2Klub - Sex

Sex... Twenty years on, and AIDS is still one of the factors which differentiates the life experiences of gay people from those of straight people.	My friends Timothy, Steven, Robert and Dzung at Toronto Gay Pride, 2001.
Recent statistics of infection of various sexually transmitted diseases suggest that people have grown more relaxed about having safer sex. However, HIV infection and AIDS have not gone away and infection cannot be cured. HIV attacks the body's natural protection, the immune system. Treatments generally aim to suppress the spread of the HIV virus within the body and to treat or prevent the large number of opportunistic infections which can result from a suppressed immune system, or to counter the side-effects of the other treatment drugs. Current treatments have significantly increased the life expectancy of people with HIV from what it was when the disease was first identified in 1984, but, both psychologically and physically, becoming HIV positive is no picnic.	My friends and I lost Timothy on 11th. March 2002. He is remembered with love by us all for his gentleness, wry humour, his sensitivity and artistry and the many other qualities which made him a fine human being. All our lives were enriched by knowing him. He had contracted the Human Immuno-deficiency Virus from his boyfriend, (who didn't know he was infected), when in his late twenties and he died in his late thirties.

For more info about general health issues for gay men and lesbians click on the Gay and Lesbian Switchboard - West Midlands link on the 2Klub links page.	For general information relating to clubbers' health click on the clubbershealth website logo on the links page. This site has some useful general information and more links to other interesting sites.