Michael Turner has a personal connection to HIV that prompted him to take an active role in promoting AIDS awareness.

“A couple of my friends are actually positive. One of my dear friends from back home is positive,” Turner said. “So I have a couple personal ties with AIDS and I really think it needs to be outreached.”

Turner, Manhattan freshman, is the office manager for Queers and Allies and helped promote an event Tuesday to raise awareness for World AIDS Day by providing free HIV testing to students, faculty and staff.

The LGBT Resource Center and Queers and Allies held the event on the fourth floor of the Kansas Union along with the Douglas County AIDS Project. The groups also distributed free condoms to promote safe sex.

“It’s really important to know your status and being educated about your partner’s status,” Turner said. “Safe sex is the best thing and knowing your status is always very important to the process of being sexually active.”

Saida Bonifield, LGBT Resource Center coordinator and Lawrence graduate student in education, helped coordinate the event. She said the center’s goal is to raise awareness on college campuses as well as in the community and world-wide.

“On college campuses specifically, we do this event to raise awareness surrounding safe sex, and we also want to provide free HIV testing,” Bonifield said.

Stacey Burton, education and outreach coordinator for the Douglas County Aids Project, said this was the third time the group had sponsored this event at the University this semester.

More than 30 students and faculty members were tested Tuesday. Burton said more than 100 students and faculty members had been tested at the events this semester.

The group used OraSure test kits, where a swab was used to collect saliva from inside the mouth. The testing was confidential and took eight to 10 minutes.

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Web site, World AIDS Day was established in 1988. According to an article published in Journal Watch, 32,311 cases of AIDS were reported to the Centers for Disease Control that year.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services estimates that more than one million Americans are living with HIV.

Burton said one in every five people infected with HIV didn’t know they were infected.

The Douglas County AIDS Project and Queers and Allies will also play host to a drag show today at Wilde’s Chateau 24, 2412 Iowa St. Turner and others will participate in the drag show to raise money for the Douglas County AIDS Project. The show will start at 10:30 p.m.

— Edited by Samantha Foster