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NYC To Promote Circumcision Among Gays

New York City) New York City’s Health Department is reportedly preparing a campaign promoting circumcision as a means of reducing HIV/AIDS among high risk groups.

The New York Times reports that the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene campaign is aimed at gay men, Hispanics and African Americans. The department began working on the campaign after the World Health Organization last month cited "compelling" evidence that circumcision can reduce their chances of contracting HIV by up to 60 percent. - 365gay.com


3 comments:

Ryan said...

Easily accessible, free condoms would be 100x more effective - besides, it's not as if 70-80% of guys in NYC aren't circ'd anyway. NYC will be spending a lot of effort targetting a relatively small segment of their population, arguing for a surgery that while midly effective isn't neary as effective as something that's also a helluva lot cheaper.

Anonymous said...

Some people think it might be especially affective among communities that have increased stigmas around condom usage. THoughts?

Tom Lang said...

First, Mark Snyder is obsessed with foreskin. And THAT needs to be discussed. Just kidding.

But anon, this is a really sensitive question. If the gay community pushes this then we are essentially saying, "hey, get circumsized, you probably won't contract HIV" You know how people think... I suppose that any steps that lead to a decreased chance of infection are good.

But, the real issue here is access to condoms in the public school, education at an early age without stigmatization, free testing, open discussion in the home, etc. This country is getting better with sexual education and open dialogue but it is not anywhere near where it should be. Sex is a fact of life and unfortunately so are std's so open dialogue is important.

I applaud Mark Snyder for putting things like this out for discussion even if he is totally foreskin obsessed. hehehehe