Sex Education: Silence In Class

95% of all people aged 16-24 who took part in a THT survey on sex education who did not learn about LGBT sex and relationships.

97% thought sex and relationships education should be LGBT inclusive.

You can read the full report, 'SRE: Shh... No Talking' here.

Advertising: Designed By Robots

Gaytoz.com

Private Eye calls this unforunate pairing of computer-generated ads 'Malgorithms'.

THT: A Matter Of Trust

The chief executive of one of Britain's biggest HIV charity was forced out after a "nasty, vindictive and sustained campaign of bullying" which began on her second day in the job, a tribunal heard.

Dr Rosemary Gillespie claimed trustees at the Terrence Higgins Trust ignored alleged sexual misconduct and "potentially criminal behaviour" at the charity.

And she alleged how the vice-chairman of trustees groped and tried to kiss the male medical director of the charity after getting drunk at a Christie's fundraising auction.

Dr Gillespie, who was brought in to carry out a reorganisation of THT, claims she was forced out of the job after 15 months in July last year after she began investigating the behaviour of trustees.

She said she was appointed CEO in April 2014 "with a clear mandate from the trustees to lead what was widely seen to be much needed changes at the charity".

She is now taking the charity to the Central London Employment Tribunal, claiming she was dismissed after raising several "legitimate public interest concerns" to the trustees.

She told the hearing: "Trustees should have provided support and worked with me and the executive team, to deliver the outcomes and objectives including those agreed in the listening exercise.

"Instead, trustees used the destructive behaviour of a small number of staff resistant to change and scrutiny of their own performance, as a lever to provide legitimacy to their decision to remove me from my post.

"These staff had waged a campaign to remove me from my post; tried to remove me through the 360 process (the management appraisal); and sought to incite 'no confidence' in me amongst colleagues.

"It is clear that when the same solid organisational and financial rigour was applied to trustees and their own behaviour, including after I raised a number of public interest concerns including sexual misconduct and potential criminal behaviour, they refused to tolerate legitimate scrutiny of their own behaviour and removed me from office."

The public interest disclosures included her concerns over an alleged "breach from the trustee's legal obligations" to act in the best interest of the charity in relation to the management of money... 

Telegraph.

Fagburn believes that everyone who works in the HIV/Aids charity sector is a saint with a heart made of solid gold, and refuses to believe a word of this.

They should all be paid even more!

PS The THT has an annual income of £19 million - which would pay for a heck of a lot of leaflets.

Please think about other organisations who may need your money more before donating to them.

HIV/Aids UK 2014: Hardship

Thousands of people with HIV have been left struggling in poverty by the Government's welfare reforms – with some unable to afford the basic food they need to fight their condition.

The situation is now so critical that in some cases doctors are having to prescribe food supplements to ensure that patients' medication works, The Independent on Sunday has learned.

A national hardship fund for people with HIV/Aids, run by the Terrence Higgins Trust (THT), registered a 63 per cent increase last year in those needing emergency help because their benefits had been stopped.

HIV experts described the situation as "truly alarming", saying it was "nothing short of a disgrace" that seriously ill patients in modern Britain were having their treatments compromised by hunger. HIV medication can be less effective if taken without food.

Changes to sickness benefits introduced by the coalition – alongside other welfare reforms such as the so-called bedroom tax – have left many HIV patients significantly worse off.

Stringent criteria for employment support allowance, assessed by the now notorious Atos Healthcare, means that many have been moved off sickness benefits altogether. The replacement of the disability living allowance with the personal independence payment is also affecting growing numbers...

Independent On Sunday.

This is in the IoS, so might be hyped up for the usual reasons.
Doesn't help that the only personal account they highlight is a woman complaining that she can't afford to shop at Waitrose anymore.
But it fits my narrow agenda, so... whatever. 

Persistent death threats against staff who decide whether sick and disabled people are eligible for benefits have forced the private company employing them to seek an early exit from a £500m government contract.
With opposition Labour MPs also stepping up criticism, Atos Healthcare said the political environment had become untenable and that it was no longer fair to employees to leave them vulnerable to attack...

Financial Times, February 20th. 

As this article goes on to say, ATOS's real problem is that they were exposed as corporate crooks, officially declared incompetent, and driven by callous targets for striking claimants off. 

Thought For The Day: Nick Partridge

"Many people in the gay community thought the 'gay plague' would be used to roll back the small legal advances that we had made towards equality. Actually, the reverse happened. The community's compassionate response to seeing death and dying painted a much richer picture of the lives of lesbians and gay men. It provided the platform for the extraordinary advances to equality that we have seen in the past 15 years."

Nick Partridge, the outgoing head of Terrence Higgins Trust, is profiled in The Guardian.

PS It's often seen as a no-brainer for well-meaning gayers to raise money for the THT, but, with an income of around £20million a year, there may be many other groups far more in need of your money.

FT Weekend: Bona Lattie

This week's obligatory gay feature in FT Weekend is an interview with Nick Partridge, chief executive of the Terrence Higgins Trust.
I think the main point is to shake the proverbial bucket in front of the FT's wealthy readership, and more specifically to plug the THT's 30th Anniversary Auction at Christie's on March 21st.
So Nick does talk about the trust's origins and early days - “Every year between 1985 and 1997, at least one of our trustees would get sick and die – and then so would our volunteers...” - and current work.
They also "skirt around" criticism of the effectiveness of their HIV prevention work with gay men. 
But it's a rather strange piece as it's an At Home With... feature, and so keeps suddenly turning into a guided tour of Partridge's - admittedly lovely-looking - house in "up-and-coming" Peckham.
From what I know, Nick Partridge has always seemed like one of the good guys, and this may have been the only way of getting a significant and sizable plug in what's basically a high-end lifestyle magazine, but this did seem rather "odd", to say the least.

David Cairns MP: 1966-2011

"THT is greatly saddened to hear of the death of Inverclyde MP David Cairns. Through his work as Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on HIV and AIDS, David championed the needs of people living with, or at risk of, HIV and AIDS in the UK and globally.
"He was an influential and dynamic campaigner who brought a huge amount of enthusiasm and dedication to his work with the HIV sector. He was also a very warm, empathetic and engaging man who will be greatly missed. Our thoughts are with his partner and family at this extremely sad time."

Terrence Higgins Trust's Chief Executive, Sir Nick Partridge.
Hmm...

Elizabeth Taylor: 1932-2011

Any friend of Tito's was a friend of mine...

• Usually if you read the words "gay icon" all it means is that the person who wrote them is an idiot who doesn't know what they're talking about. Because of Liz's friendship and support of queens from Monty Clift to Michael Jackson, and her genuinely pioneering work to remove the stigma of HIV/Aids, this was a rare instance when it was actually appropriate: Elizabeth Taylor: A New Gay Icon - Paul Flynn, The Guardian; Statement from THT; John Waters remembers Taylor in The Baltimore Sun; Helen Rumbelow in The Times announced 'Elizabeth Taylor Was a 'Patron Saint' For Gays'.
What are "gays", please?

Young Gay Men & HIV: A Youthful 38

Yesterday's Guardian ran a feature 'Young Gay Men Fueling HIV Epidemic, Study Warns', written by Sarah Boseley, the health editor.
"The HIV epidemic in Europe, including the UK, is being fuelled by the risky behaviour of young gay men, according to research published today.
"Public messages and campaigns about the dangers of unsafe sex do not appear to be getting through to men who have sex with men, the researchers say – particularly the young ones."
Young gay men today, eh? They don't know they're born!
The Guardian piece was syndicated to the US blog Queerty who ran the story with the photograph above, and a new title; 'Young White Gay Men Fueling HIV's Spread In Europe, Thanks to Bareback Sex'.
Cue more wailing and gnashing of teeth at our irresponsible gay youth.
The Terrence Higgins Trust's Nick Partridge wrote to The Guardian's letters page to point out their piece had a distinctly wonky take on the reasearch and its findings:
"Many gay men in their 30s would be delighted to be called young (Young gay men ignoring safe sex, HIV study warns, 7 September). The youngest man in the study was 32, and the average age was 38. While young gay men are of course at risk, the majority of gay men with HIV are actually infected in their 30s and 40s."

Crusaid: Money Problems

Unsurprising news - Crusaid and the THT (Terrence Higgins Trust) are to merge.
Crusaid, a charity that give grants to people living with HIV who have financial problems, have had some of their own - and are blaming the recession.
The organisation says that in 2008/9, it distributed £374,774 to 2,106 individuals through its hardship fund; important work, particularly so during this recession.
But that's just 40% of its total income.
So where does the other 60% go?
You might think that a charitable organisation working with people in poverty would be transparent about this and how much its top bods earn.
But try and find this in their annual report and you'll be lost in a maze of corporate doublespeak.
Anyone?