Common sense saves lives

Are DL men or Bi-sexual Black men, really the reason there is an HIV/ AIDS epidemic in the Black community and especially amongst Black women?

Although some people say that there is not actually an epidemic amongst Black women. But that is a debate for another day.

What I want to talk about is the thought by many people that Black men on the down low, men who have sex with women and secretly with men too, are really responsible for the majority of HIV/ AIDS transmissions to Black women.

First; I don't have any first hand knowledge on these issues but I do have anecdotal information.

Here is what I see happening.

Black men are going to prison in record numbers and have been going to prison in those very high numbers for almost three decades now.

The Reagan Administration and the crack cocaine epidemic ushered in an era of high incarceration rates of Black men.

We have all heard the jokes about men going to jail and having encounters with "Bubba". You know, the thing we laugh about but don't take seriously, prison sex. Almost no one talks about what goes on in prison sexually except in most cases as a joke.

The truth is that prison sex occurs and it occurs more often than those of us who have never been in prison could imagine. Some of the sex is consensual and some of it is forced. Add that to the fact that it is illegal to have sex in prison, which means there are no condoms in prison and what you get is an epidemic.

I assume that the vast majority of men who engage in sex while in prison are not gay. So when these men come out of prison there is very, very little chance that they will engage in sex with men. If that is the case then women who are looking for signs that those men are on the DL once out of prison won't see any.

These men are not having sex with men outside of prison.

So now we have heterosexual men who come out of prison that may be infected with a sexually transmitted disease and are having intimate relations with women.

And that I believe is accounting for the transmission of HIV/ AIDS into the straight Black community.

So if women are stuck thinking that if they don't see any signs of their man being on the DL that they are safe may actually be in great danger.

And as I'm sure we all know when we have sex with someone we are also having sex with everyone they have ever had sex with. So even if a particular man has never been to prison or engaged in homosexual sex, he may have had sex with a woman whose ex-boyfriend may have had a long history of incarceration.

The second thing I would note is that according to people who study these sorts of things, the number of homosexuals in any given population is between 3% and 5% of the population.

So now take that 5% and subtract from that the small number the men who are living down low lives and what are we left with? Maybe less than 1% of the population who are on the DL?

So now we have to ask an honest unbiased question. How would less than 1% of the population be responsible for an epidemic? Isn't it more likely that the millions of men who have spent time incarcerated might have a batter chance of being the catalyst for an epidemic?

If we are going to stop Black women from being infected we have to look at the situation with out bias. That bias I believe can and is costing us our lives.

Thinking that if you don't see signs of your man being on the DL means you are safe is dangerous. Has that same man been to prison? Have his ex girlfriends had sex with men who have been to prison?

It's much more likely that Black women are going to come into intimate contact with men who have been to prison than it is that they will encounter a DL man.

A little common sense and a little less hype can save untold lives.

What do you think?

Do you think it's likely that ex-inmates are spreading HIV/ AIDs?

Or do you think Black men on the down low are responsible?