From: kane@buast7.bu.edu (Hot Young Star)
Newsgroups: talk.politics.misc,ca.politics
Subject: Re: aids conference in cuba
Date: 30 Jul 92 16:04:55 GMT
Followup-To: talk.politics.misc
Organization: Astronomy Department, Boston University, Boston, MA, USA

In article <11465@optilink.UUCP> cramer@optilink.UUCP (Clayton Cramer) writes
about heterosexual HIV transmission and homosexual promiscuity:

><1%, certainly, since very few people are getting AIDS heterosexually
>in the U.S. except by contact with bisexuals and IV drug abusers.

This is apparently true. The only significant heterosexual transmission
vector is from men to women. That is why we see a startling number of
new cases in women. But you have to ask, how could their male partners
get HIV in the first place? Female to male transmission is not very
likely, unless they were extremely promiscuous. I don't want to discount
that possibility---the frequenting of prostitutes with regularity might
be a good way to get HIV---but it seems that the HIV+ male partners
of HIV+ women got the virus from most likely IV drug abuse, and secondarily
RECEPTIVE anal intercourse with another man.

It has been suggested that the reason HIV spread so quickly in the gay
community of a decade ago, was not simply that anal intercourse was
an efficient means of transmission, but that partners traded off in
receptive and active sex roles, something that is largely impossible
with heterosexuals. In other words, the most efficient means of transmitting
HIV (with the exception of IV drug abuse) is to have receptive anal
intercourse, and then go out and have active anal intercourse with another
partner.

>I recognize that the homosexual community doesn't 
>understand or believe in faithful monogamy (perhaps because that
>community can't do it); but there's a lot of people out here who
>manage it just fine.

And a lot of those folks are gay. Would you care for me to introduce them
to you?

Sex therapists seem to agree that gay couples are better than straight
couples at understanding their sexual needs (who better than another man
to know what a man is likely to enjoy) and the resulting sex is likely
to be more mutually pleasurable. The down side is that the more you know
about your partner, the easier it is to get bored.

The reverse seems to be true of heterosexual couples. There is frequently
a struggle to comprehend each others sexual needs, especially on the part
of men understanding women, apparently. But this mystery fuels more prolonged
interest.

The other complicating factor is being open about our sexuality. Straight
people face no appreciable barriers, but gay men especially have to deal
with adverse social reactions which tend to encourage gay men to hide their
relationships from public view. And the longer you remain in a monogamous
marriage of two men, the more likely other people will notice.

I look forward to seeing how, as society becomes less and less condemning
of individual sexual differences, the longevity of the typical male couple
is affected.

In any case, I'm loathe to believe you can apply generalizations like these,
or the ones you bring up so often, to individuals with any great success.
People just differ to greatly even among the groups that supposedly categorize
them.

Brian.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
kane@{buast7,astro}.bu.edu (Hot Young Star) Astronomy Dept, Boston University,
Boston, MA 02215. True personal salvation is achieved by absolute faith in
oneself.
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Newsgroups: talk.politics.misc