orbitus-acolyte

[icemav86]

1980s/1990s safe sex posters part 2

[part 1]

[xtrablak674]

SLEAZY AIDS AD TAKE THE GAY TRAIN

[Originally published in Fashion Fag Magazine Volume 1, Number 2, February 1994, very mildly edited for clarity.]

The New York Post bashes Gay Men's Health Crisis new poster.

"Anyway you read them, the poster endorse homosexuality. encourage promiscuity and promote the false and dangerous notion that condoms are safe and will protect users against AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases." says Ray Kerrison columnist for the post.

Let me explain this poster to those of you who have not seen it. It is a bright purple subway poster with three pictures of couples embracing or kissing. In bright yellow writing there is the poster's slogan YOUNG, HOT & SAFE, each couple is holding a condom, lubricant, latex dam, or latex glove. There is also the GMHC hotline number which ask you to call for further information about safer sex.

To address Mr. Kerrison's first point I don't understand how he comes to the assumption that this poster is promoting homosexuality or any kind of sexuality. Its like he's saying a poster of a couple of married couples is promoting marriage, or a couple of African American children promoting Afrocentric ideals. I feel that Kerrison is just another homophobe who believes that any portrayal of queers in a positive light is saying to everyone that homosexuality is OK and there is nothing wrong with it. Which there isn't, I've been a homosexual a long time now and I am perfect proof.

Kerrison's second issue of the poster encouraging promiscuity is absolutely absurd. Everyone in these posters is full clothed and pictured above the shoulders. Now last summer there was an ad campaign by a local radio station

HOT 97 who had really raunchy posters which portrayed men in women in very suggestive positions and very skimpily clad. One of the more overt posters had a male grasping a topless women's breast.

And GMHC's poster's are called porn and sleaze???

Lord forbid we show happy homosexuals that are healthy and not dying of AIDS. I strongly believe that these type of gays are the only kind that the conservative heterosexual community can deal with. Because then they can feel sorry for the poor dying fag.

Kerrison's final point of his article bothers me the most because not only does the information it contain very wrong but could be very dangerous if you are not an informed reader. Studies show and have proven that latex condoms are the most effective device against the HIV infection, if used properly.

GMHC is the first and largest AIDS organization in the world and Kerrison saying this to GMHC is like telling God the sky ain't blue. Actually I am very happy there has been such controversy about the ads because it brings back into the public view and that will force people to talk about it.

I got my chance to speak on the issue at a press conferences that councilman Tom Duane held on the steps of city hall. Here is the speech I prepared and read:

"Hi my name is Trevor Brown. I am a proud young black homosexual and I am a volunteer In Gay Men's Health Crisis's Education Department's Young Adult Aids Prevention Program.

According to what this society shows me, I as a young black man should be in jail, unemployed, father of a illegitimate children, and inarticulate. I as a homosexual should be promiscuous, dying of AIDS, and rotting in hell. I refuse to believe any of this to prove this society wrong, and to do my part in the fight against AIDS.

I did the YOUNG HOT and SAFE campaign. As much as adults would like to think they know what is best for youth and would like tell us how to run our lives I believe we young people know what we young people want. I know that my friends and I have been sexually active for years and it wasn't some ad on the train that told us to start having sex. its a natural part of growing up, and exploring your sexuality. Knowing that a lot of youth think it is not cool or fun to have safer sex. We thought it was important to show other youth Hey its COOL to have safer sex I am do in' it you can do it too.

The young people that were working on this campaign were full of positive intentions and I think they should be applauded for being conscious of the health and safety of other youth. Not slapped on the wrist and told there is only one way to avoid the HIV virus. Abstinence. AIDS is something that effects us all and I that there is no one way to properly educate about it there are many different ways. Because it effects many different kind of people. And because my way of trying to educate differs from yours I don't believe we should be bashing one another, You may attract flies with fly paper I prefer honey, But most importantly we will both be saving lives."

I truly can't recall if I had assistance with drafting my speech for the press conference held by Councilman Tom Duane, who was the second openly gay council member and the only one at the time who was public about his being HIV positive. I do hear my voice within it, my phrasing and my colloquialism, so I was totally one of the authors if not final editor.

I know I am being patronizing to myself, because I am so impressed with my eloquence, not at the level of an orator like Dr. King, but for an average individual with minimal press experience I think this was amazing, and I applaud my younger self. Not just for being brave but to speak so publicly about very private things, and to be clear I do not infer that sexuality is something to be ashamed of, but who I go to bed as and with is really no one else's business.

Curiously Mr. Kerrison was my grandmother's contemporary dying curiously enough on her birthday a year after she did. Like her he didn't mask his hostility and disapproval of homosexuality, I guess both of them are products of their upbringings, but both are dead and no longer my concern.

This was thirty years ago exactly and it would be false to say that things haven't changed for the gays since then, but it was also be false to say that we are welcomed with open arms with legislation around "Don't Say Gay" floating around all over the country and it being against the law some places for trans people to go to the bathroom. Progress I guess is always an incremental thing, five steps forward and three steps back.

I guess I can say definitively that I attempted to make the world a better place by physically using my likeness and speaking publicly about my identities to in effect normalize acceptance of folks who looked and loved like I did.

I have mixed feelings about the Young Hot & Safe campaign because thinking about it makes me think of the fact that Tim my photo-partner and friend is now dead, we were both amongst the committee of young people who helped to conceptualize and execute the campaign in tandem with Gay Men's Health Crisis. It was a happy time of my life and I look back on those memories and the friends I had very fondly.

[Photos by Brown Estate]

[neosciencehub]

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World AIDS Day, observed annually on December 1st each year, stands as a global reminder of the ongoing battle against HIV/AIDS. The day originated back in 1988, conceived by the World Health Organization (WHO) to raise awareness, commemorate those we’ve lost, support those living with the virus and educate the world with prevention strategies. This year’s theme is “Let Communities Lead,”…

[c-u-c-koo-4-40k]

What should you bring to school?

For the people of Gaza, the memories of days spent in school are distant. But education is not Only a Right but a Duty.

Meet Anas and Ahmad, they are related to Osama Basil, who has his own gofundme.

While managing his own gfm, Osama is also trying to help Anas and Ahmed fund their education somewhere safe, away from the Turmoil in Gaza.

They are Bright Wonderful students who want to pursue careers in computer business and medicine!

Please give some time to this Verified campaign!

Current Funding

€4,870 / €29,000

~16% Funded

Tag List for Reach DM me for Removal

And to others putting me in mentions I am So Sorry I'm not getting to many of them, I'm trying to balance between DM campaigns, ask campaigns and the mentions I get each day.

@a-shade-of-blue @sunnylittledragon

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[mohamedabushaban06]

Hello people, 👋

DEAR LOVELY FRIENDS,

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I know it's weired to answer a message for the first time from a stranger, but please please dont skip and give me only 2 minutes to tell you my story🙏

My name is mohammed and i really hope you can share and understand my message🥹 i am an 18 year old young man from gaza. I evacuated out of gaza ,but my family are still in Gaza under the war attack i evacuated to continue my bachelor degree but my financial issues are really hard to afford for continuing my college dream ;because everything i had or shared for my whole life unfortunately now turned to dust and ashes that's why i had to walk in the lane for the power of the internet that why i opened a gofund me campaign so i can reach my current goal for 3000€ and i am so close to reach the goal please i need your help and your hand of support🙏😭

i wish it can really make a difference in my new refugee life. I'm really in need for your help and support for the campaign, and again i'm sorry for bothering

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[violette-blr]

Hi. I've been struggling to come up with the needed downpayment for my school this semester. I've tried selling things online but theyre not enough. I am already in my 4th yr hoping to enroll this semester so I can proceed to internship next sem. If you need any proof of my university and existence, I'll gladly share them. So please.

Any amount will do. Thank you for your kindness in advance. 🙏🩷

[labutansa]

via the futureofthecongo

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[a-scary-lack-of-common-sense]

You know what, fuck you, I'm not listening to your bullshit anymore *takes out my hearing aids*

[reality-detective]

"WHATSHERFACE" (13 FEB 2022) "now EVERYONE has AIDS" 🤔

[crazycatsiren]

We're half way into 2023 and I'm begging parents to teach your children about disabled people so they don't go up to a stranger who's a disabled cane user in a store and say "why do you have a cane? You're not even old!" loud enough for all to hear.

[icemav86]

1980s safe sex posters

[x]

Part 1

[Part 2]

[intothedysphoria]

There was a boy who lived on the other side of town.

Hawkins was a small town but it had a pretty explicit wealth divide. There were a solid wall of three streets where people had three, even four story houses and their own pools. Walk beyond that line and it looked pretty grim. Well, his parents said it did. Steve privately thought the people who lived in those houses looked much happier.

Except for one house. The Hargrove’s.

The dad was ex Marines and was a fucking piece of work. He’d go on ranting about anyone and everyone in the mall, clutching his wife’s hand in a vice. She was quiet and didn’t really seem to do much apart from occasionally pushing her daughter into getting more dresses. The kids were far more interesting.

A red headed thirteen year old girl who trudged around with a skateboard and him. He looked like a movie star but he was constantly limping, like he was injured. Supposedly, he’d taken Steve’s arbitrarily assigned crown but he didn’t even talk to anyone. He just scowled and sometimes Steve saw him crying.

It was all really sad and Steve was going to do something about it. He wasn’t sure what but he was at least going to try.

Steve tried to talk to him once after class. Hargrove looked him up and down then promptly spat on his shoes. The nice ones he’d just got for Christmas.

He talked funny too. It wasn’t just because he was from California, Steve had watched enough tv to pinpoint that accent. He talked rough and gutteral, with a harshness to his voice that suggested he’d been smoking from the age of 10.

Hop arrested him for minor drug charges on Christmas Day. The news spread fast in a town like Hawkins. Not because he’d been smoking weed but because they’d had to carry him out on a stretcher.

The hospital bed was his cell. Steve sent flowers because it felt like the right thing to do given the circumstances. Poppies.

They were still on Hargrove’s bedside table when he left. Medical fees had been paid off by the town. Mr Harrington had even snuck a 100 dollar bill into the pot.

One day Billy approached him. There was a vulnerability to him, shoulders hunched as he asked if there was anywhere he could stay for the night. Neil Hargrove had kicked him out.

Billy was enamoured by Steve’s record player and ran to his own collection to shove them under the needle. Apparently Joy Division was what he played to everyone before he introduced them to the heavy stuff. Steve would have almost preferred Metallica or WASP to Love Will Tear Us Apart. There was something so incredibly bleak about the lyrics and Steve wondered if that was how Billy saw the world.

Steve had leftover pierogies and latkes in the fridge but Billy politely said he preferred to make his own food. He then made a soup with scotch bonnet peppers in which looked delicious but Steve knew he wouldn’t be able to handle.

Billy took the bed. Steve took the couch. There was a pile of porn mags buried under the pile of stuff and Steve knew he should’ve just left it. He was just curious and toed a page open.

There was a photo which looked like it had been taken behind an alleyway, of a large, bearded man in denim with another man in a suit on his knees. That magazine was shoved back down to the bottom of the pile.

Billy was queer. Steve had seen videos from New York, Los Angeles, London recently, of gaunt men on hospital beds, clinging to the hands of kind faced women. The news had said that was what happened if you were queer. Agony. Death. But Billy seemed fit and healthy.

Billy wasn’t going to die of that disease. Of AIDS. Steve wouldn’t let him.

The next morning, Billy used the shower for too long, ate nothing but a single slice of toast and left by 6AM. Steve watched him go and wondered if he would come back.

Come back he did, promptly that same evening. Billy made a grilled cheese, which of course had ghost chilli in it, and watched MTV. They had a long conversation about nuclear disarmament which Steve only half followed, then they both went to bed.

Things went on like that for several weeks. Billy would put on a wide variety of records and sometimes they would dance. Sometimes Steve would just watch Billy shake his head so hard, it may as well have fallen off.

They started sharing one meal for a change. Stir fry, steak with mashed potatoes, something Billy proudly proclaimed as toad in the hole, which was just battered sausage. All things his grandfather had taught him to cook.

The sleeping situation also got more complicated.

Due to the length of time that Billy was staying over now, there didn’t feel like there was any point in Steve staying indefinitely on the couch.

So they shared a bed. Steve listened to Billy taking long, deep breaths each night and wondered if he was a queer too.

That question was answered on New Years Eve.

Steve had drunk quite a lot. Billy had probably drunk more. Soft Cell was playing on the radio and Steve was humming along to the tune, making popping sounds with his mouth to the synths.

The song changed to a new track from Frankie Goes To Hollywood and Billy grabbed his arms, spinning them both across the room. It was fun, then Steve felt like he was going to be sick so they had to stop.

Billy was lying down on the floor next to him, giggling with flushed cheeks, then declared he hadn’t had a midnight kiss yet.

He was obviously joking but something in Steve’s chest took it deadly serious because he was climbing into Billy’s chest. They were breathing in the same air.

Billy blinked twice, eyelashes glowing and Steve decided to stop caring.

The kiss didn’t set him alight. It didn’t kill him. It didn’t even eject him from the house. All it did was send a warm tingly feeling down his back and towards his groin. The feeling was indescribable.

Billy asked if they could do that again.

Steve said yes.

For @shieldofiron @robthegoodfellow @dragonflylady77 @oopsiedaisiesbaby @harringroveobsessed @bigdumbbambieyes @thatgirlwithasquid for being so cool I hope you like it (I am genuinely so ill right now I probably won’t remember that I wrote this in like two hours)

[greentreesredhearts]

I'm in endangered of being kicked out of school for lack of fund. After working a full time job and unable to get a loan, I've exhausted every other avenue. I know as a black queer woman the importance of having a degree and really don't want this to be the end for my academic career so any help would be much appreciated. I’m trying to raise some of the funds by January 10th to be able to attend the spring semester. Thank you for reading and please share if you can.

C@shapp: $Sunnishin3

v3nmo: @Sunni-Stewart

Any donations made to v3nmo and c@shapp will be added to the gofundme

[dotted-clouds]

Guess who is opening emergency commissions because a personal issue regarding school just landed on my lap...

Reblogs are appreciated. Contact me on [Twitter], Tumblr Messages, Ko-Fi Messages, or email [dottedclouds.work@gmail.com]

Ko-Fi Link: https://ko-fi.com/dottedclouds

[pisshandkerchief]

why do you mean you have trouble discovering new music. back in my day we got our obscure music recs from the welcome to night vale weather and we fucking liked it

[sag-dab-sar]

When I say don't touch my wheelchair this includes doctors, nurses, and med techs. It also includes when I'm not sitting in it.

I am so fucking angry about this atm. In hospitals I usually have to transfer to special medical chairs or tables for things. The medical professional will then proceed to move my chair out of the way without asking. And if they don't ask they are annoyingly stupid and don't unlock the breaks when they move it, that fucks with the tires— stop it.

All it takes is a "can I move this to right over here?" that way I can say "yes, please unlock the wheels and move it" or "I need something out of my bag first" or anything of that nature.

I don't care who you are, I don't care if you are medical staff—don't touch a person's mobility aid without permission.