AIDS May Change Sexual Mores in U.S., Expert Says

The spread of AIDS from gays to heterosexuals could send the nation’s sexual mores back to the 1950s, when young people went steady, got engaged and later maintained a monogamous marriage, a sex expert said Saturday.

Tony Marshall, senior public health educator for San Diego County, was one of many sex specialists addressing the annual meeting of the American Assn. of Sex Educators, Counselors and Therapists in Los Angeles.

“Basically, what we’re getting back to is more and more monogamy,” Marshall said after his talk. “And funny things might start happening in years to come.

A Return to the ‘50s

“Men and women will decide at a relatively early age that they’re going to go steady and become engaged and get married and not have any other sexual partners. Like it was in the ‘50s.”

More than 70% of known AIDS victims are homosexuals, but Marshall and other experts at the forum said the disease is spreading to heterosexuals through bisexuals and prostitutes.

Marshall said some experts claim that the number of AIDS victims in the nation is doubling each year, and that the number of heterosexual victims may eventually surpass homosexuals if people do not reduce or eliminate promiscuity.

“If things continue as they are for 10, 15 years or whatever, it may eventually turn out that there will be more heterosexuals with AIDS than homosexuals,” Marshall said.

Experts at the meeting stressed that the disease cannot be passed through casual contact. AIDS neutralizes the immune system, leaving victims defenseless against a variety of maladies including some forms of cancer.

The experts agreed that until an AIDS vaccine is developed, education remains the best way to prevent the spread of the disease.