Is there any such thing as safe sex? Since the beginning of time, the consequences of sex have been dangerous — even deadly. Sex has been responsible for the spread of debilitating and sometimes lethal diseases, such as hepatitis, syphilis, and gonorrhea, and has often led to unplanned parenthood and back-alley abortions, as well as possible death of mother and child.
Sex has never been safe, but most contemporary, Western gay men only consciously began to think about the mortal risks of sex after the onset of AIDS. When it became common knowledge that one way HIV spread was through the exchange of bodily fluids, sexual encounters took on a whole new ominous possibility. While other STDs could be treated if caught in time, AIDS still has no cure. The disease often progresses with ferocious speed and always with devastating impact. Having sex with an infected partner, or taking precautions for safer sex and having them fail, could literally kill you.
Of course, long before the onset of HIV, gay men were aware of the physical as well as emotional dangers of sex. Sexual encounters with other men, not to mention openly expressing romantic feelings of love for members of the same sex, carried serious consequences including discrimination, job loss, exile from family and friends, harassment, gay bashing and other physical abuse, and even murder. It is still true today that being gay can get a man crucified on a fence in the middle of Wyoming.
Although diverse societies throughout the ages have shown varying degrees of acceptance and intolerance toward men who had sex with other men, or same-sex romantic couples, the first half of the twentieth century was a particularly difficult time. Gay men were routinely put in prison or sent to mental institutions where they were subjected to barbaric attempts to forcibly change their sexual orientation, although their only crime was their sexual desire or love for other men. The Nazi regime attempted mass extermination of its gay population. Gay men tried for the most part to make themselves invisible to mainstream society, gathering in secret to socialize and keeping their secret from families, friends, and coworkers. Mainstream society condemned gay men as “perverts” and “freaks.” Until 1973, homosexuality was classified as a mental illness by the standards of psychiatric diagnoses created by the American Psychiatric Association.
