The Apparent Deline in Condom Use

This entry will be short today, but I am saddened that it has to be included at all. I thought we all had a little more common sense than this. I have become more and more concerned with the number of people who seem to be having unprotected sex these days, many of whom don’t seem to think that it is it all that big of a deal.

First, I was shocked to find out in a conversation among several friends and acquaintances that several of them don’t even keep condoms around the house anymore. One stated simply that “I don’t like them, it’s not natural.” Another that, “I get tested every few months, I’m clean.” Maybe so, but testing is only going to catch the problem after the fact. Then what are you supposed to do?

And there seem to be more and more men out there directly advertising a bare-back only policy on their internet profiles and personal ads. Isn’t that sort of inviting trouble? As one friend put it, “If they don’t care about that, then what have they already got that you don’t want?”

Then, on top of that, I read an article in a magazine today that outlined the rise in bareback porn and how the incidence of HIV is increasing again in relationship to this sudden abandonment in condom use.

Have we forgotten what can happen if we don’t protect ourselves? It only takes one time. We all know this, so why do we suddenly not seem to care? I’m afraid that part of the problem is that the current youth, people in their late teens and early to mid-twenties, never directly faced the epidemic that hit gay men of previous generations. And without that, it’s not real enough to pose an immediate threat. It’s something that happens to other people, or used to happen. But if we don’t protect ourselves, then it could happen all over again, and then it will be real to all of us.

We all do stupid things. We all make mistakes. We are all adults and have to make our own decisions, yes, but, please think twice before getting yourself or someone else hurt when it doesn’t have to happen.