The UK’s longest running gay teen website has teamed up with UKC to
reach young gay men still playing Russian roulette with Aids. David
G Taylor reports
SIMON SAYS…
It started out as a light-hearted survey of lifestyle trends among young gay
teens.
But when Simon Johnson, youthful founder of the UK’s six-year-old online
magazine, puffta.co.uk, saw the results, he became alarmed.
The survey showed almost half of the respondents (46 per cent), all young
gay teenage men aged 13-21, were having unprotected sex. It was enough to
make even the most dedicated health
promotion worker pack up and go home.
“I was just hoping to get some
demographics of the market,” says Simon.
“But what also came up was what
readers were getting up to in the bedroom, which wasn’t particularly
safe.
“It was interesting reading some of the comments about why they weren’t
using condoms. The most common answer was, ‘I have a boyfriend and we’ve
had a test, and he’s the only person I have sex with.’
“That is all well and good, but the boyfriend might be having sex with
people they don’t know about.”
The survey prompted Simon and his
colleagues to start including features on HIV and STIs. Most compelling of
all
puffta’s HIV coverage is a monthly diary by Adam, a 20-year-old HIV
positive
reader who contacted the puffta team after he was diagnosed earlier this year.
To mark Adam’s arrival and reach out to gay men, puffta and UKC will
share a float at this year’s Gay Pride festival. Simon said he was delighted
with the collaboration, which will help to increase visibility for puffta
and hopefully increase traffic to the site, in turn educating and entertaining
young people that need the health
information the most.
“The site had never had much to do about HIV or Aids before so it was
a good way to lead into the topic,” says Simon.
Puffta realised that Adam would be able to speak to its young subscribers
about HIV in a way others could not and hopefully help them avoid contracting
the virus.
Adam (see interview, right) charts his experiences as a young, newly diagnosed
gay man coming to terms with the pitfalls and practicalities of living with
the virus on his spin-off site, positiveadam.co.uk.
He writes about everything from his diagnosis to his CD4 and viral load counts
and acts as an Agony Uncle for other
positive young men.
When Simon launched the site “for a bit of fun” six years ago
he was himself just 17. Puffta now attracts around half a
million hits from an estimated 17,000
visitors each month.
‘How to have sex at 16’; ‘Is your boyfriend cheating on
you?’, ‘risqué sex’, and ‘how to cope with
bullying’ are
typical Puffta fare.
It has a 3,000-strong mailing list, with 65 per cent of its subscribers in
the 13-21 year-old target group. Its aim is to reach out to a youth community
often overlooked or sidelined by other gay websites.
“It’s about health and understanding the gay scene and getting
to grips with
coming out,” says Simon.
“But it’s also about having fun, feeling empowered and getting
some free stuff.’
He thinks it is comparable with girlie magazines like Sugar or Mizz in style
and content, only it’s online and for gay boys.
“There wasn’t anything out that was suitable for gay teens, and
being 17 myself at the time, I felt I was in a position to know what they
wanted.”
“Other gay teen sites are more about driving home health issues, coming
out issues and protesting for rights. I think there has to be a balance,”
says Simon, “and I think puffta.co.uk has that.”
The magazine provides features,
competitions and articles written entirely by a hardcore group of enthusiastic
and equally young gay volunteers.
“It’s a launch pad for new talent.
They get experience, freebies and the opportunity to go to launch parties.
They definitely enjoy seeing their work
published online, and some have gone on to write for other magazines.”
ADAM SAYS…
PN asked Positive Adam why he thought young men were still taking
risks.
They don’t think HIV is going to
happen to them. I hear it all the time that they’ll only have sex with
their partner, and it won’t include the use of condoms. Not using condoms
is like the Holy Grail of supposedly finding a relationship that is stable
and monogamous. It’s great they are getting tested, but at the same
time, it doesn’t prove anything for long. A negative result doesn’t
mean you will stay negative.
So what’s behind this wave
of unsafe sex among young
gay men?
During the 80s, when there wasn’t any kind of treatment available, we
were just kids. We didn’t watch our friends die. We’re entering
into a new cycle where more and more teens and young gay men are becoming
positive, and are going to have to face up to HIV and Aids.
What were the factors behind you becoming positive?
I was having a lot of sex when I
seroconverted, partly to validate myself as being wanted, but also because
of the kind of sex I’m into. Guys into the same kind of stuff weren’t
my age, they were older, more experienced and into ‘chem sex’
and barebacking. The internet is riddled with them, and that’s where
almost all of my encounters came from.
What about emails from other HIV positive young guys?
Each makes me feel confident about my future and I hope my responses make
them feel the same. It’s the
negative lads that have emailed me that seem to be frightened, but if they
use a condom and play safe, they’ll live long and get to fuck more.
Do young people see HIV as a manageable
chronic illness?
It is manageable to a point. Combination therapy has come a long way in the
last 15 years. I have friends that didn’t have any treatment options
when they were first diagnosed. Now they’ve got undetectable viral loads
and CD4 counts well above 500. The drugs don’t make it an easy ride,
though. There are side effects, problems with resistance and the possibility
they won’t work.
Has writing the online journals been a therapy for you?
It’s human nature to tell people the bad things that are going on in
your life. I can never keep my mouth shut and I’ve found this a great
way to tell as many people as possible about the dangers of what I’ve
been up to over the past year.
Do you think current HIV awareness campaigns are
reaching the young?
I haven’t seen a single campaign aimed at teens. They
concentrate on the older generation of gay men, but it’s the younger
generation that are most at risk and seem to feel invincible. Sex education
needs to go further than talking about heterosexual reproduction. That’s
not all sex is for. It makes you feel good, gets you off and, if you’re
in a relationship, can be an expression of your love. If the schools aren’t
going to teach teens, who will?
Have you told your parents about your diagnosis?
I haven’t told them yet. I’m the youngest in the family. I’m
still my mum’s baby and always will be. I’ve set myself a target
of telling them when I’m 30. I’m certain it will mean educating
them about my health and the implications of HIV.
What do you think has helped you cope with your diagnosis most?
One of my best friends is also positive. I knew he was positive before I was
diagnosed. I remember going to the clinic to get my results and calling him
immediately.
How does HIV affect your sexual relationships now?
I’ve told a few casual partners. What is scary is so many of them have
also said they’re positive. In general, negative guys have reacted well.
I haven’t told all my sex partners - I don’t feel the need to.
If you’re safe, why should you? I’m thinking, ‘they’ve
more than likely had safe sex with positive people who haven’t told
them’. Some guys online ask if you’re “clean” or “disease
free”. That’s insensitive and I wouldn’t want to meet somebody
like that anyway.
Is it easy to meet other HIV positive young people?
I’m not aware of any youth groups especially for positive lads. Sexually,
young people don’t do it for me. I’ve chatted to a few through
my website. Perhaps I can start a group?
What advice would you give to newly diagnosed positive youngsters?
It’s not an end to your health. Don’t give up school or work.
Don’t give up on yourself, and don’t destroy your health. Going
out, doing drugs and tiring yourself out every weekend isn’t going to
help you. Protect yourself and each other. We’re going to be around
for a long time.
• www.puffta.co.uk
www.positiveadam.co.uk
adam@positiveadam.co.uk
