Does sexual education seem to be higher priority within the LGBT community?

i just had someone tell me that "AIDS is a virus", that "AIDS can be caught through saliva" and that "AIDS can appear without either participant having contracted it / had it".

this guy professed to be straight, yet if i ask any of my LGBT friends, they all seem to be far more "gen'd up" on the subject than our straight counterparts.

is it me or does the LGBT community just seem to take our sexual health more seriously? wouldn't this be proof that we're less "hap-hazard" than alot of our heterosexual counterparts? (note, i know there are exceptions, on both sides, i'm talking about in general).

It bloody well should be in both the Homo as well as the Heterosexual community but the 8 years with Idiot boy and Moral Majority have done some major harm in taking that out of schools. Strike that, it's been through the Shrub's Dad too. Everyone seems to want to skirt the issue rather than address it head on.
Both communities need to address the AIDS/HIV + Unprotected Sex issue right straight in the face of every Middle Schooler. Around 13 I'd say and I'm being generous for age.

At first I thought you were an ignorant fundie making an assertion that there is a "gay-agenda". I was about to blast you one.

I think it makes perfect sense that the gay community is more aware of precautions and consequences surrounding sexual activity.

Actually I think it is because HIV tends to affect us directly, the majority of Gays and Lesbians in America have at least heard of someone they knew personally who either have it or have died from it.

hmmm for what I've seen in the gay male community, sex is pretty regular lol, I mean, a majority of men have sex frequently, so understanding about STD's would be essential to even live through so many sexual encounters.

Aids is such a hardcore thing, I've known someone to die from it... and I think when its more common in the gay scene, of course you'd need to be educated.. it becomes a matter of life and possible death... serious stuff.

As for less threatening std's.. meh, whether you're knowledgeable or not, they'll get around. Maybe fewer beer goggles would help this lol

I'd have to agree with you in the general sense.

I can't believe the misinformation I've heard from heteros on the subject of sex or even HIV.
Just go over to the Men's Health or Dating and Relationships categories and you'll hear a lot of misinformation that is just depressing.

Schrub and his cronies idea of "Sex-ed" is that "Abstinence only" approach, which we know all too well doesn't do anything but make for ill-informed morons and trust me...the teen pregnancy rates are INCREASING because of it! As well as the transmission rate of ALL STD's.

It's sad that so many simply assume that because we're gay that all we think about is sex and therefore we're the only ones who need to know about sexual health. That makes no sense at all.
With the increase in teenage pregnancy and the prevelency of other STD'S besides just HIV, it's a crying shame that we've allowed the whole "Abstinence Only" approach to slip into our children's schools.
Yeah, I said "OUR CHILDEREN", gays and lesbians have children too! Some of us are teachers, foster parents, adoptive parents, biological parents, healthcare workers, and educators of some sort or another.
WE are just as responcible for the education of children as the heteros are and we need to take a stand against this scourge.

you raise a good point Silver. It's ignorance on sex education in schools and at home. At least int he LGBT community there are always warning and advice on what is out there. the THT produce some excellent stuff that is easy going and informal but direct to the point like wise with publications there are always messages about what's on the increase. Straight publications are more worried about selling more beauty products for females and now males and don't even bother with the health issues apart from eating disorders and being a size 0. The hetro lot need to take a reality check hiv/aids is not a gay plague it can effect any one either through sex or other means.

we take all our health issues more seriously - fact! but we probably are more aware of the aids issues cos it was us who took the brunt of the blame for it being here........

I think it is part of the more positive side of the 'guilt' culture that prevails in the gay community and in people outside the community's attitudes towards gay people. That is we can feel some sort of guilt (to a greater or lesser extent) concerning our sexuality if we are really honest with ourselves. It is not necessarily saying we should not be proud of who we are, but there can be feelings of guilt for a number of reasons from feeling that we may have disappointed family members to wondering if the grass might be greener on the other side! That guilt has made us more aware of the possibility of promiscuity (certainly from a gay man's perspective) or at the very least a greater awareness of it. This in turn makes us more determined to rptect ourselves by becoming more knowledgable about the things that might harm us be it from other sections of society or from with in our own community, be it STDs or others!