>SERENDIPITY AVENUE<

WOW! It seems this blog is becoming a romantic place. Well, I'm afraid not really. It's only that I was reflecting —just a little bit— on why HIV & AIDS is such a hard issue to tackle for churches and how deep are the difficulties that faith based organizations find while dealing with it. And one of the reasons is, of course, the fact that addressing the issue requires to address sexuality with a plain language. Like —say— the language that medical doctor and public health specialist Shereen Usdin uses in her No-nonsense guide to HIV/AIDS when discussing the theme of "safe sex".

After affirming that "the only kind of totally safe sex is no sex" —something that certainly sounds pretty reasonable in some church circles—, she goes on:

Women in general have long advocated more imaginative and varied forms of sex than just penetration. [...] Massage, more focus on the clitoris and G-spot, mutual masturbation and a greater interest in kissing may result in a great many more orgasms for women. Having said that, men seem unlikely to forgo their joys of penetration and so, on the menu of safe sex, condoms remain the main course.

But of course, besides the main course there are also the starters and desserts:

Certainly, blow jobs are safest if you use a condom. Giving a blow job is more risky than getting one. [...] Oral-vaginal sex is low risk relative to oral-penis sex [...]. Sex toys are also good, but if shared, are best if used with a condom. [...] Any sex which increases the likelihood of tearing is considered high risk. Anal sex is the most risky, but any kind of rough sex or sex without adequate lubrication will be as dangerous. While adequate foreplay used to be a plea from women for more pleasure, it has now taken on life-preservation proportions.

Which brings us again to the threshold of kissing:

Kissing is considered safe as HIV, although present in saliva, is found in such small quantities so as to make the risk of transmission negligible.

The fact that this plain language struck me had a great deal to do with the fact that I read it just after I had a talk with a friend of mine who deals with both HIV & AIDS and churches. And he told me that once he was giving a presentation on HIV & AIDS to a church public when, during a break, one of the leaders took him apart and said: "Would it be possible for you not to use the word... er... sexuality?" My friend's answer? "I'm sorry, I wish I could, but unfortunately my English is very limited."