Anti-AIDS Brochure on ‘Safe’ Sex Draws Fire

An anti-AIDS brochure using street language and eroticism to persuade homosexuals to engage only in “safe” sex was branded as “pornographic” Tuesday by Los Angeles County Supervisor Pete Schabarum, who won backing for a review of all county contracts with gay community agencies.

The county contracts with a number of organizations to provide health and psychological services to homosexuals.

Casting a lone vote against Schabarum’s motion was Supervisor Ed Edelman, whose district includes a large homosexual population. Edelman warned the board that it was trying to censor materials that are aimed at helping potential AIDS victims.

The contracts review was ordered despite assurances by Hugh Rice, director of the Gay and Lesbian Community Services Center, that the privately financed pamphlet, called “Mother’s Handy Sex Guide,” is aimed only at those gay males who are promiscuous.

Attachment Noted

Rice, whose agency receives county funds, also noted that an attachment to the brochure advises against distribution to anyone under 18.

“It wasn’t intended for you,” Rice told Schabarum. “This is not something we distributed in supermarkets or street corners.”

But Schabarum was unmoved.

“It’s a sorry state of affairs when a document such as this has to be put in such enticing prose to get the attention of the public,” he said.

The board’s vote came less than a week after supervisors condemned another anti-AIDS booklet, partly paid for with county funds, that advised drug users to avoid using needles or to make sure they are clean. Board members contended that the pamphlet, titled “Shooting Up and Your Health,” encouraged drug use, a charge its promoters denied.

The vote also came less than two weeks after state officials said they would send $1.25 million directly to private anti-AIDS agencies rather than funnel the money--intended to educate the public about AIDS--through the county’s Department of Health Services. State officials expressed concern at the time that the Board of Supervisors had not been vigorous enough in educating the public about AIDS.

Schabarum’s motion was aimed at a brochure that, among other things, advised gays that they can fondle one another and use condoms to minimize the risk of contracting AIDS through an exchange of bodily fluids. Schabarum was particularly incensed at three sexually explicit stories, complete with photos, detailing intimate encounters between men.

Though acknowledging that the pamphlet was “apparently intended” as educational material, Schabarum said the literature “goes beyond all boundaries of good taste and decency. The material is not educational; it’s hard core pornographic material.”

Rice said the brochure is one of the most effective AIDS prevention tools now distributed in the gay community.

“My clients do not deal well with any moral evaluation of their life styles,” Rice said, adding that the three explicit stories “reinforce my messages that they can have a very productive sex life and a safe one.”

Rice said the material, available at gay bathhouses, was prepared by a team of health educators under the auspices of a private group called the AIDS Project, which receives county funds. The educators were concerned about getting across a message to homosexuals about the dangers of exchanging bodily fluids.

Rice said that state health officials had expressed concerns similar to Schabarum’s and that state auditors were even sent to Los Angeles to ensure that the pamphlet had not been financed by public money.