Government promoting Older Gay Men Predatory behaviour with school boys- through AIDS Council
A digital news site that provides gay men with tips on picking up at the gym, improving their Grindr rating and reviews for kinky sex toys was established with a federal government grant intended for health promotion.
Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt has ordered an urgent review of the Emen8 website, a joint initiative of ACON (formerly the AIDS Council of NSW) and the Victorian AIDS Council, after The Australian brought to his attention its sexually explicit content. The site includes at least one reference to schoolboys engaging in sex acts with older men.
A recent Emen8 article titled “Who’s the perfect daddy for you?” provides an analysis of the relationships that can occur between mature and younger men. It asks: “Does your fantasy include some condomless after-school action with your papa”, despite the site being restricted to adults.
Although promoted by ACON as an innovative approach to “delivering evidence-based, high-quality, accessible” health information, some of the advice on the site appears at odds with national health guidelines on safe sex.
The site currently is leading with an article titled “Australian Opposites Attract study: condomless sex with an undetectable viral load is safe sex”.
It reports a Kirby Institute study finding that HIV-positive men with an undetectable viral load were extremely unlikely to transmit the virus to a HIV-negative partner.
Tracking 343 couples, the study reported no instances of HIV transmissions between the partners, although three HIV-negative participants contracted the virus from outside the relationship. The study also cautioned that, statistically, the “true transmission rate” could be higher at up to 1.56 per cent a year.
However, the article makes no mention of this, concluding that “condomless sex with an undetectable viral load is safe”. It also does not mention the risks of condomless sex in relation to other sexually transmitted infections.
A spokesman for the Health Minister said yesterday that any associations with “underage or unsafe behaviour” was “utterly inappropriate”.
“Any funding provided by the Australian government for health education should be used for health education and must be in appropriate context,” the spokesman said.
“This grant was provided in 2016 for health education. Minister Hunt was not aware of the website and has now ordered an urgent review.”
The Department of Health has also confirmed that its position in relation to safe-sex practices had not changed in light of recent studies and the advent of pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP, which is a combination of antiretroviral drugs proven to be highly effective in preventing HIV transmission.
“The current HIV strategy mentions PrEP as an emerging biomedical intervention that may be useful in very high-risk population groups, and its place in the prevention response needs to be determined,” a spokeswoman said.
“The next strategy ... will be very clear that, whether or not PrEP is being used, condoms are important in the prevention of transmission of HIV and STIs.”
Emen8, launched in May, was funded as part of the $13 million Communicable Disease Prevention and Service Improvements Grants Fund, approved under former health minister Sussan Ley, which aimed to tackle blood- borne viruses and STIs in priority populations.
ACON and the VAC, both majority-funded by their respective state governments, were successful in a joint application to develop resources for “gay men and men who have sex with men”, receiving $1.6m over two years.
Chief executive Nicolas Parkhill yesterday defended the site, saying the organisation was confident it was in accordance with the original tender specifications.
“In order to effectively target this at-risk population group, the tone and voice of some articles on the site need to reflect their culture, interests and behaviours; the language resonates,” he said.“The content integrates sexual health messages that are familiar to a range of gay men.”
Other articles on the site include “How to pick up at the gym”, which suggests doing exercises that “mimic your sexual positions” and “leave your cubicle door open” in the shower, as well as “What’s it really like to be a gay sex worker” and “Seven of the most weirdly wonderful sex toys”.
