ARTICLE DEPISTAFEST
EDITOR: NADIA WILLARD MARTEL
It's a Friday night like any other: my friends and I get together to order food and watch the latest episode of RuPaul's Drag Race.
As we talked about our daily lives, I mentioned my appointment for an STD test that afternoon. Silence sets in. My friends are puzzled: I've been in a relationship with my boyfriend for years, so why the screening?
Michelle breaks the silence, visibly surprised, and blurts out, "Did you cheat on your boyfriend?" She knows all about my monogamy.
I smile: "No, come on, I just hadn't been tested since I've been with my boyfriend and I wanted to make sure I didn't have an STI."
Pierrot, skepticism incarnate, is convinced that there's something wrong with my story. "He cheated on you, didn't he?
I burst out laughing, the idea seems absurd. "Imagine! I wouldn't have told you like that! No, no, but in my sex education classes, I realized that you could have an STI without necessarily having symptoms. I just wanted to make sure everything was okay. So we both got tested for peace of mind.
