The current issue (Tyler Perry cover February 09) has an article titled "CAPITAL OFFENSE" and they go into detail about HIV / AIDS epidemic in Baltimore - DC around as compared to the rest of the country and then other countries in Africa.

We see statistics all the time on this...but it was very alarming to see this one:

Every 8 hours someone in Baltimore becomes infected with HIV.

The article highlighted a support group of women with the virus, mostly black, and some of the women said things like:

"Sometimes you just wanna take your chances and go bareback"

"You go out on a couple dates and you wonder when are you going to tell him about this"

"Men I'm with don't know I have the virus, and they'll say, 'I love you; we don't have to use protection"

*This group has client population that ranges from persons with drug addictions to women with six-figure salaries.

This article was very stirring - statistics aren't new to most people who have been reading up on it, but with all the profile cases out there ranging from "the crackhouse to the suburban bedroom"...It made me wonder, is it ever safe to take the condom off?

***I know some of you might laugh at me for this, but I was planning on practicing safe sex even through marriage. Sure we all say that we "trust", but should we really? Prove my trust and risk my life at the same time?

*The article also points out how most of these cases are from heterosexual contact and / or drug use. They mentioned that in drug culture, needles are hard to come by and so there is a lot of sharing of needles and that the woman is always the last to get the needle when there is sharing...so she gets all of blood and germs from everyone else.

That just gave me an idea for a poem. Posting it in the poetry section . . .

i have never understood the logic (or the lack thereof) of unprotected sex.