Role model Florian (33) summarises the "Drugs" theme week and explains how differently the scene reacted to the topic.
I realised that the topic of "sex and party drugs" would trigger different reactions within the scene. Critical, violent and divided reactions. That's how it was and that's how it should be.
However, I could not have foreseen that my interview, the video and the meaningfulness of the prevention message would be discussed so extensively.
When the first adverts with my message "The dose makes the poison" were published in the gay press last Monday, there was hardly any reaction at first. But the new focus of ICH WEISS WAS ICH TU was set.
However, when my interview was published on Facebook in the afternoon of the same day and my video on the topic a day later, the first comments were made. Our content was also found on many other pages and was sometimes the subject of heated debate.
When I went online on Tuesday morning, there were over 100 comments waiting for me. Of course, I could have let the campaign's press office alone reply to put the discussion, which sometimes greatly distorted the actual message, back into perspective. But I wanted to give the campaign a face. Not only in the video and on adverts, but also 1:1 in dialogue with critical users. So I repeatedly endeavoured to explain the actual meaning of my message in various forums. "No, I didn't want to advertise drugs. No, I didn't want to trivialise the issue and make light of it. No, I didn't want to encourage young gay men to take drugs. My comments were heard. The angry opponents of the campaign realised that the guy in the video was facing up to the issue. There were objective and constructive conversations with many of them online.
It was fine that these did not end in a common conviction. Because the topic polarises. Rather, it was important to me not to close my eyes to the reality: There is drug use. There are men who use drugs or have the firm intention of doing so. In my opinion, a prevention campaign like I KNOW WHAT I DO must respond to this. Gay men must be offered strategies and rules on the subject of safer use. In my opinion, anything else does not do justice to the topic and the challenges.
Many understood that. Some didn't want to understand. For one person, I was just as bad in the video as the Pope who banned condoms in Africa, the other quoted the CSU politician Gauweiler, who described AIDS patients as lepers in 1987.
Some church groups wrote to me in private emails saying they would pray for me. Others recommended a psychologist. I replied to all of them. Always friendly, always endeavouring to explain the real message. Whether all of this was a success: I think so, from Flensburg to the deepest part of Lower Bavaria, people have engaged with the topic this week, got excited, joined in the discussion and sometimes even changed their view of things.
Many users have encouraged me in private messages, thanked me for finally calling a spade a spade and categorised the issue as important. Employees of my own company have also spoken out publicly in my favour and family and friends have - despite their often controversial views on the subject - "liked" the topic, shared it and thus spread it further. At the Folsom street festival, the prevention game "Lay your cards" was able to inform numerous visitors to the stand about the risks of drug use and provide important educational work. And here too, both critics and supporters came to talk about the topic. "Thank you for someone finally not mincing their words," said a Folsom visitor to me yesterday when he recognised me at the stand.
In the end, I was just as pleased about the overall encouragement as I was about the critical voices that raised the topic. Because both had one thing in common: they dealt with the topic openly, confidently and critically.
In my opinion, our mission to take an in-depth look at sex and party drugs during the theme week was a success. Thank you to everyone who played their part!
