"Less Attractive" Men have Riskier Sex, University of Toronto Study

A new University of Toronto study, published in the current issue of the Journal of Health and Social Behavior, has found that gay men who are not generally considered to be "sexually desirable" or attractive are more likely to engage in risky sexual behavior.

According to researcher Adam Isaiah Green, who interviewed 70 gay men in Toronto to determine what qualities made some men more sexually desirable than others, and what the consequences of being undesirable might be on mental and physical health:

"I found that young, white, middle-class men are considered much more sexually desirable than men who are racial minorities, over 40 and poor."

Green also indicates that this "sexual status order" privileges caucasian, middle-class men in their twenties and early thirties, while it disadvantages black and Asian men, men over 40 years of age, and poor men.

This kind of news makes me heartsick. A very sad state of gay affairs in a multicultural city like Toronto, and probably representative of similar situations in cities across the globe.

I think we are all beautiful. I really do. Even if we may not be white, middle-class, in our twenties or early thirties, we are all beautiful. And even if most people think otherwise, we are, nonetheless, beautiful.

Here's a task for not only today, but for as long as you live. Tell a gay person of color that they are beautiful, because they need to hear those words of validation, and most important, because it's true. We are beautiful, intricate, constant, and necessary threads in the fabric of contemporary society.