ver worry about catching a Sexually Transmitted Disease? Knowing what to look out for can help you not catch or spread STDs. Pain when you piss, a sore or growth are signs to watch for.

Know your Body! You can get gonorrhea, syphilis, herpes or warts in your dick, throat or ass. Look and feel regularly for anything unusual. Use a mirror and flashlight. Check your dick for pus before you piss. Examine your sex partners too.

Think you might have an STD? Don't pass it on. Avoid sex with others or use condoms. Condoms guard against most diseases that can be caught during sex. But, an uncovered herpes sore or wart can still spread to any bare skin it touches — including somewhere else on you. (Warts can spread fast and best be removed.)

Sooner the better! Most STDs can be tested for and cured. If not treated, many STDs can damage organs and make you very sick.

To test pus or discharge: Your pisshole, asshole or throat is wiped with swabs which are sent to a government lab. There are also piss tests for some STDs. Treatment (large doses of antibiotic) is often offered at the time of the test rather than waiting for results. Pus in your shit or a raw, sore throat could be gonorrhea.

Discharge isn't always an STD. Piss after you cum to rinse germs out of your dink. Wash with soap to kill germs before and after sex.

A chancre (painless ulcer) could mean you caught syphilis. Once it's healed, you can have syphilis for years without knowing, or spreading it. A blood test is used to check for syphilis.

Tests showing syphilis, chlamydia or gonorrhea are reportable. Medical staff must give your name to the government. You'll be asked for names and phone numbers of sex partners. Anyone you name must, by law, get an STD test! You can be arrested and forced to take treatment.

To keep your sex life private: Free walk-in clinics don't need your BC med card. Records can be used in court, so use a fake name ("no ID"). Don't discuss your sex life. "Condom broke" is enough reason for a test. Don't name sex partners ("one-night stand"). Inform them yourself.

Never talk about anything you've done that might be a crime, such as sex in public, group sex, sex for money or using drugs. Don't take part in research or drug trials.

Vancouver Free Clinics:

• Bute St. Clinic, 1170 Bute St.
• Downtown Health, 412 E. Cordova
• Main St. Clinic, 219 Main St.
• Native Health, 449 E. Hastings St.
• STD Control, 655 W. 12th Ave.

Drawings (lifted without permission) are by Brad Parker ("Ace Moorcock") from Omaha, Nebraska; born 1961. You can find his sex comics in Oh Boy! (1988) and Meatmen (Vols. 1 - 9).

TRAILBOYS 1999
trailboys@walnet.org
http://www.walnet.org/trailboys/