Meet your new best M8

Community health organisation ACON this week launched a magazine aimed at educating gay men about relationships and sex.

Called M8, the one-off free magazine is being distributed in this week’s Sydney Star Observer, at bars and clubs and in all ACON branches.

Brad Gray, manager of ACON’s education unit, said M8 was developed to inform gay men about negotiating relationships and safe sex in a fun and colourful way.

It’s kind of a Cleo magazine for poofs, Gray said of the 44-page publication.

It’s focused on relationships and it’s full of stuff we think is important for gay men to think about.

Issues touched upon include communicating with your boyfriend, finding Mr Right, monogamous and open relationships, relationships where one partner is HIV-positive, and domestic violence in same-sex relationships.

One feature story called Generation Sex looks at three men from different generations and their varying views on relationships. Another investigates how to safely negotiate the issue of having sex without condoms in a relationship. Another looks at what life is like when you’re single and HIV-positive.

There’s also a quiz to help you work out what kind of lover you are.

Gray said similar ACON magazines had proved popular in the past.

The last one ACON did was around five years ago, he said. They always get snapped up so quickly, it’s incredible. It’s a great way to reach the community and we’d like to do them more regularly.

We think they’re really valuable. I mean something like 25 percent of HIV infections happen within relationships so we’re really keen to address the issue.

One of ACON’s next publications will be an anal health booklet, which will be released within the next six months.