How "Healthy Hustling" was made

In March 1994, headlines in the London Free Press screamed "Child Porn Suspect has HIV: One of the child victims involved in the police investigation has tested positive." The story ran in all of the Toronto dailies. There were claims that police were trying to locate as many as 140 boys who may have been infected while incarcerated at a youth detention centre in London, Ontario. Politicians were proclaiming that the issue of HIV testing in jails needed to be reconsidered. Hostility and hysteria were being whipped up by the police and the press with lies and misinformation.

Maggie's wanted to respond with something that congratulated boys in the business for educating themselves and their communities and encouraged them to play safe as well as work safe. A preliminary version of "Healthy Hustling" was developed which lacked actual statistics from the studies. Maggie's wanted to gather feedback before distributing the cards in London. We took the cards to the Toronto boys stroll on several occasions where they received a cool reception. We determined that the card would have been seen as more useful if it had provided specific statistics from the studies that could be used by hustlers in their defence when male prostitutes were accused of spreading HIV.