Why Behavior Matters

In the ongoing interest of looking at life honesty, it is worth noting the current debate over how to best treat the AIDS epidemic around the world.  From The Greening of AIDS Prevention: 

" If our aim is to reduce HIV infection rates (and that’s a big “if”), then why are we so reluctant to talk about partners’ being faithful to one another, or to mention the dreaded A-word, abstinence (which was known in Uganda as “delaying sexual debut”)? Why do we restrict ourselves to drugs and devices (such as condoms)...  

     HIV rates are declining in most of the world, except for our country and our friends in the U.K. and also in other European and Western countries, including, I think, Canada and Australia. Therefore we must be doing something wrong in AIDS prevention both here and in the U.K. (and elsewhere). In both countries, MSM (men who have sex with men) comprise the sub-population with the highest HIV-infection rates. Our prevention strategy is to make gay men knowledgeable about AIDS risks and prevention, and for prevention to be based on condoms and drugs. There is little or no attention given to influencing behavior in the direction of greater caution." 

I'm posting this not because I want to harp on sex, but because I get frustrated that honest discussion about issues such as AIDS gets ignored when it infringes on our lives.  If it's true, it matters, no matter what the topic.