AIDS Council chief executive distances himself from gay sex club run from his home

What is going on here? This bloke and his AIDS council gets big dollars in Government funding and preaches safe sex for the gay community, yet it appears he is running a sex club for gays from his own home! Inquiries revealing that condoms are not mandatory. Now he wants to distance himself from it? WTF, it is in his own home. Are we to believe he knows nothing about it. I really do not care about anyone’s sexual preferences as long as they are adults but come on, this needs to be investigated…

THE State Government wants an inquiry into a gay sex club run at the home of the SA AIDS Council boss.

SA Aids Council executive director Shane Dinnison at his Cumberland Park home, site of the advertised club

The daytime club, called The Palms, was open five days a week at the Cumberland Park house of AIDS Council executive director Shane Dinnison.

Men who frequent the home reportedly engaged in unsafe sex.

The Palms was advertised this week on one gay website as being a “day club for men, a place where men meet other men”, where it said patrons paid a $10 entry fee.

Numerous reviews, dating back to February, posted on the internet site said the club has “great videos” and a “sensational playroom” and praised the staff as “very friendly” and the “management superb”.

One reviewer wrote that the club had a “wonderful pool and sun tanning area, nude of course” while another wrote that they “didn’t participate this time but next visit … “.

When the club was contacted by email, it replied that condoms were not mandatory.

Another email from the club said it sold cold drinks and was open on weekdays from 11.30am to 5pm, except during winter, when it operated on Mondays only.

The unsafe sex message contradicts the AIDS Council website which advises people to “use a condom” when “having sex with a person whose HIV status is positive or unknown”.

The council – which receives $1.325 million a year in taxpayer-funded grants from SA Health to promote safe sex – also says on its website that its “mission is to improve the health and wellbeing of our key clients and prevent the transmission of HIV“.

Mr Dinnison initially denied any knowledge of the club when contacted by the Sunday Mail.

After confirming the club’s advertised address was the same as his home address, he then said: “I have nothing to do with it.”

He declined to comment further, with his partner John Bywater then phoning back to say that he ran the club and wrote the emails.

“It was me running it and not Shane,” he said. Mr Bywater said he lied in the email he sent about unsafe sex being acceptable. He then said the club had been shut down.

Health Minister John Hill said the AIDS Council should investigate the allegations.

“These are serious and concerning allegations, which I expect the AIDS Council of SA to investigate immediately and act upon if necessary,” Mr Hill said yesterday.

Mr Dinnison was appointed executive director of the AIDS Council in 2008 after serving two terms as president of the council. Mitcham Council said it would investigate the operation of such a business at a private residence without council approval.

“Council will undertake further investigations to ascertain the extent of activities onsite and what approval may be required,” council communications officer Julie Lamond said.

“Enforcement action will then need to be undertaken if appropriate.”