LIMITS TO UNHEALTH?:

AIDS Fighters Face a Resistant Form of Apathy (ANDREW JACOBS, 4/03/05, NY Times)

Where have all the condoms gone?

Don't try looking at the Monster, the Hangar, Starlight or Barracuda. On a recent evening, these and more than a dozen other Manhattan gay bars were well stocked with free going-out guides, but not a scrap of literature about H.I.V. prevention or the perils of crystal meth. As for condoms, the frontline defense against sexually transmitted diseases, only one establishment stocked them - behind the bar.

As part of his graduate course work at New York University, Michael Marino set out last winter to compare the AIDS prevention efforts of New York and London. He was troubled by what he found. At most New York bars, and even at some bedrock gay and AIDS service institutions, educational pamphlets and free condoms were hard to find, if not impossible. In London, Mr. Marino found them easily.

"No wonder things are getting so out of control here," he said. [...]

"Just because folks are well informed doesn't mean they'll necessarily make the wisest choices in terms of their health," said Dr. Ronald O. Valdiserri, who oversees AIDS prevention at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "This is true of all humanity, not just gay men."

You can't tell them it's okay to engage in sexual activity that is instrinsically unhealthy and then be surprised when they aren't concerned about health.

Posted by Orrin Judd at April 3, 2005 6:34 PM