SECBH%CUNYVM.BITNET@oac.ucla.edu (11/30/90)
Earlier this week I attended a meeting at which there was a person who
gives presentations on safer sex to gay men. In these workshops anonymous
questionnaires are filled out asking about the participants sexual
activities.
According to what this person said, for many months more than 20% of the
gay men 25 and under had reported having unprotected anal sex one or more
times in the prior six months. However, recently the responses from
same age group at these workshops had indicated more than 50% had had
unprotected anal intercourse one or more times in the previous six
months!
I have heard that a similar pattern is emerging in San Francisco.
This group of people would have been fifteen or below at the start of
the epidemic, and in many cases might not have been part of the gay
community for a large part of the past decade. If this is the case,
I can understand how not having experienced personal losses as a
result of AIDS may account for what I see as a considerable lack of
interest on the part of the 25 and younger groupin doing direct
PWA-related work. However, I cannot imagine that now being active
in the gay community this group would be unaware of safer sex
educational efforts.
I would be interested in hearing whether other people who are
active in AIDS-related work have notice, or heard of the this trend.
And, especially I would be interested in comments by gay men in
their early 20s as to what the AIDS epidemic means in their lives.
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Jack Carroll "I knew there was a void in my life that was missing."
<SECBH@CUNYVM>
Charlene Tilton of _Dallas_2un@mace.cc.purdue.edu (Maverick) (11/30/90)
In article <1990Nov29.192745.6713@cs.ucla.edu>, SECBH%CUNYVM.BITNET@oac.ucla.edu writes: > I would be interested in hearing whether other people who are > active in AIDS-related work have notice, or heard of the this trend. > And, especially I would be interested in comments by gay men in > their early 20s as to what the AIDS epidemic means in their lives. > ------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Jack Carroll "I knew there was a void in my life that was missing." > <SECBH@CUNYVM> > Charlene Tilton of _Dallas_ Having worked in an AIDS ward at a local hospital, I saw firsthand what the virus can do to a person, and it worries me that this trend is happening. I have heard of this trend and it is real. Being in my early 20s, people my age and younger think that we are invincible and nothing can harm us. Furthermore, as a college student, we think that being in school can protect us from the virus. Probably these are two immediate reasons why we have unsafe sex. Just the other weekend, my former roommate told me that he had unprotected sex with his girlfriend. Why? Because she just had her period. I scolded him that he forgot about the possibility of transmitting or even receiving any STD including AIDS. I don't know if it did any good, but at least I warned him. Please remember that I am in the generation which was not wholly affected by the disease. I never had it nor did I ever know anyone personally who had it. It was just coincidental that I volunteered to work with people with AIDS and I can say that I fear for those who brush off the consequences and take the safe sex attitude very lightly in favor of just raw sex. Maverick
mkr26760@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Marq Rogers) (12/01/90)
2un@mace.cc.purdue.edu (Maverick) writes: >I never had it nor did I ever know anyone personally who had it. Please tell me that you are not under the impression that it is possible to have had AIDS. I'm sure that this is not what you meant but I think it's important to make sure that this sort of misconception does not get started. ---- Marq