Risky Sex Gay Men and HIV Prevention [Paperback]

Dwayne C. Turner holds a Ph.D in anthropology and a Masters in Public Health from the University of California, Los Angeles.In candid, in-depth interviews, gay men discuss their experiences in the age of AIDS, their attitudes toward sex, and their motives for engaging in behaviors that are widely considered to be dangerous health risks. Revealing that such factors as guilt for being HIV negative, alcohol and drug use, and low self-esteem are possible causes of continuing dangerous sexual behavior, Turner also recommends ways to promote safer sex while respecting the choices and judgments of gay men.Turner presents a well-designed study... of sexual behaviors of HIV negative gay men....between the ages of 30 and 44, living in West Hollywood... in the early 1990s.... He found that the men practiced safer sex almost all the time, but also on occasion had unprotected anal sex. Turner relates his findings to the probable evolutionary origins of basic human urges, and describes probable interactions between these urges and the cultures that coevolved along with human biology... Although methodologically and theoretically sophisticated, the book is also as lucid and well written as a good novel.