by Robert_Furlong
I was really liking this story until the no condom thing with both Ellie and Marcus. Fiction or not, this is how HIV gets spread so quickly to women who don't know they have boyfriends who are in the closet. Not sexy.
Thanks for the comment.
In most of my stories I’m quite categorical about the use of condoms, even if it means disrupting the flow of a sexual encounter to have someone dipping into his wallet and tearing open a wrapper. I grew up in the AIDS-obsessed 1980s and so have been indoctrinated to always use condoms during sex - a habit I actually find very difficult to break.
A lot of young people these days, in my experience, have a very different viewpoint. Rightly or wrongly, they don’t treat STDs with same seriousness that I still do and some even regard HIV as something that can be easily treated if not cured. Jake has a playful and carefree approach to sex and so I wanted him to express a more blasé attitude towards unprotected sex than the one I have.
I suppose it comes down to whether, as the story’s author, my priority is to represent the character as I think he would be as a young, easy-going guy or whether instead my role is to educate.
I get where Awe is coming from with the condom usage but, I don't like that it suggests that women get aids because their boyfriends screw around with guys. In this case "Ellie" could've cheated on Jake with some infected straight boy, and jake would have infected Marcus unknowingly.
I'm a for the story and the character being more carefree than "adults" but AIDS is a problem of all people, not just gay ones
:)
Good story by the way, they beat around te bush of not being gay issue as if they are only trying to convince themselves. Lol