose got it, so one easy campaign is showing that you can’t.

People are responsible for their own actions. You can’t go round blaming charities like THT for doing everything in their power to deal with it. At the end of the day THT and the like can give all the info there is but it’s the individual who decides if they should listen and act on advice. If more was done from the government like hard hitting ad campaigns which include HIV maybe it would be a start.

We’ve provided the condoms!! Just got to get him to use them!!

Oh and by the way, i love Pinknews, i was very very niave with regards to gay issues, it had never affected me and i guess, in an awful way, it never matteredto me. Now,suddenly i’m VERY interested and want to get as much info. as i can. Thanks.

Isn’t it about quitting smoking and getting in touch with your back passage classes?

How many people does that wretched organisation keep on the pay roll these days?