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 Straight Men Have Homosexual Relationships | 26.09.2006 | Straight Men Have Homosexual Relationships
 A recent survey has revealed that about 1 of 10 men who consider themselves "straight" had at least one sex contact with a person of the same gender last year.
According to Dr Preeti Pathela who is a is a research scientist for the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene's Bureau of STD Control about 9 percent of men living in New York declare having sex with a man in the previous year. However, only 4 percent acknowledge their being gays.
Dr. Pathela is one of the authors of a report comprising information about males who claim being "straight", and who, although were involved in homosexual relationships in the last year. The report is titled Discordance Between Sexual Behavior and Self-Reported Sexual Identity: A Population-Based Survey of New York City Men."
Figures
 The results of the survey the report is based on reveal the following figures. 96 per cent of men who consider themselves to be of traditional sexual orientation and who although had sex with a man last year had one male sex partner. 2 per cent of such men report having two partners of the same gender and circa 2 per cent turned out to have three or even more partners.
According to the same survey 55 per cent of men who had sex contact with a male partner and who acknowledge their being gays used a condom the last time they had sexual intercourse. 35 per cent of such man undergone test for HIV within the past 12 months.
Specialists of the Bureau of STD control are not satisfied with these figures. Though more than half of gays have protected sex, their number should be much bigger as it is known that homosexuals belong to high risk groups. As well specialists want more homosexuals to be tested for HIV in order to be diagnosed in time.
Do straight men who have sex with men show risky behavior?
The authors of the report consider that 14 per cent of men who report being gays show risky behavior, whereas only 1 per cent of straight men who had a sex contact with a male partner seem to be engaged in risky behavior.
What is considered to be risky behavior? According to authors of the research this is having more than one sex partner within past 12 months. As well risky behavior implies unprotected sex, that is sex without using a condom.
These figures were taken from health survey of city health department survey. The survey involved about 10,000 persons and included questions about these person's sexual identity, health status and risk behavior.
This is the first survey involving such a big number of people. As well this is the first survey which simultaneously comprised questions concerning sexual identity and sexual behavior.
As well the report compares men who consider themselves to be straight although they had sex with a man and men who identify themselves as gays. This comparison shows that straight men with homosexual experience are more likely than "true" gays to belong to a minority, to have poorer education or to have low income.
As well the results of the survey show that more straight men with homosexual experience appeared not to use a condom during their last encounter. Also it was find out that less straight-identified men than gays underwent HIV test in the past 12 months.
The mentioned above figures might make straight-identified men to seem to be more engaged in risky behavior. However, this is not quite right. Straight men turned out to be less likely than gays to have more than one sex partner in the previous year.
The authors of the report do not consider straight-identified men who had sex contact with a male partner to play a great part in spread of HIV. However, they emphasize that these men are at risk to get an STD the worst being HIV.
The fact is that such men consider themselves not to be at risk because of having only one sex partner. At some extend they are right, but they cannot be sure about their partner's sexual behavior. So they are at risk and they should necessarily always have protected sex.
The authors of the report emphasize that doctors should not consider sexual identity or marital status of a patient to be an indicator of whether the patient's behavior is risky or not. First of all doctors should ask a patient whether he has only homosexual relationships or he has a partner of the same gender.
Doctors insist that not only gays should be targeted by HIV prevention messages. These messages should as well target straight men who had a male sex partner.
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