Who are you?

Staying Negative is an exciting health promotion campaign that uses members of the community to promote health. This is an opportunity for you to get involved in the community and help others to learn from your experiences.

We ask people to volunteer their personal stories for the campaign and then we post these stories at www.stayingnegative.net.au Links are inserted in the stories to provide extra information and referrals.

To get these stories, we interview you about growing up, coming out, relationships, first sexual experiences, and the scene. If you don’t feel comfortable disclosing something, then don’t!

Once we have typed up the transcript of your story, we send it to you to edit. This way you have full control over what gets published and what doesn’t. When you are 100 percent happy with your story, we publish it on the site along with a photo and your first name.

Then a graphic designer creates an advert specifically for your story. This will then go into papers like Southern Star Observer and you will get a month dedicated to you in our highly sought-after Staying Negative Calendar. For privacy reasons, we don’t use your photo in our adverts.

A common hesitation that people have when considering telling their story is that they don’t think their story is relevant or interesting. However, the purpose of the campaign is not to get safe-sex heroes or to get risk-takers. The campaign’s strength comes from the fact that the stories are just from gay/bisexual men who are happy to talk about their experiences.

Participating in the Staying Negative Campaign is a quick and easy way that you can give back to the community and get a professional advert designed just for you! Plus you get the knowledge and satisfaction that your story is helping to support other gay/bisexual men’s health.

Visit the site and have a look. If you think you or someone you know might be interested, email me and let me know. We would love to get you on board.

info: Follow us on Twitter @stayingnegtve to keep up to date with the latest stories on Staying Negative. Email me at [email protected] to get involved.

By Ilan Werbeloff – Victorian Aids Council (VAC).