Without Condoms

by Michael Shernoff

After years of activism, risk awareness, and AIDS prevention, increasing numbers of gay men are not using condoms, and new infections of HIV are on the rise. Using case studies and exhaustive survey research, this timely, groundbreaking book allows men who have unprotected sex, a practice now known as "barebacking," to speak for themselves on their willingness to risk it all. Without Condoms takes a balanced look at the profound needs that are met by this seemingly reckless behavior, while at the same time exposing the role that both the Internet and club drugs like crystal methamphetamine play in facilitating high-risk sexual encounters. The result is a compassionate, sophisticated and nuanced insight into what for many people is one of the most perplexing aspects of today's gay male culture and life style. Michael Shernoff digs deep and forces us to see that the AIDS epidemic is not over. We must now ask the hard questions and listen to the voices that answer. The stakes are too high to ignore.

Genres: LGBT, Nonfiction

412 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

He attended New York City schools. He graduated from the Harpur College at Binghamton University and in 1977 received a master’s degree in social work from the School of Social Welfare of the State University of New York at Stony Brook.
As a licensed clinical social worker, he offered outpatient mental health services in Chelsea in New York City. He also taught at Hunter College from 1991 to 2001, and from 2002 until his retirement in 2006 he served on the faculty of the Columbia University School of Social Work. From 1997 until 2004 he was the online mental health expert for the HIV/AIDS website TheBody.com.
He was diagnosed as HIV-positive in 1982, but lived free of AIDS symptoms. At the time of his death from pancreatic cancer in Manhattan in June 2008, his brother Jeffrey Shernoff told The New York Times that he found it ironic that after years of living with HIV infection, "He died of pancreatic cancer, which may not even be related."

Reviews

[Niya · Rating 2 out of 5]

Shernoff takes on a lot with this text. Attempting to examine the emotional, physical, societal and global reasoning behind barebacking and to then outline possible methods of harm reduction for a diverse and rapidly changing population is an ambitious undertaking. Instead of getting deeply theoretical, Shernoff balances citing studies with case studies from his practice and insights he has gained or that have been shared with him. It's well worth a read if you haven't thought about the AIDS crises since the 90s and is a good reminder that a lot of the material used in public health and in the greater conversation about safer sexuality is in dire need of an update.