Ian Goller was way ahead of his time. As an Immunologist studying in America in the early eighties he saw the beginning of the HIV epidemic there and reasoned from his scientific knowledge that the cause might be immunological and that it could be sexually transmitted by a blood-borne virus. He started to wear condoms during sex himself and even before he returned to Australia wrote to alert key doctors here about the possibility of an impending HIV epidemic.

Ian was greatly concerned about the welfare of the gay community and the importance of alerting others to the seriousness of the implications of HIV/AIDS. He became involved in the original Victorian AIDS Action Committee (later VAC/ GMHC) and in 1985 was employed by the Victoria Health Department to implement education health campaigns on HIV around the state. These programs for health workers, local councillors and police and other groups were pivotal in quelling the growing hysteria about the virus in the community in the eighties.

Concerned that gay men should be able to keep the fun in safe sex, he thought it was important that condoms were eroticised and wasn’t coy himself about the fact that he thought wearing condoms was an enjoyable fetish. Unfortunately the little prophylactics weren’t able to protect Ian from the virus which he has picked up many years earlier. Ian was a dedicated health professional who was highly committed to educating people about safe sex, and whose work had a lasting impact on the gay community.

Photo courtesy of Lee Visser