SHIVONNE DU BARRY Sunday, August 26 2007

It is heartening to see the leaders that represent Hindus, Catholics and Muslims agreeing publicly about something. This time it is not about the immorality of homosexuality but, unsurprisingly, it still has something to do with sex. It seems that condoms are enough of an evil to bring together groups whose doctrines teach that the others are fundamentally wrong. Hey, you may be going to hell for worshipping your false god/s, but at least we can agree that people shouldn’t go around having protected sex.

I’ve listened carefully to the concerns raised by the religious leaders in order to try to fathom what their objections are. Mainly, they seem to be saying that the introduction of condom machines will lead to an increase in “illicit” sexual activity, which I suppose means sex outside of marriage. Gasp! We wouldn’t want that to happen in Trinidad and Tobago. Men are only supposed to have sex with women (emphasis on women) they are married to and preferably for the sole purpose of procreation. And yes all sarcasm is intended. This assertion, though, is fatally flawed. Increasing access to condoms and information about the proper use of condoms has no effect on number of sexual partners, number of sexual encounters or initiation of sexual activity among those who were previously abstinent. A meta-analysis of 174 studies on the subject published in the March 2006 Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes showed that the introduction of condoms or condom use training into sex education programmes was only effective in that it increased condom use among persons who were sexually active.

The authors of this study went on to conclude that interventions were most effective at reducing sexual frequency and number of partners if they included information, motivational components and skills training. All of this means that making condoms more available, which is what condom machines would do, will only impact upon people’s sexual behaviour by increasing condom use. And of course, this is all that proponents of the move claim.

The reality is that people are having sex, illicit or otherwise, with frightening proportions in our country being infected with HIV and other STIs. This reality seems to be one that religious leaders in particular are detached from. Yet the numbers are incontrovertible. AIDS is the number one killer of persons aged 15-44 in the Caribbean. Young persons are especially at risk, with teenaged girls around six times more likely than their male peers to become infected with HIV. The teenage pregnancy rate in TT stands at around 15%.

Clearly people are not practicing abstinence, and only the most myopic people will continue to preach abstinence — only, in the face of all the evidence that shows these programmes are ineffective, and in spite of all the pain and death we are experiencing as a result of HIV and AIDS.

Every time a person opens up his mouth to utter something in favour of abstinence-only, he is demonstrating that his own hang ups and prejudices about sex and condoms are more important to him than protecting health and saving lives. I say this because the evidence on what types of programmes work best to decrease risky behaviour is there for anyone who cares to look at it. If your ideology is preventing you from looking at the evidence rationally, especially if you’re a public figure with influence, you have some serious ethical issues to work out.

Of course, the good Pope himself is guilty of the very same thing. The leader of the Catholic Church continues to stubbornly insist that god doesn’t like condoms even though there is no theological consensus on the issue. Yet I suppose that means nothing because the Pope is the final authority in these matters. Developing countries with large Roman Catholic populations like Brazil continue to struggle with the AIDS pandemic. And people continue to be confused by authoritarian messages about what god says is best for them versus the reality of their situations.

Another common thread among the statements made this week by religious leaders is that condom machines will send the wrong message. It will make people and children think it is okay to have sex. I don’t know where these good people are living.

All around me I see children riding in maxis that play graphic music, walking past by adults who freely use obscenities, accompanying their parents to violent and sexually explicit movies. Not to mention children who are fully aware of the sexual practices of their parents or who are being sexually abused by adults who are supposed to take care of them.

Children already know all about sex. Condoms will send the message that sexual activity must be something that is done in a responsible way. And that, in my opinion, is not the wrong message at all.