Coming soon... hot sex now / Terrence Higgins Trust.

This is an A2 poster issued by the Terrence Higgins Trust in 1992 as part of their ongoing campaign to encourage gay men to use condoms while having penetrative sex as a means of preventing transmission of the HIV virus. It is linked in to a specific campaign called ‘Tales of gay sex’ which included a series of small fold-out photo-story booklets, each taking a different sexual theme but all carrying the same message: use a condom when you have sex. There were at least 2 posters using images from these booklets, using the ‘Hot sex now’ slogan which would have been used mostly in gay clubs, gay pubs and STD clinics. This one shows two white men and a black man stripped to the waist against a brick wall and some machinery. At this time the Trust was trying to make condom use sexy as well as essential. The poster was handed out at the 1992 Gay Pride festival. The Terrence Higgins Trust was established in 1982, becoming a formal organisation the following year and the first recognized UK charity aimed specifically at fighting AIDS and HIV infection in January 1984. It was named after one of the first people to die of AIDS in Britain and has been the leading the battle against the disease ever since, lending support (the telephone helpline is advertised here) and educating people about it, encouraging safer sex as a means of preventing HIV infection.