Twenty-five years since Richard Berkowitz and Michael Callen coined ‘safe sex’ in their brochure\u0412\u00a0 \u0432\u0402\u045aHow to Have Sex in an Epidemic,” the safe gay sex message no longer seems to be working. As the culture of ‘bareback’ sex (an erotic term within the gay community describing sex without a condom) grows in popularity, recent reports from the CDC in Atlanta and the New York City Department of Health confirm that new HIV infection rates are rising dramatically in young men.<\/p>\n
Bareback sex is desirable because it heightens physical and emotional pleasure, but for many the appeal lies in the fetish aspect — the thrill and ‘badness’ of unprotected sex in conscious defiance of the ‘safe sex’ message. Formerly considered illicit, bareback porn now features prominently in sex stores and tops gay DVD charts. As stakes for new infections have never been higher, calls for a new message addressing the reality of bareback sex are being called for.<\/p>\n
Dr. Demetre Daskalakis is director of the Men\u0432\u0402\u2122s Sexual Health Project, a service that provides free HIV and STD testing to patrons of Manhattan’s two remaining bathhouses, the West Side Club and the East Side Club.\u0412\u00a0 Daskalakis believes that shame and fear of judgement continue to stand in the way of a frank, healthy discussion on the issue.<\/p>\n
\u0432\u0402\u045aI feel like the way that we push sex\u0432\u0402\u201dgay sex in particular, and unprotected gay sex especially\u0432\u0402\u201dinto this place of badness, whether it\u0432\u0402\u2122s pathologized because of HIV and STDs, or pathologized because of some moral majority, I think what that automatically creates is shame and the need to hide what you\u0432\u0402\u2122re doing. I feel like shame is still a major part of what is going on in the community.\u0432\u0402\u045c<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Author, lecturer and sex educator Barbara Carrellas argues the case for a model of safe, sane, consensual, risk-aware sex in place of the safe-sex message.<\/p>\n
\u0432\u0402\u045aWhat we suppress, expresses… We may not all be able to agree on how safe we want to be collectively,\u0432\u0402\u045c she says. \u0432\u0402\u045aBut if we can\u0432\u0402\u2122t agree on being safe, sane and consensual with the people we are playing with, we\u0432\u0402\u2122re in real trouble.\u0432\u0402\u045c<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
From <\/em>New York Press<\/em>
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