Pro-Family Activist Says Safe-Sex Myth Hurts AIDS Prevention Effort

by Bill Fancher
December 5, 2003

(AgapePress) - A conservative activist says the various agencies fighting AIDS still refuse to discard the one tool that is doing more harm than good.

Bob Knight of the Culture and Family Institute maintains that "safe sex" is the main message being pushed by many groups trying to stop AIDS. He says these groups simply refuse to acknowledge that safe sex is just a myth.

Bob Knight

Knight calls the safe-sex approach a disaster, one that has expanded AIDS in Africa and wreaked havoc in America. In the U.S., AIDS rates have risen the last three years, with the largest increase (17%) among homosexual men. "The safe-sex message is wrong," Knight emphasizes, adding, "It doesn't help people with AIDS; it creates more people with AIDS."

According to the pro-family activist, the widespread promotion of the safe-sex message during World AIDS Day activities this week has probably been more damaging than useful. Knight says AIDS activists, public health advocates, and others fighting the disease need to understand that the same-sex message is not only ineffective but downright dangerous.

"The safe-sex message seems designed more to preserve the gains of the sexual revolution -- the idea that any sex anywhere is okay, and anyone who says otherwise is living in the past, is a bigot, is a religious fanatic, whatever," Knight says. "But the truth is that, as people have freed themselves from religious restraints such as saving themselves for marriage, it has unleashed not only AIDS but many other sexually-transmitted diseases."

Knight insists that the only way to stop AIDS is to promote sexual abstinence and marital fidelity. He says when these protections are removed and promiscuity begins, the result is AIDS and death. Nevertheless, Knight fears that because this truthful message is not "politically correct," many people will continue to promote the safe-sex myth -- and AIDS will continue to spread.