The very first group of gay men with AIDS was found to have had twice as many partners as those without it, and their partners were in turn found to have more than average numbers of partners as well. So it appeared obvious that, in the absence of a known cause, any rational prevention strategy must involve partner reduction. Accordingly, the very earliest literature produced by gay and AIDS groups, long before HIV was discovered, urged gay men to “reduce” their partners. As recounted by journalist Rotello, the first explicit advice about AIDS prevention appeared in 1982 in the form of pamphlets and newsletters by the San Francisco gay and lesbian doctors’ group Bay Area Physicians for Human Rights, by Houston’s Citizens for Human Equality, and by New York’s Gay Men’s Health Crisis.

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Chapter 9

The material emphasized partner reduction as the primary strategy for avoiding the syndrome. The newsletter distributed by Gay Men’s Health Crisis put it simply: “The fewer different partners, the less your risk of acquiring a disease.” An early Advocate article on safer sex advised men to “know” and “reduce” their partners first and foremost. It relegated advice on condoms to the seventh on the list, and seemed skeptical even then, “wearing a condom may reduce the risk.” Unfortunately, partner reduction proved woefully inadequate by itself. Many gay men in the most sexually active core groups were having dozens or even hundreds of partners a year, so when some of them reduced their partners by two-thirds, or half, they discovered too late that such reductions made little difference.

Despite these efforts, the partner reduction message was not welcomed by all.