Stayin' Alive: The Invention of Safe Sex - A Personal History Book

The controversial and fascinating story of how "safe sex" - the one truly life-saving intervention in the history of AIDS - became inextricably part of the American cultural landscape. While the practice of "safe sex" has become an American habit over the past twenty years or so, few are familiar with its controversial origins and fascinating social history. Stayin' Alive is the story of how reaching for a condom became as automatic as buckling a seat belt, a story compellingly and frankly recounted by Richard Berkowitz, a former street hustler, sex worker, AIDS activist, and journalist on the disease's frontlines. "Safe sex" was born out of the tireless crusading, politicking, and advocacy of an unlikely trio whose lives revolved around sex and the consequences of sex: the author, the AIDS researcher and physician Joseph Sonnabend, and the late journalist and AIDS activist Michael Callen. Berkowitz recounts how their work found a way to enable a generation of gay men and sexually adventurous heterosexuals to continue celebrating their sexuality without risking their lives or the lives of their partners - in two words, "safe sex."Read More