The Naked Truth About HIV… campaign is based on Community PROMISE, a science-based intervention model approved by the CDC for reducing the risk of HIV transmission. Community PROMISE emphasizes harm reduction through diffusion of innovation and social networking.

Staying true to the original Community PROMISE model, The Naked Truth includes personal stories from individual participants around their experience of having been affected by, or perhaps infected with HIV. To effectively introduce this model to the local community, Gay Men’s Health Project (GMHP) advertised widely for participants willing to bare not only their souls for the interviews that would become their stories, but also their bodies for an array of photos that will accompany the stories. Twenty-one participants stepped forward to be part of the photo project, with still more who wanted to tell their story but who could not, for various reasons, be in the photos.

The Naked Truth campaign will include posters of the large group photo, role model story cards, and the distribution of safer sex materials. The photos and stories will be placed throughout Tucson at key locations frequented by gay men, and others considered at high-risk for HIV, with a grand gallery on display at the Southern Arizona AIDS Foundation (SAAF). In addition, all campaign materials will be accessible online via the GMHP website at www.gmhp.org.