About GMFA's websites

This website is designed to improve gay men's health by providing the information that research has shown gay men most need. This website also aims to provide information about GMFA, the organisation that produces the website, as well as other health promotion resources for gay men in London and the UK. This website does not cover all aspects of gay men's health and it is intended to support and not replace the relationship between site visitors and their doctors or other professional health consultants.

This website is aimed primarily at gay men seeking information about their health and what services are available to them in the UK. It contains sexually explicit information and illustrations, which are intended to educate gay men, who all too often are provided with inadequate sexual health information at school. The site is therefore available to gay men of all ages who want to access information about gay sex and sexual health, however, gay men under 16 years of age should be aware that practising sex before the age of 16 is illegal in the UK (this law applies to sex between heterosexual men and women as well).

From time to time GMFA accepts third party banner advertisements from organisations providing free services that GMFA believes support gay men in improving their health. GMFA does not accept payment for these adverts and they are clearly labelled with the word 'Advertisement' underneath. GMFA's website provides information about third party organisations which offer services to gay men. GMFA is not responsible or liable for the quality of services offered by such organisations.

GMFA's website has been funded by:

Community donations to GMFA
The Pan London HIV Prevention Partnership
An Embrace YouChoose Community Award
The CHAPS (Community HIV & AIDS Prevention Strategy) Partnership

GMFA has complete editorial freedom over the content of its website, which is is free of any conflict of interest.

Biographies of contributing authors

These are the biographies of the authors of the health information on GMFA's websites:

Principal editor: Matthew Hodson

Matthew has been working in sexual health and HIV prevention for gay men since 1999. For GMFA Matthew has worked on campaigns and interventions for HIV positive gay men, facilitated GMFA’s Research group and managed GMFA’s HIV prevention mass media campaigns from 2001 to 2006, including the development of the award-winning ‘How HIV transmission works’ campaign. Matthew became GMFA’s Head of Programmes in 2006. Prior to working at GMFA, Matthew worked in marketing and advertising, and as an educator and curator at the Museum of London. Matthew writes regularly on health issues for the gay press.

Contributing author: Rob Dawson

Following a biology degree from Edinburgh University, Rob worked as a journalist specialising in health and science. His career moved into healthcare communication in 2003 and he worked in health promotion, public relations and medical education projects covering a variety of disease areas; including mental health, cancer and HIV. Rob has developed and managed award winning communications programmes (Communiqué awards for projects targeting both patients and healthcare professionals) for national and international audiences. For GMFA he has managed the development of HIV prevention Mass Media campaigns and booklets for gay men. He continues to write articles about sexual health and is a consultant editor for NAM, a community-based organisation which delivers HIV information across the world.

Chris Patmore

Chris has been involved in HIV work since 1996, when he joined GMFA as a volunteer. From 1996 to 2000, Chris was the Communications Group Co-ordinator at GMFA, working on mass media, PR and scene-based campaigns. During this time, he was also a member of the GMFA Board of Directors and held the position of Vice-Chair. Subsequently, Chris worked in the public relations sector, devising campaigns for global brands, before returning to GMFA in 2009. Chris project manages the development of GMFA's small media interventions, including HIV prevention booklets, postcards and leaflets.

Contributing author: Barrie Dwyer

Barrie has been involved in HIV work since 1992, initially volunteering for THT and then joining GMFA as a volunteer in 1994, and being employed in 1996. Barrie worked initially for the Safer Sex Group developing a large variety of interventions. From 2000 he was responsible for the marketing of counselling and groupwork provision to gay men in London and is now responsible for the National Groupwork provision in England & Wales as well as the Stop Smoking courses GMFA runs in London. He has been a groupwork facilitator for 14 years and an Assertiveness facilitator for 12 years.

Contributing author: Tim Molloy

Tim began working in the HIV sector in 1994 as a volunteer for George House Trust in Manchester. At GHT, Tim was involved with running the HIV-positive gay men’s peer support group and working on community and fundraising events. After moving to London and a few years away from HIV work, Tim joined GMFA in 2003 and project manages the development of GMFA’s interventions aimed at improving the health and well being of HIV positive gay men. Tim’s role also involves managing GMFA’s community events, including GMFA’s annual presence at Pride, World AIDS Day fundraising events and GMFA’s Gay Sports Day.

Terms and Conditions

GMFA owns the intellectual property rights in the website and material on the website. All our intellectual property rights are reserved.

You may view, download for caching purposes only, and print pages from the website providing that you do not republish material from this website or reproduce or store material from this website without GMFA’s permission. If you are a charity with similar aims to GMFA, we will normally grant permission when asked.

The information on this website is provided free-of-charge, and you acknowledge that it would be unreasonable to hold us liable in respect of this website and the information on this website.

Whilst we endeavour to ensure that the information on this website is correct, we do not warrant its completeness or accuracy; nor do we commit to ensuring that the website remains available or that the material on this website is kept up-to-date.

We may revise this disclaimer from time-to-time. Please check this page regularly to ensure you are familiar with the current version.

This disclaimer constitutes the entire agreement between you and us in relation to your use of our website, and supersedes all previous agreements in respect of your use of this website.

This notice will be governed by and constructed in accordance with English law, and any disputes relating to this notice shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of England.

GMFA is a charity (reg. charity no. 1076854) and company limited by guarantee 2702133). Our address is Unit 43, The Eurolink Centre, 49 Effra road, London, SW2 1BZ.

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