Charities take sexual health advice to young clubbers
Charities London Friend, Antidote and Terrence Higgins Trust have been advocating safe sex as well as drug and alcohol responsibility to LGBT university freshers at QueerlyOut, a new London club night that is media sponsored by PinkNews.co.uk.
The weekly Thursday night event, that is run with the London School of Economics Students’ Union saw just under 1,000 freshers from across the capital visit it during the past fortnight and distributed more than a thousand condoms and lube packs.
Bex Perry, Youth Worker at THT told PinkNews.co.uk: “we were thrilled to be given the opportunity to attend QueerlyOut and to talk with so many young people about the issues around sexual health. Our outreach workers were on hand throughout the night to answer questions on sex, relationships, drugs and alcohol, as well as handing out free condoms and lube.
“As the quality of sex education in schools and colleges is still not consistent and does not usually cover gay sex, many young LGBT people are still leaving school without even basic information on how to guard against HIV and STIs. It’s vital young people are given the information they need to protect themselves, and that those who need support are signposted to the appropriate services.”
Matthew Halliday, the chief executive of London Friend, the UK’s oldest LGBT charity added: “for us attending QueerlyOut was a great success, we were able to not only engage with many LGBT students directly but also recruit a considerable number of new volunteers to help us in the valuable work that London Friend does.”
QueerlyOut aims to host a different charity who wishes to perform LGBT community advocacy work every week. On the 21st October 2010, QueerlyOut hosts the Gay Men’s Interaction (GMI) Partnership.
Disclosure: QueerlyOut is media sponsored by PinkNews.co.uk.
