Staying Negative aims to emotionally engage, inspire and facilitate imagination in sexual health practices. The campaign profiles the real life stories of gay, bisexual and trans men who have sex with men (MSM). Men talk about all aspects of their life from coming out, relationships, sexuality and a broad range of other topics. While HIV and safe sex is an important part of all stories, it is not the exclusive focus.
Prior HIV prevention campaigns have traditionally focused on providing gay men with information that will encourage them to adopt safe sex behaviours. In reality, safe sex practices are influenced by a whole range of environmental and cultural factors. The campaign also provides an opportunity for HIV positive men to talk about their lives and discuss how their strategies to staying HIV negative were not successful. We understand that there is more than one way practice safe sex and adopt healthcare seeking behaviours, so let's be creative about it!
There are no real criteria for participants other than that they are MSM and happy to have their stories appear as part of the campaign. In addition to the personal stories, the website provides information on HIV/AIDS, sexual health, relationships and broad of the other relevant topics including domestic violence, drugs and alcohol and depression.
STIs are sexually transmissible infections that can be passed on through sexual contact, such as fucking, but not necessarily only through sexual contact. Some STIs such as Herpes, for example, can be passed on through skin to skin contact during foreplay or when giving/reciving head.
Each STI is different and can affect individuals differently. Read up more on the transmission, symptoms and treatment of each of the STIs.
As the name suggests, blood borne viruses (BBVs) are viruses that are transmitted by blood or bodily fluid containing blood. Transmission occurs when the blood of an infected person gets into the bloodstream of an uninfected person via a break in the skin or mucous membrane. The main BBVs are Hepatitis B virus (HBV), Hepatitis C virus (HCV) and Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV).