Stayin' Alive: The Invention of Safe Sex

Richard Berkowitz, AIDS activist and a freelance journalist (and former S & M Hustler) writes a compelling history of how safe sex was invented back in the late 80's. It's hard to imagine now, but there was a time when using condoms was unheard of. There was, apparently, a time when they were quite difficult to obtain because no one used them. That's all well before my time -- back when God was a child. By the time I was old enough to know about sex, safe sex was already the watch word. But back in the time before time, safe sex was unknown. However, once the direction of the epidemic became obvious -- and more importantly for the author, after a scare of his own -- Berkowitz details how he found ways to continue his work as a hustler, and yet stay safe. His experiences became the basis of the safe sex advice now routinely given out by clinics, educators, and doctors. What I found most interesting about this book, however, was that it is the first time I've ever read or heard anyone take responsibility for their own behavior and how that behavior unwittingly contributed to the AIDS epidemic. Basically Berkowitz argues that, given the huge number of STDs that many gay men were being infected with in the late 70's and early 80's (infected, and reinfected, and reinfected) people should have realized that such promiscuity was going to have consequences greater than a quick shot of penicillin could cure. He's not laying blame, he's taking responsibility, an important difference, but it's the first time I've read a book where someone had the courage to do it. This is a short read, but worth a few minutes of your time. Especially if, like me, much of this is history for you.