LOVELIFE ON GAY MATTERS

By Lesego Tlhwale (BTM Intern)

SOUTH AFRICA – 17 June 2009: Despite research showing that HIV prevalence among young people is declining, LoveLife, South Africa’s national HIV campaign for young people, has announced a new initiative in a continuous fight against this virus.

Marketed as the formula to success, LSquared-Loving Life, MCubed-Making My Move (L2M3) aims to change social thinking by confronting issues of identity and self worth by teenagers.

Trina DasGupta of LoveLife says the formula will address the universal teen feelings of invisibility and the desire for acceptance.

“L2M3’s main aim is to get young people to think about their future and how to make moves to achieve their goals. So what sets this campaign apart from the previous Make YOUR Move which told the LoveLife generation to make their move is that it urges youth to proudly shout that they are making their move and encourages the rest of the country to join the movement and follow suit.”

While research indicates that more sexually active young people report consistent condom use LoveLife says this is not enough.

“Despite high levels of awareness and knowledge about HIV and how to protect themselves from being infected, young people, especially those in marginalised communities, tend to tolerate risk more, due to their perception of a lack of immediate opportunity”, LoveLife said in a statement.

While L2M3 seems like an important initiative focusing on young people, lesbian, gay bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) teens have, in the past, said that they feel sidelined by LoveLife’s initiatives as its messaging is seemingly exclusive and heterosexual.

However LoveLife says that its programmes are inclusive of all young people from all walks of life including gays and that its Call Centre deals with lesbian and gay matters almost daily.

“We see gay and lesbian youth the same as heterosexual youth. Young people deal with similar problems in growing up”, said Fareed Mohammed of LoveLife.

Mohammed added that since loveLife offers telephonic services it only makes referrals to organisations that work closely with gay matters such as the Gay and Lesbian Memory in Action (GALA), OUT LGBT-Wellbeing, Traingle Project etc.

Musa Ngubane of Triangle Project (TP) confirmed that LoveLife has working relationships with them.

“TP has in the past and still continues to work with LoveLife on a loose basis, there was never any formal agreement, contract nor memorandum of understanding but the works mostly center around referrals where LoveLife sends LGBTI and questioning individuals residing in the Western Cape to us.”