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From: rrizzo@bbncca.ARPA (Ron Rizzo)
Newsgroups: net.motss,net.bio
Subject: Re: Recent articles; homosex & science
Message-ID: <1616@bbncca.ARPA>
Date: Wed, 20-Nov-85 11:44:43 EST
Article-I.D.: bbncca.1616
Posted: Wed Nov 20 11:44:43 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 21-Nov-85 07:26:01 EST
References: <20@bbncc5.UUCP>
Organization: Bolt, Beranek and Newman, Cambridge, Ma.
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Xref: watmath net.motss:2264 net.bio:310

Re the derogated practice of anal intercourse:  I remember hearing
a physician claim that the rectum is so hostile an environment for
microbes that the only STD pathogens which can survive in it are
gonococci.  Of course, hepatitis can also be transmitted via anal
intercourse through microsopic cuts in the penis or rectal wall.
(And amoebas and other pathogens lurk in excrement, but are trans-
mitted only through ingestion.  Yet the urethra, vagina, and anus
are fairly close to each other, and some of the same dangers lurk 
there.)  Condoms should reduce the risk of transmission by blood.  
If the above claim is true, then only gonorrhea can actually reside
in the rectum, while hepatitis and AIDS depend on immediate injection 
into the blood stream.  Thus, a case can be made for the rectum being 
"naturally" a healthier sexual receptacle than the vagina, or the
mouth for that matter.

Some rectal and colonic cancers may originate sexually, but whether
viruses cause them is not (I think) either known or clear.  On the
other hand, the variety of cancers (of the cervix, vagina, etc.)
and other serious or chronic diseases or damage resulting from 
missionary-position heterosexual intercourse are legion and rela-
tively well-known (but suffered by women, not men).  I've always
marvelled at the fact that these facts are never adduced to con-
clude that heterosexuality, or a sexist use of it, is "contra
naturam,"  unnatural and punished by an avenging Nature.

If the fixation on anal intercourse as culprit is a coded belief
that AIDS is intrinsically a "homosexual disease," then it should
be noted that the preferred homosexual practice of a prototypical
period such as classical Athens was intercrural (between the thighs)
intercourse, while throughout for example Persian history, anal
intercourse was highly rated and frequently practiced among both
straights and gays.

Finally, even NBC's post-Early Frost news program, "AIDS Fears,
AIDS Facts" solicited a disclaimer from one of the interviewees
that AIDS will remain primarily a disease of "high-risk groups"
for the foreseeable future, even though the upshot of the rest
of the program was to warn everyone that it now threatens all.
Dream on!

						Cheers,
						Ron Rizzo