Safer Sex and Drug Use
Gay Community News
| Revision History | ||
|---|---|---|
| • October 10, 1991 | Newspaper: Funded by Syracuse University students. | |
| The Alternative Orange: Vol. 1, No. 1 (pp. 7) | ||
| • August 24, 2000 | Webpage:  . | |
| DocBook XML (DocBk XML V3.1.3) from original. | ||
GCN offers these guidelines for all of us who are making decisions about sex and drug use in the midst of the AIDS epidemic.
HIV is a virus thought to be a cause of AIDS. The highest concentrations of HIV are found in blood and semen. So it's important to avoid any way in which HIV-infected blood or semen can get from one person's body into another person's bloodstream.
* Fucking (anal and vaginal) without a condom and sharing needles account for almost all of the documented cases of HIV transmission.
* Oral sex without a condom or dental dam accounts for a very few documented cases of HIV transmission.
* Other ways of transmitting HIV that have not been documented but which could be theoretically include: fisting, finger fucking, rimming, deep kissing, sharing unclean dildos. The theory here is that any way HIV-infected bodily fluids get from one person to another involves risk. For example, HIV could be transmitted if a person with a cut on their hand fistfucked their partner and caused bleeding in their rectum or vagina.
How to Play Safer
Only you can decide what risks you are willing to take. Some people use safer sex practices with all of their partners. Other people make decisions about the risks they are willing to take based on their own and their partners' sexual and drug use history and/or HIV status. People also make decisions based on how comfortable they feel negotiating safer sex in any particular situation. If you and your partner have not talked about past practices and/or HIV status, don't make assumptions. (For example, many lesbians have had unprotected intercourse with a man in the last ten years.)
* Use a condom when fucking. On the condoms, use water-based lubricants like KY. Oil-based lubricants like Crisco, Vaseline, and baby oil may make condoms break.
* Use a condom when sucking dick if your partner is going to come in your mouth. If HIV-infected cum or pre-cum gets in your mouth, it may get into your bloodstream through cuts in your gums or sores in your mouth.
* Use dental dams (latex squares) when going down on a woman if she is having her period or has vaginal infection. Menstrual blood and secretions from vaginal infections have more HIV than healthy vaginal secretions or urine. No information has been gathered about the concentration of HIV in "female ejaculate."
* Use latex gloves for fisting or finger-fucking if you have any sores or cuts on your hands.
* Keep semen and blood (including menstrual blood and blood drawn from piercing, cutting or shaving) out of your vagina, anus, mouth, or breaks in your skin.
* If you share dildos, vibrators or other sex toys, use a new condom each time, or clean toys with hydrogen peroxide or soap and water.
* Alternative insemination may put you at risk. Discuss this risk with potential donors or sperm banks.
* Massage, hugging, dirty talk, role-playing, masturbation (solo, with a partner, in a group) and other activities that don't let blood or semen into your bloodstream are safe.
* Alcohol, poppers or other drugs may lower your ability to make good decisions. Many people have reported that they have been unable to maintain safe sex practices after getting high.
* Good nutrition, lots of rest, exercise and nonabuse of alcohol and other drugs may help you fight all illness, including AIDS. Intravenous Drug Use
* Don't share works (needles, syringes, droppers, spoons, cottons or cookers)!
* If you must share or re-use works, clean them before and after each injection as follows: dip needle and works into bleach, draw up and release three times, dip needle and works into fresh water, draw up and release three times. In an emergency, rubbing alcohol or vodka can be used instead of bleach. Or you can boil works that aren't plastic in water, for at least 15 minutes. (Use a fresh solution each time you clean your works.)
Resource phone numbers
National AIDS Hotline: 1 (800) 342-7514
AIDS Action Committee (AAC) Boston: 1 (800) 235-2331
Latino AIDS Hotline (bilingual), Boston: (617) 262-7248
AIDS Action Committee (AAC) IV Drug Use Task Force, Boston: (617) 437-4200
Gay Men's Health Crisis (GMHC), New York: (212) 807-6655
National Minority AIDS Council (NMAC), Washington, D.C.: (202) 544-1076
Women's AIDS Network, San Francisco: (415) 864-4376
