Fridae

"Most lesbians who prefer oral sex with their partners are wrong to think they are completely safe from HIV," said Amporn Buntan, of the Youth Prevent AIDS project in Chiang Mai, according to the Bangkok Post. She, and other lesbian and gay leaders met at a seminar and discussed Aids and the gay community.

In Thailand, HIV is usually transmitted heterosexually - 94% of the time, according to forensics expert Pornthip Rojanasunan. Of course, that does leave 6% of transmissions between homosexuals. (This statistic is rather different from a study released by the WHO, which put the homosexual transmission rate quite a bit lower.)

She was concerned that Thai lesbians in general were less well informed about Aids and HIV than gay men. Male gay groups share information about Aids transmission, but the information doesn't get to the lesbian community, because of the perception that lesbians are safe from the virus.

"I was once unaware a lesbian could contract HIV. Such knowledge rarely comes to us, and we don't know where to get it," said Chantalak Raksayoo of the Anjaree Group.

Another factor preventing queer women from getting information is the fear of prejudice. The seminar participants called for an end to prejudice against lesbians and gays, which contributes to the spread of HIV as well as reducing the quality of life for people of alternative sexualities.