LifeLube:
Gay Guys and Condoms
While working in the prevention team of a Canadian AIDS service organisation, I was part of an inter-agency group that offered training to local social workers, nurses, shelter employees, etc on how to offer better services to sexual minorities.
To get the ball rolling in training sessions, I often start by saying:
Studies show that gay guys consistently use condoms with casual sex partners at rates way higher than do heterosexuals. In one study conducted at Toronto Pride in 2006, 75-80% of gay guys reported consistent condom use with casual partners. And even if that number is inflated, it’s still much higher than the rate for heterosexuals. Yet in Ottawa, gay guys still account for more new HIV infections than any other population and, in the US, gay men are the only group among whom HIV infections are currently on the rise.
If we are going to provide effective health services to men who have sex with men, it’s essential that we understand what’s going on. It seems totally illogical: gay guys use condoms more often, yet are infected with HIV more often.
So as professionals who are paid to serve this community, I’m asking you: why?
Common sense. The HIV is transmitted in fluids. What gender puts fluids in and what gender receives? Most straight men will never get aids as they are never inseminated. Most women who get aids get it from men who have either been inseminated(bi), or had contracted the virus in another method. With homosexuals, everybody gets inseminated -so it just gets passed on, with exceptions to strict tops who have and will never bottom(rare).
This is a great question. Such a paradox. I think you need to apply for a grant from the NIH (National Institutes of Health) to do a real study of the question. That would probably involve some intense interviewing as well as site visits (to gay clubs, bath houses, etc.). Probably best to have a team that involves both public health people as well as anthropologists, sociologists, and social psychologists.
It occurs to me that one thing that might be involved in these results is simple lying. Gay men know that they are at high risk of infection through anal sex. They also know that they are “expected” to use condoms. So when interviewers ask them about their habits, they want to look smart. They say they use condoms, but in reality, they don’t do so as faithfully as they say. This kind of response is typical in interviews in which interviewees feel they have to save face with their responses. I doubt it would account for all their responses. But it may help explain some of the results.
You’d really need a full-scale study to answer the question. And this question is well worth answering.
Could be simple percentage. male/female is 50% male…male/male is 100% male. Men are the primary carriers after all.
Seems to me that one also needs to take into consideration the incidence of casual sex…which I believe occurs much more readily in the gay community than in the straight community
Rubish Jay. Casual sex can occur as readily in any sexuality what-so-ever.
The usual blarb that ‘us gays’ are more casual sexually has been and gone. I’ve worked with straight men who have become infected with HIV. It’s simple-the penis has an open. So do our mouths. Toungs are natoriously good circulation wise. Blood veseles almost nearly to the top surface of it as you can get. Look at it in the mirror and you’ll see for yourself. Yes, straight men contracting HIV is rare, but it’s still a risk. The fact that staight men/women are safe without protection isn;t viable anymore. Anyone who has unprotected sexual activity is at risk, however small that risk is!
And the notion that gay men are the predominant carriers may well be true in the USofA, It cirtainly isn’t true here in the UK, especially where I work down south in Brighton, one of the largest gay populated cities in the UK per square mile.
its so simple, look at real statistics…
gay men engages in more multiple partners than heterosexuals
I think it’s a combination of various partners who don’t use condoms as much as they should along with anal sex and vaginal sex being totally different. The anus is lined with soft tissues that rip and tear but most of all bleed. Gay sex is anal sex, even if you wore a condom to perform this type of sex, what about rimming? As long as men are wearing condoms, the risk should be greatly reduced, it’s been said over and over. In the question lies the answer.
I am new to this scene and hear that you should never get close to someone with HIV, other say just don’t do anal, and some say oral isn’t even safe….SO how safe am I if I only have oral sex with an HIV+ but undetectable. If I dont have any cuts or allow anal am I okay?