Community members have raised concerns over the lack of safe-sex education available at this year’s Sexpo event in Perth.
OUTinPerth was contacted by concerned community members last month who were surprised to find no safe-sex stalls at the industry-funded event.
But Sexpo event manager Tracy Browning said community organisations were invited although some WA organisations did not have the resources.
‘At most Sexpos around the country we offer free space to non – profit organizations, including the AIDS Council, Sexual Health services, sex worker support and university studies in Sexual Health issues,’ she said.
‘We had actually made this offer to several of these services in WA but unfortunately they could not participate due to a lack of resources ie staffing etc.’
Despite the apparent shortfall, Browning said educational and health-related seminars were very well received this year. WA AIDS Council was one of the organisations that did not attend Sexpo this year. WAAC executive director Trish Langdon said the decision of not having a stall came down to ‘logistic and strategic reasons’.
‘The WA AIDS Council in conjunction with FPWA have previously had stalls at Sexpo, with resources, information regarding safe sex, related sexual health matters and sexually transmissible infections available for the punters,’ Langdon said.
Langdon found Sexpo to be ‘overwhelmingly heterosexual in nature’ and costed the government-funded organisation a ‘huge impost’.
‘The punters did not engage with us because there were many more “appealing†things on offer such as cheap sex toys, ‘entertainers’ such as strippers etc and alcohol,’ she said.
Ms Langdon suggested that one of the possibilities would be for organisers to be lobbied to ensure there are some safe-sex messages throughout the expo in the future.
Benn Dorrington
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