06/04/2002 "Gays will learn defensive skills"

Gays will learn defensive skills

GAY men who use pick-up "beats" in Melbourne's Port Phillip will learn how to avoid physical attacks through a new training program.

The Victorian AIDS Council is recruiting people who frequent known beats - such as Alma Park or Point Ormond - for training under a new version of its Beat Outreach Program.

The move follows several assaults in known beats this year, including a vicious attack on a man by a group of youths, one armed with a baseball bat, in Point Ormond Ave in April.

In another incident, two men were attacked with a machete by a group of youths in Alma and Elwood parks. A man has been charged with multiple assault and robbery offences in relation to the attack.

AIDS Council executive director Mike Kennedy said physical safety was one of the key concerns of the program.

" But there's also safety in terms of health - reducing HIV and sexually transmitted diseases," Mr Kennedy said.

Previous outreach programs involved volunteers talking to beat users about safe sex, but this version aimed to change the beat culture from within, he said.

"What this is doing is saying, let's take people from the environment, give them a set of ski I Is, put them back in and change the way in which that happens for everybody," he said.

"The benefit will be felt by people who we will not know, who we will never see."

The program is also going online for the first time, with users of chatrooms learning how to keep safe when meeting potential partners in person.

A recent increase in HIV infections in Victoria had also provided an impetus for the program, Mr Kennedy said.

"We see this as something where we need to create an environment that supports safe sex," he said.

The council hopes to train about 40 people through the program, which is also focusing on users of sex-on-site premises, by the end of the year.

A spokeswoman for Victoria Police, which has been working with the council on the program, did not return the Leader's calls by press time.