“The study's second aim is to assess the feasibility of using web-based sex diaries to collect sexual behavior data and to identify the appropriate diary schedule. MSM [men who have sex with men] will be randomly assigned diary schedules and we will compare the frequency of reported behaviors across diary schedules and against the retrospective questionnaire data,” the grant abstract states.
Note that the program does NOT help the young victims, but rather studies them like lab rats.
-- From "U.S. Government Funded Study Establishing 'Web-Based Sex Diaries' for Gay Males As Young as 16" by Matt Cover, Staff Writer CNSNews.com 8/10/10
The National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID), a division of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), has awarded $126,000 over the past two years to a University of Washington study that established "web-based sex diaries" for gay males as young as 16.
By the time the grants end in 2011, taxpayers will have spent more than $250,000 for the study.
The study, titled “The Importance of Early Sexual Experiences Among Men Who Have Sex with Men,” seeks to find out if the circumstances under which young homosexuals first engage in homosexual acts impacts their future sexual behavior.
Researchers will attempt to follow 100 gay men ages 16-20 who have had fewer than three gay sex partners or are “within three years of their same-sex debut,” meaning that they had their first gay sexual experience within the past three years.
The 100 gay men will be asked to fill out an online questionnaire about their early gay experiences, take regular HIV tests, and fill out the sex diaries detailing the gay sex acts they engage in.
“Men who have sex with men (MSM) experience rates of HIV and bacterial sexually transmitted infections (STI) that are many times those experienced by heterosexuals in the U.S.,” the abstract states.
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