About Men's Sexual Health
This website began almost 20 years ago as an online version of the coming out guide, before developing as part of the men's sexual health service for Wiltshire and Swindon into the site it is today. When the service closed the two creators of the original site stepped in to keep the website alive and develop it as an independent news and information resource. Thank you to Wessex Community Action for helping make this happen.
Thanks also to those at the now closed HIV Prevention Service for their permission for us to reuse content from the Healthy Gay Hampshire and Positively Sexy websites: allowing us to bring back more useful information for gay and bisexual men that had been lost.
The new website team
The world for gay men and people living with HIV has changed a lot since we began the website in 1996, thankfully in the west for the better. But when Men's Sexual Health, after working so hard for the gay and bisexual men of Wiltshire, closed due to lack of government funding and the community resources on this website were at risk of being lost, we had to help keep it alive. We intend to do more than just keep the site open: we will update and in time expand the site to further help gay and bisexual men. Though we intend to develop the site with a UK focus, where possible we will make the information helpful to all gay and bisexual men. Without any formal funding we will grow slowly but this also allows us to offer information that we may not have been able to in the past.
Douglas T Newberry
Douglas left nursing 20 years ago where he had been the hospital volunteer HIV contact for Salisbury AIDS Support to run Salisbury Gay Men's Heath Project. His tasks there included co-writing the Coming Out guide (which began this website), an STI guide and laying the foundation for many community projects and support services as well as campaigning for an equal age of consent. Since that time Douglas has done several jobs including HIV Medical Research, Health Promotion and caring for his sick husband for eight years.
Coming out in a rural area in the south of England, then living in rural France, Douglas understands the isolation that can be felt. In France he set up and co-ordinated a social dining group and we hope to support and foster the formation of social networks however small, to form and prosper.
@DouglasTweeter on Twitter
Lee Corbin
Lee was a volunteer for Salisbury Gay Men's Health Project and helped write and edit many of the early guides and resources. Since developing the first GMHP site, Lee has worked on many websites, often within the areas of gay men's health and health promotion.
As well as being the tech guy behind the website, Lee developed the look of Men's Sexual Health, designing the logo and branding and many of the leaflets and campaign posters that the service used over the years.
Growing up in the eighties when getting good information about being gay wasn't as easy as it is today, means that Lee knows how important it is still for many people across the world to have easy access to this sort of information.
@leecorbin on Twitter
Dr Peter
Peter is a retired doctor whose past work included five years in sexual health for gay men and thirty years in general practice, in Scotland. This included some work with men who had psychosexual problems. He would like to make it clear that his advice on this site aims to be up to date, but that in case of doubt you should always consult a qualified doctor with suitable experience who is still licensed to practice.
Peter has a longstanding interest in mental health and his work has included chairing a group which advised the Scottish government on various aspects of planning for better mental healthcare in the community. This obviously included advising that this care was inclusive for all community members regardless of gender, sexual orientation, race or creed.
During his career he has seen levels of violence towards gay men and homophobia reduce however those abuses have contributed to significant mental health issues including isolation and low self esteem. Peter was one of a group who set up a healthy living centre for LGBT people with government funding. Although problems such as homophobia and bullying at school have not disappeared, the work of centres of this type has helped many LGBT people to overcome these prejudices and to fulfil their potential.
Peter has answered many questions in our Sexual Heath QAs section.
Your ideas are appreciated
We have lots of ideas for how we can develop this site and make it more interesting and engaging for gay and bisexual men across the UK and beyond. If you have any thoughts on what you would like to see on the new Men's Sexual Health website, please get in touch.