An invitational
flier to a private sex party for gay black men in New
York City has enraged the Harlem-based AIDS advocacy group
Gay Men of African Descent and prompted the group to
hold a public protest last weekend. The invitation to
the party, whose organizer and promoter was not
identified, read, "Anyone caught using jimmies [slang
for condoms] will be asked to leave with no refund
given!" reports the Associated Press. The
invitation also mentioned that two similar sex parties have
been held in the past and noted that 54 men attended the
last such event.
Gay Men of
African Descent executive director Tokes Osubu, who
coordinated the protest, says encouraging African-American
men to have sex without condoms serves only to
fuel the already disproportionate HIV rate in
black communities. "It's got to stop," he told the
Associated Press. "We want to send a strong message to [the
party's promoter] and promoters like him that it's
unacceptable, and to the larger community that we're
not all complicit in this behavior. We're not just
idle bystanders."
Gay activist
Keith Boykin wrote in his blog that he was alarmed that
black gay men were encouraging each other to have
unprotected sex. "It's the year 2006,
and some men are still carrying on like it's
1976," he wrote, reports the wire service.
"It's time to put an end to these
condomless sex parties." (The Advocate)