A PARTY to promote safer sex was yesterday criticised by a health
council official and the Bishop of Dunkeld, who said it was
''encouraging promiscuity''.
The function next Friday at a night club in Dundee is organised by the
Dundee Harm Reduction Team, a six-strong unit funded by the Dundee
Health Care Trust.
There will be a ''safer sex quiz''. Prizes include a year's supply of
condoms, T-shirts bearing the message Love and Passion Still in Fashion,
and ''passion pouches'' containing condoms and lubricating jelly.
Other prizes will be ''safer sex goodies bags'' which contain
pineapple rings, UHT cream, vanilla sauce, and chocolate and mint
flavoured condoms.
One of the organisers, Ms Rhoda MacRae, said: ''The prizes are just a
bit of fun to get folk talking. The spread of HIV among the heterosexual
community in Tayside has risen quite dramatically in the last few
months.''
She expects to give away more than 3000 condoms and Femidoms at the
party in Fat Sam's Night Club, where a stall will also distribute
leaflets.
The Right Rev. Vincent Logan, the Bishop of Dunkeld, called on people
opposed to the safer sex party to ''make their voices heard''.
He said: ''I am horrified to hear of this. It is abhorrent that public
money should be spent in this way. This is trivialising sex and
encouraging promiscuity.
''More responsibility should be encouraged, rather than
irresponsibilty which this initiative is promoting and fostering. At the
end of the day, the only safe sex is sex with one partner in marriage.''
Mrs Ruth Leslie Melville, vice chairperson of Tayside Health Council,
criticised the team for going over the top. ''This stunt is cheap,
shoddy, and tawdry. It is, after all, public money which is being
used,'' she said.
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