Review

“For this study, 159 gay men from Auckland and 77 from Adelaide completed questionnaires to assess the effects of HIV education on their sexuality. Rosser discusses the psychology of safer sex, the social impact of prejudice on gay men's lives, and how these relate to their erotic practices. He finds that AIDS education is more effective in areas that have enacted antidiscrimination legislation. Society can greatly slow the spread of AIDS among gay men if the culture at large becomes more supportive of homosexuality. Rosser also argues that education campaigns that are diluted to accommodate public sensitivity about explicit sex education are ineffective. Further, programs that emphasize sexual abstinence have the highest failure rate in promoting safer sex. In fact, trying to motivate safer sex with strategies that emphasize fear, monogamy, and abstinence are counterproductive. These strategies increase unsafe sex in those at high risk and so increase the spread of HIV. Also, Rosser argues that assertiveness skills greatly increase the likelihood of adoption of safer sex practices. This book is an excellent example of the best social research: careful design; scholarly analyses; respondent-sensitive, lucidly written, and policy oriented. Upper-division undergraduates and above.”–Choice

About the Author

B. R. SIMON ROSSER is a Postdoctoral Clinical Research Fellow, Program in Human Sexuality, Department of Family Practice and Community Medicine, at the University of Minnesota.