Yep, that's me in the middle there, urging my hunky bed partner to fuck safely.

A lot of things happened in 1991, some of which have been at least touched on hereabouts. One previously-undocumented consequence of my involvement in gay activism was my appearance in a safer sex leaflet produced by the Terrence Higgins Trust, one of a series of 8 collectively titled Tales of Gay Sex.

THT asked in the gay press for models, and it sounded like a fun (and ego-boosting) thing to do, so I volunteered. All candidates had to do a solo test shoot with the photographer, Jean-Marc Prouveur, for casting purposes and also to see whether we could handle having nude pictures taken.

This was a new experience for me, but my exhibitionist tendencies should be evident by now to readers of this blog, and I took to it pretty easily.

Each of the leaflets told a 6-panel photo-love story making some kind of point about staying safe, and I wound up in the first: "You're never too young to stay safe." This was aimed at teens, warning that youth confers no special protection from HIV.

At 24 I wasn't exactly a teen, but I guess they had a shortage of volunteers who were -- and from the vantage point of my current age it doesn't seem nearly as dishonest as it did at the time. Back then I felt outrageously old, which I now realize is a common misapprehension among twentysomethings. They learn.

Sadly, I no longer have a copy of the leaflet. If anyone does and cares to scan it in for me, I'll post it here. It's total cheese, and I don't know if it ever had much effect on anyone's behaviour, but it gave me the opportunity to strip off in the name of charity, which has to count for something :)
Posted by matt at February 11, 2004 12:43 AM