Spain: HIV prevention campaign targets bears

With funding from Spain's Office of the National Plan Against AIDS, the State Federation of Lesbians, Gays, Transsexuals and Bisexuals (FELGBT) has just launched an HIV prevention campaign targeting Spaniard bears.

"Bears: Protected Species" is the first nationally funded HIV prevention campaign to target the bear community and consists of a stand-alone website ( ososcontraelsida.com ) which provides access to information about HIV and STD prevention, drug use as related to sexual risk taking, and directions and phone numbers for HIV testing sites throughout the country.

Once on the site you can click on "Descarga Campaña" in order to get access to the posters, post-cards, stickers and website banners for the campaign as well as a 32-page "Illustrated HIV prevention Guide."

In a press statement the FELGBT said that they had chosen to target men who identify with the bear scene "because they have an image of being healthy, robust men who appear not to be at risk of getting infected, but are in reality just as vulnerable when it comes to HIV as any other homosexual."

This is not the first time that Spain's gay bars have seen an HIV prevention campaign targeting the bear community. You might still remember that back in February of 2006 I featured the "BEARback yes, BAREback NO" campaign organized by bear event photographer Antinoo and some of his friends which was not officially sanctioned by the country's health departments but pretty effective as well.