Over the Rainbow: - Wrestling With Angels

problems that plague homosexual individuals. .. Rights issues seem to have replaced individual
and community health concerns” (Byrd, 2010:3).
Safe Sex Becomes Seductive
In the last 30 years condoms have been claimed to provide safe sex or safer sex. Condoms
are being sold and distributed around the world as the solution to casual sexual behaviors in
preventing pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases. Condoms are being ‘pushed’ by
school and university health clinics, and even medical facilities with the implication that sex will
be safe if you ‘protect’ yourself with a condom. However, the typical failure rate of condom
use is 14%, accounting for inconsistent and incorrect use as well as breakage and slippage. Use
factors such as experience, condom size and use of lubricant can affect slippage and breakage
(Workshop Summary, 2000:10).
A study involving 26,291 homosexual men, heterosexual men and heterosexual women
who visited the University of Colorado’s clinic in Denver over a two year period reported that
57% of the women, 48% on the heterosexual men and 33% of the homosexual men reported
error in their use of condoms (Condomman, 2008). Efficacy rates for condom use is generally
reported for pregnancy. However, rates for sexually transmitted diseases vary by disease.
Condoms do not prevent transmission of the human papilloma virus which is the leading cause
of cervical cancer (the Media Project, 2005). Michigan’s statewide gay newspaper, Between The
Lines, reports that the risk of anal cancer increases by nearly 4,000% for men who have sex with
men. They state that a condom only offers limited protection against anal cancer (Glenn,2001).
In considering the safety of condoms, if 20 million people used condoms for ‘protection’, by
the typical use failure rate of 14%, two million eight hundred thousand people will be
unpleasantly surprised that they were, in fact, not safe.
Statistics and Surveillance of Sexually Transmitted Diseases in the Gay Population
The Center for Disease Control (CDC) reports statistics on sexually transmitted diseases in
the United States and its dependent areas. Health departments report their data to CDC so the
information can be analyzed to determine who is being affected and why. The CDC 2008
surveillance report estimated that there were approximately 19 million new STD infections
each year – almost half of them among young people 15-24 years of age.
Syphilis was a disease that was on the verge of elimination. In 2001 it re-emerged as a
public health threat because of a resurgence of the disease among men who have sex with men
Over the Rainbow: The Gay Battle for Social Reorganization of America. 2010
Dr. M. L. Coppock
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