Showing posts with label dental dam. Show all posts
Showing posts with label dental dam. Show all posts

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

STI test at the Hassle Free Clinic

Today I got up early to go to the Hassle Free clinic to get tested for sexually transmitted infections. My partner asked me where I was going, so I told her. It shocked the hell out of me when she asked if she could come. She had never been tested either and thought it was a good idea.
Strangely, I didn't wonder if she NEEDED one. We've only been sleeping together for a few weeks...frankly only dating for a short time more than that.
I wondered if it would be awkward to get tested with a new lover. That seems to be backward thinking to me.
Regardless, we went together. The Hassle Free Clinic is right on the corner of Church and Gerard. I went to Ryerson for four years; I lived not two blocks from that clinic. I had no idea it existed. I had been to the copy place below the Hassle Free to buy boot legged photocopies of text books. Why didn't I know that clinic exited?

Monday, October 25, 2010

Lesbians and Safe Sex

I'm a lesbian, nice to meet you.
It's always awkward to put that out there and I wouldn't if it wasn't a large part of this experiment.
Let me explain from the beginning.
When I was asked if I wanted to help develop a magazine about sex I thought I should because my sexuality, my experience and my contacts would diversify the magazine. I didn't think about how deep I would have to delve into my own sexuality, until I started to do research this story.
I always hear about using condoms. Make sure you use a condom, make sure you don't get pregnant. I'm not going to get pregnant, so why bother with a condom?
I could get diseases, yes, but I won’t.
It was my fellow editor Veronica Blake who asked me why I didn't think I would be afflicted with an STI.
I said what a lot of people say. "I know who I'm sleeping with."
Veronica pushed and asked who my partners had slept with, did I know them? Did I know they were STI free?
I didn't.