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Study:
10% of NYC 'Straight'
Men Have
Gay Sex
by
365Gay.com from the Web, September 18, 2006
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New York City -- A survey by
the New York City Health Department has found that nearly 10 percent of male
participants who identified themselves as "straight" reported having sex with at
least one man during the previous year.
And of that 10 percent, almost 70 percent of them were married.
The findings are bound to cause safe sex educators to rethink how they are
dispensing HIV/AIDS information in the city. Survey author Dr. Preeti
Pathela said it would appear that vital information may not be getting to
'straight' men who have sex with other men.
"To reduce the burden of sexually transmitted diseases and HIV infection among
men who have sex with men, it is of utmost importance for [health care]
providers to take a sexual history that ascertains the sex of a partner,"
Pathela says in the report. "Asking about a patient's sexual identity will
not adequately assess his risk."
The survey involved 4,193 men living in New York City. Almost 4 percent
said they were gay, 91 percent described themselves as "straight." The
rest told investigators they were bisexual, "unsure," or declined to answer.
Titled "Discordance between Sexual Behavior and Self-Reported Sexual Identity:
A Population-Based Survey of New York City Men," the study appears in this
week's edition of Annals of Internal Medicine.
Compared to men who identified themselves as gay, the "straight" men who had sex
with other men were more likely to belong to a minority racial or ethnic group,
be foreign-born, have a lower educational level, and live outside Manhattan
Pathela and her colleagues report.
Most worrisome the group was less likely to have been tested for HIV infection
during the previous year and less likely to have used a condom during the last
sexual encounter than men who identified themselves as gay.
"Doctors need to ask patients about specific sexual practices instead of relying
on self-reported sexual orientation to assess risk for unsafe sexual practices
and risk for sexually transmitted diseases," said Pathela in a statement
accompanying the report.
"Public health prevention messages should target risky sexual activities, such
as unprotected receptive anal sex, and should not be framed to appeal solely to
gay-identified men."
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