About

“Spread the Love” was a project aimed at increasing awareness of and access to STI (sexually transmitted infections) testing within the queer community—specifically for women, trans* people, intersex people and non-binary people—in Berlin. By working at a community peer-to-peer level, we hoped to raise awareness and de-stigmatise the practice of preventative STI testing. These topics are all shrouded in taboo, ignorance and misinformation, which is one reason that people are less likely to talk openly about them with peers. Queer people are especially affected by this as our sexuality already carries stigma in mainstream society, and parts of the queer community that are affected by other forms of marginalisation and oppression deal with this issue to an even greater extent. We hoped to make this issue visible and encourage discussion, exchange and de-mystification.

We did a lot of research on sexual health and STI testing in Berlin. We connected with different experts and sexual health organisers and gathered a lot of information. Based on the research, we created the web platform Fluide Berlin (http://fluidebln.de), which gives easy access to information about sexual health facilities in Berlin specifically targeted at groups within the queer community who have less access to sexual health centers.