Customer Reviews

Sexual Ecology: The Birth of AIDS and the Destiny of Gay Men

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Every gay man must read this book, or be made aware of its content. Even one more death is way too many. What needs taming is not "normal promiscuity" -- say 10 to 50 partners a year. (!) The problem is "hyperpromiscuity" -- gay men who are having a thousand partners a year, and a dozen in one night. This created the biological climate which enabled the spread of AIDS; without it, there would have been no epidemic.

Gabriel Rotello has done a such a great service to the gay community by writing this powerful book. It is provocative and controversial only because the truth hurts sometimes. We've gone for so long not wanting to face reality in the gay world, not wanting to face the difficult challenges, not wanting to do the things that we must do if we are to alter the course of the epidemic. Rotello isn't afraid to face these things, nor is he afraid of the attacks that come when someone does raise the thorny but important issues. I thank him enormously for this book and urge every gay man to read it.

The truth hurts and thank god someone finally told it about AIDS. As a gay man who is tired of hearing other gay people claim that religion, educators, the government and homophobia is responsible for transmission of HIV it is refreshing to find a well-reasoned voice showing that gay culture also contributed to the disaster that AIDS is. Mr. Rotello will most likely be crucified by gay theorists but his message is undeniable; unless gay culture finds a sustainable ecology it will continue exactly where it has been for the past 10 years----mired in a disaster

As a Human Sexuality instructor, this book is a key reference source for understanding the spread of a virus through populations. Mr. Rotello enlightens the reader on the changes of behavior patterns of American homosexual, heterosexual and injecting drug user populations and how they interact, together with the role of "politically correct" handling of the crisis by human health services and the media. I would strongly recommend this book to anyone interested in the spread of a disease through a population, as well as those specifically interested in homosexuality from a social science perspective.

I am amazed that I missed this book until a couple months ago. Indeed, it amazes me how few people have been motivated to write a review of it.

Rotello really explains in a simple sensible understandable fashion how the AIDS epidemic resulted from changes in technology , sexual role changes among gay males , social patterns of IV drug users (those in NYC shared needles in galleries while on the West Coast most used their own works at home and escaped the epidemic) and finally how hyperpromiscuity in large cities were the core centers for spreading this epidemic.

Most importantly, Rotello sees a continuing disaster in the gay community if old patterns of multi-partner 1970s promiscuity are reverted to by today's generation.

This is a must read book for anyone touched by this disease. It should get 50 stars.

In the furor and noise over HIV/AIDS in the context of LGBT rights/homophobia/social acceptance and things it can be hard to try and really get a methodological grasp on explaining the HIV/AIDS epidemic as it affects homosexual/bisexual men.

This book accurately explains the phenemenon as an ecological niche-
1. A subset of the population that has a lot of sexual partners per year
2. Events where there are high volumes of sex in a short period of time with a lot of partners (Circuit parties, sex clubs etc.)
3. Connections between these people that have a lot of partners a year/events with high volumes of sex
= a "gay fast lane".

Basically, the people that have a lot of sex end up having sex with others who have a lot of sex. Get a piece of paper and draw dots as men and lines as sexual connections. In the centre there will be a very highly connected pack of men (the fast lane) with connections extending outwards into the population.

The book brings this reality lucidly to the forefront and explains how safe sex education will never fully be able to tackle this risky ecological niche given everything we know about human nature and risk taking.

The solution is simple: hyper-promiscuity simply must go. The ecological niche has to change to more moderated levels and become spread out. As a homosexual man I await the day when circuit parties etc. are a thing of the past.

Just another tract projecting responsibility on the those affected. Though this msg is ensconced within what's made to appear as a vade mecum, it manifests itself as criticism of the natural acting out of Gay sexuality. It preaches to the choir of sex-negative theorists.