Few interesting observations..
1) More females engaged in "lesbian" sex as their first "sexual" experience.. However, the number of real "lesbians" are not being documented.
2) The adult males engaging in "gay" sex stays constant over the last 10 yrs.. More social stigmatisation against gays than lesbians? Straight males less curious than straight females in exploring "homo" sex?
3) Again, STDs do not select their victims.. Protective sex with condoms and water-based lube seems to be the best "cure"..
4) Experts, once again, warned against a total abstinence program, the program supported by the Bush administration.. Something that not only gays should be worried about, but the whole human race..
Teens opt for safe sex alternative
But practice could backfire, say expertshttp://www.todayonline.com/articles/75463.aspWASHINGTON — The United States government's largest-ever survey of the
nation's sexual practices has found that American teenagers are
increasingly engaging in oral sex as a strategy to avoid Aids and
other sexually-transmitted diseases.
It also found a dramatic increase in the number of women who said they
had engaged in a lesbian relationship.
About 11 per cent of women aged between 18 and 44 said they have had a
lesbian sexual experience, up from 6 per cent in a 1992 poll. In the
18-to-29 age group, 14 per cent of women said they had engaged in
lesbian sex.
The two findings suggest a shift in sexual practices, in which females
are using oral and lesbian sex "as a safer alternative than (vaginal)
sex with men", said epidemiologist William Mosher of the National
Centre for Health Statistics, the study's lead author. The rise in
lesbian experiences might also be the result of greater female sexual
freedom and increasing social acceptance of lesbianism, said the report.
The number of adult males reporting homosexual relationships was
around 6 per cent — the same figure as in 1992.
Researchers found that men aged 30 to 44 have had a median of six to
eight sexual partners in their lifetimes. The median for women was
about four.
The study was conducted by the Centres for Disease Control and
Prevention's National Centre for Health Statistics, which employed 200
female researchers to survey 12,571 men and women aged between 15 and
44 in person during 2002 and 2003. It found that among teens aged 15
to 19, 55 per cent of males and 59 per cent of females had engaged in
oral sex. This number rose to nearly 70 per cent for those aged 18 and 19.
About 53 per cent of girls aged between 15 and 19 and 49 per cent of
boys said that they had had full intercourse.
Experts warned the teen reliance on oral sex to avoid
sexually-transmitted diseases could backfire. Only 9 per cent reported
using a condom during sexual activities despite studies showing that
gonorrhea, syphilis, genital herpes and human papilloma virus can be
transmitted through oral sex.
Other researchers said the conservative government's emphasis on
sexual abstinence rather than education about healthy sexual practices
contributed to this danger. — DPA