Charity behind the sex question
BASEDLGBT Foundationin Manchester’shas achievedGay Village, influence the over every NHS patient’s life despite its relatively small size.
The charity, which employs 43 staff, has been lobbying the NHS for the past seven years to win support for its controversial plan for all patients to be asked about their sexuality.
The foundation – whose patron is actor Sir Ian McKellen – said yesterday that in addition to a £32,338 grant to prepare the guidelines on questioning patients about their sexuality, NHS England had awarded it another £43,000 to promote the policy over the next two years. Alongside the campaign, it works directly with gay men, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender people. Its work includes handing out safe-sex packs to men taking part in group sex. Its staff have also carried out HIV testing in a porn studio and provided health advice for people taking part in ‘chemsex’, the use of drugs during sex. According to its annual report, it hands out more than 500,000 condoms a year. The LGBT Foundation said its claim that the ‘vast majority’ of the wider population found it acceptable to be questioned about their sexuality was based on work by the Office for National Statistics.