GEXIII [Kent] troe2339 hosts LGBT event

Today the Labour candidate for Kent, troe2339, hosted an event meant to raise awareness of the struggles of LGBT persons. The press was invited for the first part of the event which included some speeches, one from Troe himself, but also from a local Labour politician as well as an HIV/AIDS victim and activist. The proceeds from the event, which had a small entrance fee and sold drinks and food, will be donated to NAT (National AIDS Trust) and Stonewall. Troe gave a few remarks to the reporters that showed up. 

“I am glad you could come here today. While I am running for MP for this constituency, today isn’t as much about my political campaign, but more about the LGBT community of Kent as well as raising awareness about HIV. HIV is a terrible thing, which still disproportionately hits parts of the LGBT community such as younger, gay men. We need to raise awareness about the STI and make sure that young people protect themselves and their partners. The UK has come a long way in this, but we can still do even better, and my hope is that one day HIV and AIDS are negligible in the overall health picture of young British people. There have been taken steps, new medications, both pre-emptive ones and post-exposure ones, have been developed and our sex education in schools has gotten better, but we cannot become complacent. We mustn’t stop until we can be sure that every man, woman and person in this country is aware of the risk and knows how to, and actually does, protect themselves.”

After the main talks of the event there was some entertainment by local musicians and the Troe together with some local Labour Party members gave out free condoms without any branding. To this Troe said: “Well, we did think about putting branding on the condoms, but then I thought that I wouldn’t want anyone to say no to one or to not use one because it carried a political message. You don’t have to be a member of my party, or even like my politics, for your sexual health to matter. Everyone should protect themselves.”

The candidate also posed for some selfies and pictures, not all of which turned out great, but to counter this it seemed he attempted to be silly on purpose in a lot of the photos. He reminded a few people to upload their photos with the hashtag #TroeForMP while he encouraged others to write a message about HIV/AIDS to raise awareness.