We've discussed at great length and very extensively the behavorial factors which puts a person at risk for acquiring and transmitting STDs. There is near consensus that each and every person must evaluate their own risk factors and make a conscious effort to change their behavior to minimize or eliminate their risk.

Most of the sexual behavior between men cruising other men for sex occurs under various disguises of our identities and behaviors. We are not only having lots of sex anonymously, we're also concealing our health histories and practices.

Increasingly, I hear men make the claim they are healthy despite the fact they are HIV positive. On its face, this claim is self-deception. But, what about those men who have never been tested for HIV? Should we give those men the benefit of doubt and assume they are healthy? Since we don't know these anonymous people and their health history, much less their past sexual history and behavior, the benefit of doubt ought to guide our own behaviors accordingly.

Inasmuch as I'd like believe that all sexually active men are being tested regularly for STDs and they are all practicing safe sex behaviors, we can only change or modify our own behaviors to minimize or eliminate the risks for acquiring STDs. Our first line of defense is evaluating our own risk factors and making a conscious effort to change our behaviors. Men cruising other men for anonymous sex needn't be inherently unsafe if we evaluate our own risk factors and make a conscious effort to change our behaviors. There is no second line of defense because no other alternative choice is available.

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Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves. And, under a just God, cannot long retain it.

-- Abraham Lincoln

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