Wrap your head around this

When it comes to the spread of HIV, it’s good to be a girl. It’s especially good if you’re a girl who only has sex with other girls. While there are reports of HIV infection within the lesbian community, it is rare to find a report of one woman infecting another woman with the virus. In most cases, the infected woman had some other risk factor(s) such as having had sex with a man, shooting drugs, exposure to the virus through a cut, etc.

However, in March of this year, the Centers for Disease Control confirmed that a woman in Texas had, indeed, been infected by her female monogamous partner and that no other source of risk could be found. It’s easy to push “rare” events out of our minds and reassure ourselves that something like this only happens to someone else. Low odds, however, don’t bring much comfort to those who find themselves being the odd statistic.

In the case of this woman from Texas, she knew her partner was HIV+, yet the couple didn’t practice safer sex by using barriers or limiting exposure to each other’s menstrual blood. They enjoyed a healthy, robust – unsafe - sex life, and then the unthinkable happened. Coming to terms with being infected by an incurable, but avoidable, virus has to be hard for anyone.

Wrapping your head around the fact that such a thing wasn’t supposed to happen to you must be close to impossible. Although rare, this event should serve as a warning to all the women who have sex only with other women. Even if you’re certain that you and your partner are monogamous and not engaged in any risky behaviors, if one partner is HIV+, then you should take precautions to protect yourself and your partner.

If both partners are HIV+, it is still important to protect each other as there are multiple strains of HIV. In the world of pathogens, life happens fast as the viruses mutate and adapt to changing environments and drug therapies. Add to this the fact that people are human—we aren’t always as faithful as we claim to be and we often do other things that aren’t in our best interests—and the chance of becoming an HIV statistic goes up pretty substantially.

If you look at the risks involved for men who have sex with other men, the lives of women who have sex with other women looks really good. Keep it that way. Know your status and protect yourself and your partner.

by Mary Turner, Gayly Columnist

The Gayly – May 8, 2014 @ 9:50am