# Gays = 80% of serious STDs?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gays-80-of-serious-stds/55178>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [February 20, 2001, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gays-80-of-serious-stds/55178 "2001-02-20T04:27:32Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 4

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**Author:** ![Zarathustra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/898d66/32.png) [@Zarathustra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zarathustra)\
**Post date:** [February 22, 2001, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gays-80-of-serious-stds/55178/61 "2001-02-22T23:53:05Z")

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. . . at least in SoCal, [that appears to be the case](http://www.salon.com/sex/wire/2001/02/22/syphilis/index.html) (from today’s article on [Salon.com](http://Salon.com)):

> [@](#):
>
> An outbreak of syphilis in Southern California last year has provided alarming new evidence that gay and bisexual men are lowering their guard against AIDS, the government said Thursday.
> 
> More than half of the syphilis cases in a four-county area during the first half of 2000 were in men who reported having had at least one male sex partner - up from 26 percent a year earlier.  
> . . .
> 
> In four California counties - Los Angeles, San Diego, Orange and Riverside - 66 of 130 syphilis cases from January to July 2000 were in gay or bisexual men, compared with 26 of 100 cases in the same period in 1999.
> 
> Of the 66 cases in 2000, 33 reported they had had anonymous sex, and 17 said they had met sex partners in bathhouses. Only one in five reported using a condom during his most recent sexual encounter, and two in five reported using illegal drugs. [I guess there are \*still\* a few who just can’t figure things out, huh, Esprix?]

And Esprix, I can’t figure out what kind of math you’re using. Put it this way: there’s a hundred people in a room, ten of whom are wearing pink t-shirts. Now throw ten red marbles into the room and see who picks them up. Now take a survey–what do you know, eight of the people who picked up the marbles have pink t-shirts, two of them don’t. Hey, that’s eighty percent. I think your mistake is you’re acting as if the overall population of the US had some bearing on the question, when the population you should be looking at is much more restricted–just the number of STD cases out there. The OP is asking–quite legitimately, Wanker the Stain notwithstanding–whether gays contribute a hugely disproportionate amount to a very small number of STD cases out there.

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**Author:** ![manhattan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manhattan/32/7_2.png) [@manhattan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/manhattan)\
**Post date:** [February 23, 2001, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gays-80-of-serious-stds/55178/62 "2001-02-23T00:33:08Z")

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Wanker the Stain? **Zarathustra** , I’ve had to intercede in this thread twice, and you have to know better than that. Consider yourself on thin ice.

This thread is closed. And it’s a pity, because **handy** posted cites and everything.

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