Pope Says Okay to Condoms for Rent Boys

via CNN.com

Pope Benedict XVI's possible shift on condom use is a "significant and positive step forward," the head of the United Nations anti-AIDS campaign said, welcoming the potentially historic remark.


"This move recognizes that responsible sexual behavior and the use of condoms have important roles in HIV prevention," UNAIDS executive director Michel Sidibe said in a statement.

"This will help accelerate the HIV prevention revolution," he said Saturday.
The Roman Catholic Church firmly opposes artificial contraception, including condoms.

The pope caused a firestorm of protest last year when he spoke out against condoms as a way of controlling AIDS during a trip to Africa, the continent hardest hit by the disease.

 

"You can't resolve it with the distribution of condoms," the pope told reporters in March 2009. "On the contrary, it increases the problem."

But he outlined a possible exception in remarks published Saturday.

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"Erotic Services" Denied: Craigslist and Attorneys General Are Putting Sex Workers At Risk

PRESS RELEASE

Contact:
Dylan Wolfe - Sex Workers Action New York (SWANK), swank@riseup.net
Will Rockwell - $pread Magazine, will@spreadmagazine.org
Audacia Ray - Sex Work Awareness (SWA), aray@sexworkawareness.org
Susan Blake - Prostitutes of New York (PONY), pony@panix.com
Michael Bottoms - Sex Workers Outreach Project - New York City (SWOP-NYC), info@swop-nyc.org

With Craigslist's recent announcement that its Erotic Services category will be discontinued within the week, hundreds of thousands of erotic service providers will become more vulnerable to dangerous predators. Eliminating erotic listings as Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal and others propose will only drive us further underground.

Policing the masseuses, phone workers, pro-dominants, and escorts using Craigslist fails to protect those of us who are coerced into the sex industry. Preventing the use of Craigslist advertisements also eliminates the advantage of screening clients online, which makes for a safer work experience by filtering out potentially dangerous individuals. Furthermore, keeping us offline hinders police investigations of violent crime. In the Boston murder of Julissa Brisman, it was online tracking that enabled the police to identify the suspect. One has to wonder: are the Attorneys General examining the evidence or simply enforcing their moral values?

"Removing the erotic services category from Craigslist does not help prevent violence against escorts and other sex workers. It only pushes me and people like me out of the places where advertising is available," said Jessica Bloom, a sex worker from Sex Workers Action New York (SWANK). In the face of increasing criminalization, we insist upon respect. As mothers, daughters, brothers, and members of your community, we claim that sex work is real work, work that we are entitled to conduct in safety. As such, we must be accorded the human right of full protection under the law.

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Via POZ - Sex Tourism and HIV

by Tony Valenzuela on Poz.com

I don’t consider it paying for sex. It’s giving them what I call a ‘money donation,’” says Drey, an American moderator of popular website gaytravelbrazil.com, referring to Brazil’s “rent boy saunas”—a combination of bathhouse and entertainment complex where tourists and locals go to socialize and hire sex workers. “It’s kind of like a gentlemen’s club,” explains Drey, who speaks Portuguese and travels to Rio several times a year for business—and pleasure. “It’s not about going down and getting discounted sex,” he says in earnest. “It’s really about getting to know the people, their lifestyle, their culture. [I] treat them with respect.”

Besides helping gay male tourists book vacations and teaching them the essentials of safely navigating Brazil, Drey’s site also hosts online forums where gay men discuss and share photos of the country’s most popular sex escorts. “Some of the guys have really tough lives,” Drey says. “Some guys take a bus for an hour from the poor sections outside Rio, just to come in to make a little bit of extra money.” Drey claims much of the sex is safe and that the saunas’ management provide condoms and lube to customers who hire the men by the hour. “I absolutely adhere to condom use,” Drey says. “I don’t really have an option. That’s the only way that [the sauna boys] will do it.” He pauses then adds: “The reason they’re very careful is that a lot of them have wives and girlfriends. They don’t want to bring anything home.”

To some people, Drey’s rosy depiction of respectful attitudes and safe-sex practices may sound as realistic as a travel agent’s sales pitch. But whether its reality is darker than its depiction, sex tourism—defined as travel with the intention of hiring sex workers—is a booming industry especially popular in the warm, tropical nations that also suffer higher prevalence rates of HIV and rampant poverty. The industry is full of tales of pleasure and danger; it juxtaposes the levity of vacationers with the gravity of the existence of those who serve them. The sunny side of sex tourism is clouded over by the risks both parties take if the sex is not safe.

Sex tourism encompasses a complex variety of activities and behaviors that facilitate—for a price—social and sexual interaction between people. Around the world, the names for those looking to get paid for sex are as varied as the locations in which they work; in Brazil, they are “sauna boys”; in Jamaica, “beach boys”; and in the Dominican Republic, “bugarrones” or “sanky pankies.”

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PAKISTAN: Male sex workers play Russian roulette with HIV

RAWALPINDI, 2 November 2007 (PlusNews) - Shujaat* plies his trade well. As dusk falls on the Pir Wadhai bus station in the Pakistani city of Rawalpindi, the slender 19-year-old gauges disembarking passengers for that 'look' - a responsive glance or wink suggesting a desire for more than just a quick bus ride home.

"Here you can find all sorts; mostly truckers, soldiers, day labourers, and of course married men," he said, leaning against the wall.

"I always find someone," the now veteran male sex worker (MSW) boasted.

After three years on the streets, Shujaat's confidence is dwarfed only by his ambivalence towards contracting HIV – a virus that he and other men who have sex with men (MSM) are increasingly at risk of.

"I'm careful and I'm clean, so what's the problem?" he asked.

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Male Order Business - Irrawaddy Journal

Irrawaddy Journal, covering Burma and Southeast Asia, reports on male sex workers in Thailand. Quite interesting, and makes very plain the extraordinary vulnerabilities of these men, most of whom do not identify as gay and do not receive adequate HIV prevention services. Check it out.
Jim

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Why young Shan migrants enter Thailand’s sex scene

Amid a long strip of bars close to Chiang Mai’s bustling Night Bazaar is a small, neon-lit hangout where a group of western men sit surrounded by attentive Asian male youths. Some of the foreigners are being massaged by the young men, while others are chatting and laughing intimately with them.

Ton, a 25-year-old Thai man with an engaging smile, has owned this bar for a year. Though he is heterosexual, he runs a bar that is a prime pickup spot for male clients looking for sexual encounters with “bar boys.”

According to Ton, about 95 percent of male sex workers are heterosexual men whose motivation is purely economic—a statistic confirmed by the NGO Mplus. Jay, who works as a host and cleaner at a bar across from Ton’s, is typical. A Shan from Burma, Jay has a boyish, angelic face that belies his 21 years. He used to be a favorite with the customers and, after chatting with him for a few minutes, it’s easy to understand his popularity: his good looks are complemented by the warmth and friendliness he exudes.

But Jay stopped going home with clients over a year ago. He is heterosexual and has had a serious girlfriend for the past 10 months. “I came to Chiang Mai from Shan State two years ago to look for work,” he says. “I used to go with the clients because I needed the money, but I stopped when I got a job as ‘captain’ because it’s not good. I didn’t like it. None of the boys who work here likes doing what he does—they just need the money.”

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