by PATRICK LEJTENYI

Mado, the flamboyant drag queen hostess with the mostest at the Gay Village cabaret bearing his name, is getting serious about getting the boys to be safe. With an outbreak of syphilis making its rounds through the city's gay community, Mado - also known as Luc Provost - will be publicly tested next Tuesday, March 22. He's urging others to do the same, as soon as possible.

"Sex can be a game, but it can be dangerous," he says. He blames the rise of barebacking - unprotected sex - for Quebec's subsequent rise in sexually transmitted diseases. According to statistics at Montreal's public health directory, the number of reported syphilis cases has quadrupled since 2002. Last year there were 127 reported cases in Montreal and 112 in the rest of Quebec, compared to only 36 and 11 respectively in 2002. The rate of increase is enough to have public health officials and community groups who work with the city's gay population worried. With the second annual Quebec Sexual Health Week running from March 19 to 24, Séro Zéro, a Montreal gay-and-bisexual-focused AIDS prevention organization, is urging people to get themselves tested. "We're doing clinics in bars and saunas three times a week," says Séro Zéro's Sylvain Duguay. "We also do special events with the public health directory where we go to bars dressed as firefighters."

But, while Provost says he hopes young people primarily will get his message, the overwhelming majority of syphilis patients in Montreal are gay men in their early 40s. Men aged 30 and over, in fact, account for close to 98 per cent of all syphilis patients. Mado doesn't understand why exactly that may be, but believes that a certain amount of disease fatigue has set in, especially among older men who have been hearing about the importance of safe sex for almost two decades. Also, he says anglo sexual culture has a part to play.

"In the U.S. there are a lot of these fuckfest orgies," he says. "Young people don't seem that interested in orgies. And older guys, especially if they're single, sometimes seem to go sex-crazy, trying every kind of drug and going after all kinds of new experiences."

But still, as an easily-recognized face in the community, he hopes young people will get the message, even if they are generally more apathetic, having not grown up with their friends dying around them like the older generation of gay men. "The young aren't aware that there are other diseases besides AIDS," he says. "And it's great to protect yourself, but how many sex partners do you have a week? Five? Then it might be a good idea to get tested."

Séro Zéro will be testing for syphilis at Sky Pub (1474 Ste-Catherine E.) on Sunday, March 20 from 6 p.m. to 9:30 p.m., and at Cabaret à Mado (1115 Ste-Catherine E.) on Tuesday, March 22, from 10 p.m. to midnight. For more information, visit www.syphilis.qc.ca.