Being Alive Newsletter, Being Alive/Los Angeles - April 1993
edited by Nancy MacNeil

Another effort by The National AIDS Demonstration Research Project found that women who reported having had sex with other women in the six months prior to interview "were more likely to: use amphetamines or poppers; be homeless, inject only with illicit syringes, rent used syringes, inject at drug dealers' houses, and also share syringes with more people; and have sex for drugs, or for money than women IDUs with no female sexual partners." Most significantly, women who had any female sexual partners were more likely to seroconvert during the six-month period: this is consistent with the higher seroprevalence reported among lesbian/bisexual IDUs in at least two other studies.

Several other studies have reported that as many as half of all self-identified lesbians periodically have some sex with men. Although no studies to date indicate the frequency of such encounters, the information which has been gathered about lesbians' actual sexual practices and the characteristics of their male partners presents troubling news about HIV risks. In a study of female sexual behavior conducted in 1987 by researchers of the Kinsey Institute: 46% of self-identified lesbians had sex with men since 1980. Of this group, 32% were aware that the male partner was behaviorally bisexual. Of the women with bisexual male partners; 45% reported penile-anal intercourse; 88% of lesbians reporting sex with any men since 1980 reported penile-vaginal intercourse, and 30% reported penile-anal intercourse. Only 8% of the lesbians in this highly educated sample who practiced penile-anal intercourse always used condoms; less than 5% of the sample always used condoms for penile-vaginal intercourse. Data about drug injection among these women were not available.

A study of 500 lesbian/bisexual women conducted by the Lesbian Information Project, Sydney, Australia, revealed substantial levels of injection-drug use: 23% of the sample had injected drugs; all injected in the last year. Many of these women had multiple risks for HIV: of the IDUs, 90% had also had sex with men. Sexual identity again was shown to be an inappropriate predictor of sexual behavior: 90% of the sample self-identified as "lesbian," "dyke," or "gay," yet 79% of the sample had sex with men.
930401
BA930423

Copyright © 1993 - Beings Alive. Permission granted for noncommercial reproduction, provided that our address and phone number are included if more than short quotations are used. Subscription lists are kept confidential. Being Alive, 621 N. San Vicente Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069, Tel - 310.289.2551; FAX - 310.289.9866; Email: BeiAlive@aol.com  http://www.beingalivela.org/