Activities and Risk

Introduction

There are many ways to have sex, either alone or with other people. In this section, we’re focusing on a range of sexual behaviours, discussing the basics of keeping your partner(s) and/or yourself safe and healthy.

We’ve indicated the risk level of a range of sexual practices. Risk levels are not legally or medically approved, but are rather guidelines based on the likelihood of getting an STI. Our intention is not to limit the kinds of sex you have, but to inform you about how to begin or continue safely enjoying the types of sex that appeal to you.

High-risk means that if one or more partners are infected with HIV and/or an STI, even if they don’t know they are infected, the infection(s) will most likely be passed on to other partners. The good thing is that high risk behaviours can be reduced to low or moderate risk when you use protection and practice safer sex.

If details about sexual practices may offend you, we encourage you to read headings before clicking on pages that describe such sexual practices. If there is a heading that is not familiar to you, be aware that it may discuss something that you don’t want to know about. Either way, we want the choice to be yours, providing you with information rather than keeping certain practices and preferences hidden in the shame or fear that silence often brings about.

The varieties of sex listed here are not necessarily unique to GLBTT* people; straight or non-GLBTT* people may be just as likely to prefer some of these practices. And while we hope to provide information about more forms of sex than other resources might include, there is no way we could cover every sexual behaviour, since the ways that people have sex with themselves and/or others is unique and limitless.