Guerrilla Five Years Action: AIDS prevention for gay men on the club scene

André Witbreuk

Sad-Schorer Foundation, PB 15830, 1001, Amsterdam Phone no: +31 (020) 662 42 06 Fax no: +31 (020) 662 42 06

The AIDS prevention team in Amsterdam consists of just two people, although there are 50,000 gay men and women living there and the same number of gay tourists visit ever year. Even though there are almost 100 commercial gay venues, HIV and AIDS is a huge problem. The city still does not think highly enough of the sexual health of these people. The Gay Games alone brought in NLG30 million in 1998, but there is still no money for adequate prevention.

There are many crossovers between drugs prevention and sexual health promotion. Harm reduction is becoming as familiar a term in sexual health work as it has been for years in the field of drugs. The holistic approach is strongly believed in, whereby HIV and AIDS issues are integrated into the broader picture of sexual health and general well being. One of the most exciting examples of that link was the co-operation of Unity, a local drugs group, with the ‘Safe Sex Guerrillas’. The club scene approached the Guerrillas to ask for help in creating a safe environment, and not the other way around.

The Guerrillas were given the freedom to create a whole new concept for the party. We provided a fruit bar, a ‘chill out’ room, a strobe in the dark room so people could actually see what they were doing and someone to give massages. Unity were also there with florescent displays, amongst other things. The ‘Safe Sex Guerrillas’ is one of the 16 projects geared towards educating gay men and women about HIV and AIDS and keeping that topic on the agenda in the commercial scene. Like other organisations, they also train bar staff to cope with HIV, AIDS, drugs and violence, in their Bar Support Shop. Initially bar staff were recruited by bargaining with attractive t-shirts in exchange for attending training programmes, and the response was really great. The training lasted two hours. The first hour consisted of an HIV quiz, and in the second hour counsellors worked with people in small groups. This is done annually and now staff are actually sent to us for training. They are treated as professionals and experts and they love it. They, together with hairdressers, drag queens, DJs, VJs, journalists and artists, have become new volunteers. They make their living working on the scene and therefore know exactly what the issues are. By placing responsibility for sexual health where it belongs, namely with the owners of clubs, bars and saunas, HIV and drugs prevention becomes an integrated part of that scene. These are small but important contributions in creating a gay community that can be self-supporting.

A survey in 1993 showed that the risk perception of young gay men in clubs was not adequate. For example, one commented: "I am young so I can’t get AIDS". The Safe Sex Guerrillas devised their own method of AIDS prevention, that is short, sharp and shocking non-verbal acts. Talking over loud music to club kids who are ‘out of their heads’ is no use. The Guerrillas stamp their logos onto people’s backsides or chests, or hang notices on bicycles for people to read when they get to wherever they are going that night. They take conventional methods one step further and charge the clubs for their acts so that they could be taken just as seriously as any other club act. This has worked; their exposure has been, and still is, huge. They have handed out thousands of condoms. The Guerrillas do not pretend that they save lives but they certainly have altered the way that the commercial scene relates to prevention agencies.

As well as the stage show, workshops are given to similar organisations in Holland and abroad to teach people how to recruit people, how to test whether the audience gets the message and how to set up the bookings and all the other things that are associated with the work. Posters and leaflets are also produced.

The ‘peer education’ principle is used to try to get a diverse group out of the scene and let them think about what they do.

Whether they are [HIV] positive or negative, black or white, or whatever, does not matter. The more diverse the better. At first the Safe Sex Guerrillas had to beg clubs to perform their act and now they are so popular that they are unable to do all the work asked of them since the volunteers do not get paid. They work roughly once every two weeks all over Europe because there are no other organisations like them. There is, however, a great need for this work. It is tiring but fun, ‘in your face’ and creative.