AIDS is transmitted primarily by blood contamination. Thus AIDS is predominately confined to those who practice anal sex with multiple partners. That means it does not generally affect lesbians, heterosexuals, or gays in a committed relationship. It can be passed from a mother to her child in the womb, or by sharing the same needle, but these are statistically small cases (Fumento; Socarides [1995] 84). Since the sexual practices of AIDS victims are self-reported, it is likely that gay contacts are underreported. Based only on the sheer weight of literature from gay sources and from non-gay sources, I would rather agree with gay author Randy Shilts that AIDS is, at least in the United States, predominately a gay disease. (Shilts)

30 August 1996. Copyright information is available.