Sexual Strategies for Pleasure and Safety is a carefully devised plan of action to enjoy sex and not get STDs.

Throughout this book, I use the more popular acronym STD when referring to sexually transmitted disease and infection, including HIV/AIDS.

Fear is not the answer for prevention! The incidences of STDs have increased over the years, with each year bringing more cases and more deaths. The fear has also increased and yet people are still getting infected.

The campaign for sexual abstinence is not the answer! Abstinence is a choice and should not take the place of safer sex education. The dramatic increase in STDs has shown itself in the heterosexual community and especially among young adults and children. In 2001, the CDC reported an increase in STDs and that the highest incidence was in the 10 - 24 year old age group. This is a substantial increase in younger teenagers.

Sexual rights and sexual responsibility equal sexual health and pleasure! You have a natural right to sexual freedom and pleasure and with that right brings the responsibly for your own sexual health and pleasure. It is up to you, as an individual, to take care of yourself. You cannot rely on, or expect, anyone else to protect you! This includes friends, family, lovers, government, medicine.

Knowledge and strategies are the answer! Knowledge of STDs, risk and prevention and concrete strategies to stay sexually healthy and create sexual pleasure.

Roe Gallo, Ph.D., M.P.H., A.C.S

INTRODUCTION

In Sexual Strategies for Pleasure and Safety, the objective is to enjoy sex and not get STDs. The main focus of the book is to empower the reader to create a pleasurable and safe sex life. The focus is on the prevention of all STDs and not just HIV/AIDS, because if you expose yourself to any STD, you will be exposing yourself to all STDs, including HIV/AIDS.

The information in this book will help you to:

1. Keep free of STDs.
2. Manage any STDs you may have.
3. Have sex without fear.
4. Enjoy your sexuality alone and with others.
5. Be responsible for your sexuality.
6. Be responsible for your health and safety.
7. Learn about yourself and your body.
8. Make informed choices and decisions about your sexual lifestyle.
9. Know the latest available and sex positive information about the cause, risk and prevention of STDs.
10. Know safe sex techniques that, as much as possible, do not detract from and possibly enhance, the pleasure and meaning of sexuality.
11. Know practical alternatives and suggestions.
12. Know an approach to STDs that is in accord with basic human sexual rights.

Basic human rights must be built around freedom of choice. There can be no freedom if there is no choice. The number one weapon is education and education must include basic sexual rights.

These Basic Sexual Rights were adopted by the faculty of the Institute for Advanced Study of Human Sexuality in 1981 and are still serving the faculty and student body as they face the challenges of the 21^st Century.

The Basic Sexual Rights are:

1. The freedom of any sexual thought, fantasy or desire.
2. The right to sexual entertainment, freely available in the marketplace, including sexually explicit materials dealing with the full range of sexual behavior.
3. The right not to be exposed to sexual material or behavior.
4. The right to sexual self-determination.
5. The right to seek out and engage in consensual sexual activity.
6. The right to engage in sexual acts or activities of any kind whatsoever, providing they do not involve nonconsensual acts, violence, constraint, coercion or fraud.
7. The right to be free of persecution, condemnation, discrimination, or societal intervention in private sexual behavior.
8. The recognition by society that every person, partnered or unpartnered, has the right to the pursuit of a satisfying consensual sociosexual life free from political, legal or religious interference and that there need to be mechanisms in society where the opportunities of sociosexual activities are available to the following: disabled persons; chronically ill persons; those incarcerated in prisons, hospitals or institutions; those disadvantaged because of age, lack of physical attractiveness, or lack of social skills; the poor and the lonely.
9. The basic right of all persons who are sexually dysfunctional to have available nonjudgmental sexual health care.
10. The right to control conception.

ABOUT THE EDITORS

Ted McIlvenna is the founder and president of the Institute for Advanced Study of Human Sexuality. He is a former athlete, an accomplished musician, a theologian, an academician and a true social and educational designer. Dr. McIlvenna is the author of 16 books and the producer of 122 sex education films and videos. He is also the trustee of the world's largest erotology collection. Dr. McIlvenna is a sexologist committed to the integration of sexology with other academic disciplines. He is a strong advocate for personal and sexual rights and the preservation of our sexual heritage.

Contact information: www.iashs.edu

Roe Gallo is an author, researcher, professional speaker and sexologist. She earned her Masters degree from San Francisco State University in Health Communication and her Ph.D. and M.P.H. from the Institute for Advanced Study of Human Sexuality. Dr. Gallo has led lectures and workshops and brings with her nearly 20 years of health education experience. She is currently an adjunct professor at San Francisco State University. Her published works include: Body Ecology, Perfect Body the Raw Truth and Perfect Body Beyond the Illusion.

Contact information: www.roegallo.com