Equality for Men: a new paradigm for HIV/AIDS risk

Los Angeles is famous for its celebrities but is also noted for its downtrodden. A 2009 report by the LA Homeless Services Agency recorded the homeless population as numbering nearly 50,000 people. This number is likely to swell as California prisons plan to release a bolus of prisoners due to recession-related budget cuts. I encounter these disadvantaged men and women frequently. Many reside in Venice, a neighborhood near my office. I have also met homeless people during visits to downtown LA. Downtown contains the infamous "Skid Row" neighborhood, an area with a nickname so institutionalized that the firetrucks bore the moniker until 2006.

The authors cite recent studies to support this idea that heterosexual men are as vulnerable to HIV as heterosexual women. These include findings from Africa that women are almost as likely to transmit HIV to partners as men, and evidence from the US and UK that a significant proportion of women dislike the feeling of male condoms. They claim that this shows men are not the only ones making risky decisions. Although the authors acknowledge the importance of more traditional ideas of HIV/AIDS spread that place women as victims and males as perpetrators, they point to flaws in the paradigm. They also mention that this view might actually facilitate the disease since vulnerable men might have less access to services and programming than women of similar socio-economic status.