Sexual Ecology: AIDS and the Destiny of Gay Men. - book reviews

By Gabriel Rotello (Dutton, $24.95) Reviewed by Bruce Wright

Gabriel Rotello's book on the origins and future of the AIDS epidemic is certain to be met with fierce opposition. One by one, he picks apart the tenets that have stood as articles of faith in gay men's response to AIDS: the notion that AIDS is a historical accident unrelated to the explosion of gay sexual activity in the '70s; belief in the condom code and medical science as the tools of salvation; and the assumption that the best solution to the crisis will be one that demands the least of gay men in terms of sexual restraint.

Rotello attacks these shibboleths with formidable logic, arguing that even as gay men strategize against the virus. they have cultivated a "culture of risk." His analysis goes a long way toward explaining why after more than 16 years of education and prevention efforts the rate of HIV infection remains alarmingly high.

In place of the old answers, Rotello offers what may seem like retrogressive alternatives: stronger emphassis on nonsexual aspects of gay social life and respect for monogamous relationships. But for some people his prescriptions will have the ring of hope. For many gay men. After all, the point of sex is not so much to give libido free rein but to achieve validation, community, intimacy. Gay men might be happier as well as healthier, Rotello argues, if they strive to meet those needs directly in nonsexual ways that still affirm gay identity.

Sexual Ecology is worthwhile just for its wide-ranging insights into gay history and ideology--and its questioning of both. In the end even if gay men return to their old beliefs, at least they will have considered themselves deeply.

COPYRIGHT 1997 Liberation Publications, Inc.
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