Why are gay and bisexual men not aware?

Because the young think that they are indestructible.

And the Plague Era that we lived through is ancient history to them.

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DG, the article shows that many are uneducated, not just gay youth. We try here to educate our kids about sex, but it is not easy! Thanks for posting this as a reminder of the issues facing many today.

It's because young people are hard wired to be horny and have lots of sex. Yes, info is out there... but it's not always the first thing that pops into the brain when sexual opportunity presents itself. I personally work hard to override my geezerly, "What's wrong with the young people of today?" statements whenever possible. The most important thing is to encourage frequent screening and, when necessary, early treatment. That will do a lot more than tsk tsking.

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We just spent time at the San Francisco Pride with two straight mothers whose teenage sons had just come out to them. We spent quite a bit of time at the PFLAG booth and gathering ANY free condom we could get our hands on! All of our mentality was geared around giving these young men the freedom to explore condom use - on their own, at first, giving them confidence and comfort when the inevitable arose (you should pardon the pun.)

Which made me hyper-conscious that the problem is STILL the environment in which teens find themselves - and the resurgence of the conservative mentality has not helped that AT ALL!

Namo - I agree with you completely - and I really don't want to come across as 'tsk-tsking' the youth. Honestly. But it is REALLY hard to fathom how all this info is not getting through!

I'm ALL for sexual expression - but I can't be blind to the message that's been presented for YEARS! What more can be done? Does it boil down to direct interaction, which I know is the focus of many?

Then we get into all the inherrent difficulties of gays being judged for wanting to interact with youth - cause God knows we couldn't POSSIBLY not want to rape, pillage and plunder.

ok feel free to tell me to shut up if this is a dumb question but...

Why are the stats higher for gay men and not gay women? They mentioned Black and Latina women but not nesessarily lesbians.

Do not lesbians go through their own "gay adolensence" like gay men? As a lesbian with loads of gay male friends, in my experience, I would say the desire is near the same.

Anyone have ideas? Am I missing something?

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So many issues!

DG, some of the Boy Scout leaders that I know are men that I would trust to teach my son or daughters. Others are freaks that I would not allow to touch my dog! My son would never be in the Boy Scouts for reasons beyond political, we do not camp!

"That's fine, but, try to remember that about every three months or so there's a whole new crop of young people just coming into their sexual awareness, and these messages are BRAND new to them!"

I do - I really do! But ANY publication I pick up, or any bath house I enter has LOADS of info involved.

I guess I just wonder where we're supposed to reach them.

Which leads us natually to school, and then . . . well, you know.

Like I said, the closer you are to the actual moment in which they're having sex, the better.

in our school system health class isn't until junior year, but kids are having sex by freshman year. some have already given birth before taking health class.
there is a sex ed class called "human relations" but you have to be a senior to take it.
they have health class in the middle schools, but all they teach about is sexual harassment and drugs. not that those aren't important, but you think they would at least talk about sex ed a little bit.

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Which is, of course, one of the problems, PJ. There's factsheets and then there's rubber sheets. Which would YOU choose?

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I've only been to the recently-closed Steamworks in San Juan and the whole chain is really proud of the safer sex promotion efforts, well documented on pretty fancy wall murals. At first I didn't realize it was listing stats for the whole chain, when it mentioned a huge number of Asian outreach contacts I thought, "In San JUAN???" But it was including Toronto. I was in TO last month, but never went to Steamworks.

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I asked similar questions in an AIDS thread a while back and felt as though I was getting a smackdown. I think most people should know better.

My question is why the title of this thread is "Why are gay youth not aware?" The article doesn't say anything about youth. I know plenty of people my age and older who are careless, take risks, or seem to be ignorant of what's out there and how it's transmitted.

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It's a choice. If you have sex with someone today, 2007, and you don't protect yourself, what is that but a choice. I've frequented dark rooms, baths, beaches, tea rooms and porn theatres since I was in my twenties and have always made my own choices. Most of the time I chose to protect myself and my "partner(s)."


eta: my sexcapades did not include drugs except for the occasional poppers.

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Updated On: 6/27/07 at 10:05 AM