Miami Herald - Sunday February 16, 2003
Ernesto Londono, Herald Writer

Six nights a week, he hits the gay clubs at the beach.

On a recent Thursday night, wearing jeans, brown worn-out leather cowboy boots and a fitted shirt, he set up shop in front of the Laundry Bar -- for his other job.

"Here, have some condoms and lube," he said to passersby entering the club, which is popular among gay men Thursday nights. "We also provide free HIV testing -- no needles, no pain."

The past five months, Cruz has been an outreach worker with the South Beach AIDS project, a nonprofit HIV/AIDS prevention and case management agency that targets gay and bisexual men in their 20s who frequent gay hot spots in South Beach.

In addition to the outreach work he does on the street, Cruz is spearheading Empowerment Project, a new program funded by the Centers for Disease Control designed to pluck gay men out of the gay circuit scene in the Beach and tune them into healthier lifestyles.

Outings involve kayaking and horseback-riding day trips, and movie, ballet, theater and opera nights. Most of the events are free. The agency also hosts seminars and workshops to encourage safe sex.

"We started this cause because we've found that men between the ages of 18 and 29 are less committed to practicing safe sex," Cruz said.

Among the targeted age group, Cruz said, the fear of getting AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases has waned considerably during the past few years.

"The ads for HIV medication these days show attractive, healthy young guys," Cruz pointed out. "That's misleading. I have to remind guys about night sweat, diarrhea and awkward body fat redistribution," he added, listing some of the side effects of the "cocktail" of pills many HIV-positive people take to keep the virus dormant.

As unpleasant as they may sound, those are images Cruz likes to keep fresh among an age bracket that didn't witness a generation of gay men devastated by the disease during the '80s. He targets an audience largely fond of one-night stands, no-strings-attached-sex, drugs and unprotected sex.

"There's more of that going on than we like to talk about," Cruz said. "It's politically correct to say that you have safe sex these days."

Statistics show a different picture.

A December report issued by the Florida Department of Health reveals that with 43 percent of accounted cases, sex between men remains the dominant mode of exposure to HIV. Of the 27,900 new cases tallied by the health department between July 1997 and November, 23 percent of newly infected HIV-positive individuals were between 19 and 29 years old.

Although Cruz says he enjoys his modestly paid outreach job, he admits that promoting safe sex and healthy living in the cradle of South Florida's gay party scene is often taxing.

As he hands out his nightly supply of 300 condoms, many guys ignore him, others giggle and a few make passes at him.

"Do you come with the condoms?" asked Laundry Bar patron Tristian Weiss, 42.

"No, but if you come to my office, I'll test you for HIV for free," replied Cruz without losing his cool, offering his business card to Weiss.

Many men in the Beach are immature when it comes to sex, Cruz says. 'Many laugh when they hear the word 'condom.' "

However, he admits his looks don't hurt when it comes to getting the job done.

"Some guys find me attractive, some hit on me -- but they give me the time of day," he says. "Boys will be boys."

Still, it's the handful of guys he enlists for Empowerment Project that make each night at the clubs worthwhile.

"I can take the horse to the water, but I can't force it to drink."

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