_______________THE BOYS IN THE BATHHOUSES BY DAVID HOROWITZ (11/03/97)
	I was very disturbed by the column in the Nov. 3 Salon in which David Horowitz manipulates the gay community's debate around public sex to bash gay men and sexual freedom. According to Horowitz, "The real source of the problem [of the recent rise in gonorrhea rates among gay men] is the re-emergence of a bathhouse-sex club subculture that fosters large cohorts of promiscuous strangers spreading the infection in urban gay centers. Cowed by the politically correct activists who have crippled the battle against AIDS, the media have turned a blind eye to the rash of new sex clubs and refuse to make the connection that AIDS is as much a behavioral as a clinical disease." Horowitz feels those men who defend the desire for anonymous sex or multiple partners are "perverse at best, and accessor[ies] to murder at worst." He also maintains that the academic backgrounds of some of the spokesmen for Sex Panic!, a group advocating for open discussion about the maintenance of public sex spaces, reflects the fact that "universities routinely provide a political platform for ... sexual extremists." Horowitz refuses to examine and discuss the complex issues around sexual behavior and HIV, instead piggybacking on the recent debate within the gay male community to promote his own anti-gay agenda. He fails to note how no evidence exists that non-monogamy leads to HIV infection in any greater proportion than serial monogamy; how there are important differences between sex clubs and bathhouses in terms of the capacity to enforce safe sex behavior; and how finally, and most importantly, what causes HIV transmission is unprotected sexual contact with an HIV-positive individual, regardless of the number of partners or the type of place you choose to have sex in. Instead, Horowitz calls one side of the debate "perverse" and "accessories to murder." Horowitz has attacked gay people before, writing a previous column on same-sex marriage that, among other things, said that being "abnormal" is the American way, and that's a perfectly good reason to deny lesbian and gay men marriage rights. I encourage you to consider having a gay male columnist respond to David Horowitz's misinformation. His leaps in logic to fulfill his own preconceived anti-gay notions perpetrates defamation, and enlightens no one. -- Anthony J. Commarata Akron, Ohio
	I am writing you in regards to the constant gay bashing that David Horowitz is engaging in. Horowitz consistently writes one-sided stories that make homosexuals out to be the cause of societies problems such as AIDS. Any educated person knows that AIDS is caused by unsafe sex, NOT by homosexual sex. This type of gay bashing and harassment exacts a heavy toll on our society, especially teenage homosexuals. According to "Death by Denial: Studies of Suicide in Gay and Lesbian Teenagers," teenage homosexuals are SEVEN times more likely to attempt suicide than teenage heterosexuals, and THREE out of five actual teenage suicides are homosexuals who would rather be dead than face the hatred. This hatred comes from sources like Horowitz's columns. Please stop the hatred, or at least balance this hatred with articles that address the hatred that Horowitz is creating. -- Brian Tepper Fort Wayne, Ind. SALON | Nov. 13, 1997

R E C E N T L Y+| GANDHI WAS NO PITCHMAN BY BILL McKIBBEN

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