By Nick Everett
SYDNEY — The federal government's decision to stop funding Student Initiatives in Community Health (SICH) and the NSW Family Planning Association's Making Sense of Sex Project is a big blow to the fight against AIDS, said speakers at a public meeting here on March 3.
It is universally recognised that peer-based education is most effective in dealing with sexual questions, SICH national coordinator Tinza Lwyn told the meeting. "Gay men listen to other gay men, young people listen to other young people, and students of course listen to other students. The Department of Health is jeopardising students' health."
Federal health minister Brian Howe cut off funding for SICH in response to a piece of political satire in its magazine, Catalyst. The cut-off ends 17 years of work by the organisation on issues such as safe sex, women's health and Aboriginal health. "SICH was instantly defunded without consultation and without arbitration. The Department of Health executed us without a trial", said Lwyn.
"I wonder whether the pressure on community groups to explore new avenues of sex education because of the AIDS issue is not very threatening to a lot of medical and conservative groups", said journalist Wendy Bacon.
Making Sense of Sex Hotline workers Gemma Davies and Emily Christian say their service enabled young people to educate each other about sexual questions. The line's funding was cancelled along with that of its companion publication, the Fact and Fantasy File Diary.
Davies and Christian say their problems are largely due to media sensationalism, which presented the service as a sex fantasy hotline for 12-year-olds. "When they were interviewing us, we thought the story was going to be really great, but when we saw the story we were completely shocked."
The diary lost its funding in response to pressure on the federal government from NSW Premier Nick Greiner, even though it had previously been approved by the federal government.
The hotline is now continuing as a voluntary service run by 47 young people, "and even though the diary has been banned that does not really matter because I know that someone has republished it. It should still get out to everyone."
The hotline will now operate five days weekly from 4 to 7 p.m. on (02) 310 3878. For petitions defending the project and duplicate copies of the diary, contact Resistance on (02) 690 1977. SOS (Save Our SICH) can be contacted at Sydney University SRC on (02) 660 5051.