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NON-ENGLISH SPEAKING MEN WHO HAVE SEX WITH OTHER MEN

As most gay men will know, beats (or cottages as they're known in England and tearooms as they're known in the US)are often used by so-called straight men who are seeking sex with other men. This has always been an issue in relation to HIV/AIDS education because these men often engage in unsafe sex ('because they're not gay' and therefore, they rationalise, not at risk).

A number of projects have been established to target these men but I set up one of the first to target Non-English speaking men. Some of the findings that we came up with were:

• In the Arabic community (and probably others) two men can have sex but only the passive partner is seen as 'gay'.
• The best way to talk to Arabic men about such issues is to talk in the third person (i.e. don't ask questions like "What do you do?". Ask instead about what some Arabic men might do)
• In most communities (including Anglo) men put different interpretations on words like 'fucking', 'having sex' and so on. For example, an Asian man told our one of my team members that he didn't fuck. However, when he went on to describe what he did it was clear that he did exaclty that. For him, however, 'fucking' only happened between gay men.
• Many Non-English speaking men will take education material written in English even though they can't actually read it. This is because they don't want to lose face by being seen to be unable to read English.

It was mainly for this latter reason that we started work on a multi-lingual brochure. Safe sex practices and issues are described in six or seven languages on the same page. Unfortunately the project (and money) was handed over to the AIDS Council for completion and, in consequence, never saw the light of day.

Because the images are very explicit (and we're being hosted by Geocities) I'm afraid I can't show the brochure. However, here's a section to give you osme idea of how we put the messages across. As you can see, by doing it this way, non-English speaking men got information in their own language without having to admit that they didn't speak English.

We also produced a report on our findings. It's called " The Impact of language and culture on the knowledge and practice of safe sex among men who use beats" (Well, what else would we call it!). The authors are Neil Poetschka, Robert Costa, Allan Brotherton, Garrett Prestage and myself. ISBN No. 07310 8201X.

Outreach work to non-gay identifying men who have sex with other men is not easy at the best of times. It requires incredible skill, sensitivity and commitment. It is also extremely dangerous as project workers are at risk of harrassment and violence from bashers, the police and even some of beat users. It is essential, therefore, that I record my admiration and thanks to the guys who worked on this project - Neil Poetschka, Robert Costa, Gary Rogl, Allan Brotherton, David Alpak and, from the AIDS Council, Philip Keen.

MAKING SERVICES ACCESSIBLE TO NON-ENGLISH SPEAKING COMMUNITIES

In order to advise our local Non-English speaking communities that we were accessible we produced a number of brochures describing our services in languages other than English. The Asian guy fronted up the Chinese, Korean and Vietnamese versions. We also produced one featuring an Arabic couple.

We also ensured that staff at all of our HIV/AIDS services were fully trained in cross-cultural issues.

Unfortunately we ignored the cardinal rule of health promotion - we failed to consult with the target communities about the design. So the brochure was still very much influenced by our original Anglo design.

It was also too expensive for us to place reasonably-sized ads in the ethnic press. So we compromised and placed a series of display ads in Vietnamese, Arabic, Chinese and Korean in the Sydney gay press. If nothing else, we wanted to put across to gays of Non-English Speaking Background that we were sensitive to their needs.

HEALTH CARE WORKER TRAINING VIDEO - WORKING WITH DIVERSITY

To continue our plans to make all HIV/AIDS services accessible to non-English speaking people I managed to raise funds to produce a training video. Working with Diversity deals with cross-cultural issues from counseling to clinical management.

Some of the issues that we addressed included:

• Shouting at a person who doesn't speak English doesn't make them understand any better.
• When faced with non-English speaking clients some health care workers involve other hospital staff (such as cleaners or drivers) or the clients children simply because they speak the clients language. This is inappropriate, insensitive and a major breach of confidentiality.

The video was launched by the NSW Minister for Health at the NSW Parliament House in Sydney. It went on to win an award at the International TV and Video Festival in Chicago in 1996.