The Tucson AIDS Project Kicks Off A New Education Program.
By J.E. Relly
GEORGE COX OFTEN sits behind a booth in local gay bars and passes out condoms. He talks about safer sex with friends and acquaintances, hoping he might save a life. He worries about the increasing numbers of pregnant teens, noting each is a case of unprotected sex. The 24-year-old Tucson AIDS Project volunteer would like to see condom use as habitual as putting on a car seatbelt.
But two years ago, even he got caught up in the moment and had sex without a condom. He understands the quandary of young gay men. The idea of sex is more exciting without a condom.
Recent results from the San Francisco Young Men's Health Study reflect Cox's concerns: 41 percent of the sexually active gay and bisexual men interviewed reported unprotected sex.
Cox is aware of these statistics, and that's one of the reasons he's become active in the Gay Young Men's Project.
In an effort to avert a second-wave epidemic, HIV-prevention activists are rethinking the messages they've used in reaching young gay and bisexual men.
What was wrong with the old messages? "For years, HIV prevention programs were designed in a vacuum," says Diana Dexter, director of the Men Who Have Sex With Men Project. "Anytime a program is designed without building upon constraints in the culture, the minute you leave, everything returns to normal."
The Gay Young Men's Project is the first federally-funded program targeting young gay and bisexual men in Tucson (Arizona is the only state with no money earmarked for HIV prevention). Instead of espousing HIV prevention from an ivory tower, the project will employ feedback from those most affected in the community. "Rather than say, 'Do this or you're going to die,' " says Dexter, the project will incorporate more tailored messages and utilize life experiences like Cox's.
Dexter and the project's ethnographer, Halley Eisner Freitas, spent several months looking for gay and bisexual men ages 16 to 25 in hangouts around Tucson. They were given $10 incentives for participating in a two-hour interview which centered around their sexual histories. The four-page questionnaire spanned subjects ranging from where the interviewees met partners to what they considered drawbacks of condom use.
Results crunched from the 63 interviews are being incorporated into language addressing high-risk sex behaviors in young gay and bisexual men.
This four-year project is a collaborative effort between Tucson AIDS Project, People With AIDS Coalition Of Tucson, Shanti Foundation and the Pima County Health Department's AIDS Program. Perhaps its most innovative feature is that participants from the study are on a peer committee which will largely decide what messages fly.
To maximize use of the $50,000 grant from the Centers For Disease Control, billboard images may seek to reach several subgroups of young men--for example, a young man holding up a condom (so discreet the Christian Right won't see it) wearing a marine haircut, an earring and a tattoo.
From the survey results, it was clear that unlike many older gays, young men don't want billboards, ads and brochures with studly, hard-bodied males. They want images of everyday people. Many said they're tired of the myth that homosexuality is about lots of hard-core sex. They want long-term monogamous relationships. They want homosexuality to be normalized in their own lives and in the community.
Since many of the study's respondents said they felt disenfranchised from the older gay community (largely because bars have age restrictions), several sites around Tucson will be rented for meeting places.
Also, Dexter aligns herself with those proposing personal responsibility in safer sex versus HIV status disclosure/ nondisclosure by a partner. She says it's a disservice to oneself to depend on a partner to disclose his sex history.
Outside the realm of brochures, newsletters and billboards, the word on safer sex will come from young men in the peer group. The trickle-down effect will be evaluated through random spot surveys given to young men in the community.
The Gay Young Men's Project is sponsoring a kickoff party and Gay Positive Dance Night at 8 p.m., April 28, at Tucson Center for the Performing Arts, 408 S. Sixth Ave.
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