While the practice of “safe sex” has become an American habit over the
past twenty years, 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 activist and journalist Richard Berkowitz who arrived on the
frontlines in the war on AIDS in 1982 and has been writing about it ever since.
Berkowitz takes the reader on a graphic but moving account of his personal
sexual journey coming out amid the sexual abandon of the 1970s and waking up to
horror of AIDS in the 1980s. For younger readers with no first-hand experience
of what it was like living through the erotic exuberance of the sexual revolution
nor the grisly aftermath, the author offers a vivid portrayal that puts the
invention of safe sex into fresh, compelling context for a new generation.“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 author, the AIDS researcher and physician Joseph Sonnabend, and the
late author, activist and singer 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.”
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