Contemporary Sexuality - September 2008 - (Page 10)

Quick Hits: Sex in the News Website hopes to curb HIV/AIDS among young gays “If you go to a bar in a night, there might be 200 or 300 people there. You can go on multiple websites in a night and potentially meet thousands of people. The speed and sheer numbers allow for more possibilities for passing around infections.” — Deborah Levine Researchers at the University of Minnesota are spending $3.5 million to work on a new website aimed at educating young gay men about the dangers of HIV/AIDS. Called Sexpulse, the site will include “provocative picture of nude men, cartoons and cheeky icons.” Instead of frequenting gay bars, many young men now meet online at manhunt.net or gay.com. Hence, the need for more lively sex education. “If this is successful, it is huge,” said Simon Rosser, a professor at Minnesota’s school of public health. “We can flick a switch and make it available to every gay man in the world.” The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently reported that the disease is spreading quickly among males age 13-24. From 2001-2006, the number of males diagnosed with HIV jumped 12 percent every year. Today’s teens and 20-somethings represent a generation “that has not been personally affected by AIDS in the same way as their older peers,” says Richard Wolitski, acting chief of prevention for the CDC. New cases of HIV/AIDS among AfricanAmerican males age 13-24 are even higher, at 15 percent annually from 2001-2006. (Star Tribune, July 13 and New York Times, June 27) More info: www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/ mmwrhtml/mm5725a2.htm “If you go to a bar in a night, there might be 200 or 300 people there,” she says. “You can go on multiple websites in a night and potentially meet thousands of people. The speed and sheer numbers allow for more possibilities for passing around infections.” (Chicago Tribune, July 14) HIV on the rise among Georgians over 50 More older people in the state of Georgia are contracting HIV/AIDS than 10 years ago. In 1998, 189 men and women over age 50 became HIV-positive. Today, that number has risen to 341 new annual infections. “What accounts for these numbers is a mixture of patients infected previously who are presenting late in the course of the disease as well as patients with high-risk activities who are getting infected later in life,” said David Rimland, MD, chief of infectious diseases at the VA Medical Center in Atlanta. People over age 50 now account for 15 percent of new HIV/AIDS cases in Georgia. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution, June 29) Louisiana can’t execute sex offenders The U.S. Supreme Court has prevented Louisiana from executing a man convicted of raping his stepdaughter. “The death penalty is not a proportional punishment for the rape of a child,” wrote Justice Anthony Kennedy. Four other justices signed Kennedy’s majority opinion: Justices John Paul Stevens, David Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer. Of the 3,000 men and women on death row in the U.S., only two were facing possible execution for a crime other than murder. Both are sex offenders in Louisiana. No state has killed a prisoner for a crime other than murder since 1964. (International Herald Tribune, June 26) Most Chicagoans with syphilis met online The Chicago Department of Public Health is reporting that in recent times most gay men with syphilis met their sexual partners on the Internet. Previous surveys conducted at city clinics found that most syphilis patients met sexual partners at bars, not online. Men having sex with men accounted for 71 percent of syphilis cases in Chicago; until 2001, most heterosexual men and women accounted for the largest number of syphilis cases in the city. Deborah Levine, executive director of Internet Sexuality Information Services, says looking for sex online increases one’s chances of success. 10 Contemporary Sexuality www.aasect.org | September 2008 Vol. 42, No. 9 http://manhunt.net http://gay.com http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5725a2.htm http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5725a2.htm http://www.aasect.org

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Contemporary Sexuality - September 2008 Contents The Myth of Teen Promiscuity Member Spotlight Book Reviews News of Members Quick Hits: Sex in the News Reflections on AASECT's Annual Meeting

Contemporary Sexuality - September 2008

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