#richard berkowitz

[actually-a-dyke]

Richard Berkowitz and Michael Callen writing How to Have Sex in an Epidemic, New York, 1983

[fandomshatelgbtqpeople]

It’s often hard to find posts that are pro-kink and pro-ace, so I decided to make one.

I was going to start this off with a list of statements that “can and should coexist” but for much the same reason that this post is going to be an essay unto itself, it is too complicated a subject to condense into such a nice pithy format. Recently I have reblogged some posts in favor of the presence of kink at pride. I have not changed on this regard but unfortunately this issue is also used by exclusionists to direct attacks at a-spec people. As such it is often hard to find posts that are pro-kink and pro-ace, so I decided to make one.

The queer community is a massive and diverse group and with that diversity comes conflict. There is no one size fits all solution. What helps one part of the community will not necessarily benefit another. Gay bars are a great place to meet people. They are also loud, crowded, and serve alcohol which makes them difficult for people with sensory over stimulation or substance abuse issues. So people who want these spaces are often accused of being prudes and people who want to include kink at pride are often accused of being deviants. And oddly I can think of a historical figure who has had both of these accusations leveled at him. Cue historical flashback for a Very Special Episode.

Richard Berkowitz was in his own words an S&M Hustler. He was a sex worker and professional Dom. He is Jewish, lives in New York, has a degree in Journalism from Rutgers and called his mom in New Jersey everyday. He is also one of the co-inventors of Safe Sex.

In the early 80s he was diagnosed with GRID. Gay Related Immunodeficiency which would later be called AIDS. He was a patient of Dr Joseph Sonnabend along with another man Michael Callen. Sonnabend was himself a gay man and an immunologist. Sonnabend hypothesized that GRID was spread through sex and was caused by “immune overload.” This was a hypothesis that was not popular in the gay community at large because many felt it validated the homophobic abuse that was constantly flung at the community. Sonnabend was not giften with words and was terrible as a science educator so Berkowitz and Callen teamed up to help him get the word out.

While the 60’s was known for the Free Love movement for straight people the seventies saw the repeal of many anti sodomy laws and it was the decade of free love for gay people. Many saw promiscuity as a part of that liberation. It should also be noted that at the time I am talking about no one knew yet what caused GRID, so the hypothesis that it was caused by promiscuity was viewed as tantamount to blasphemy. I should also note that Dr. Sonnabend was not claiming to be above promiscuity. He himself frequented gay bathhouses where many gay men would meet to have sex. Berkowitz and Callen met through Sonnabend and together worked to help Sonnabend to spread the word. Their first attempt was an article in the New York Native a local gay newspaper titled “We Know Who We Are.” The Native editorial staff insisted on a subtitle, “Two Gay Men Declare War on Promiscuity.”

Berkowitz and Callen were immediately reviled by the gay community of New York. They were accused of being prudes and self hating gay men. But they kept following Dr. Sonnabend and helping him communicate his findings and theories to the populace even if no one would listen to them. The next year was hard of them and journalism work wasn’t paying the bills for Berkowitz. He eventually returned to work as a Dom. However this time he worked with clients who wanted to be Dominated but not penetrated. As time went on he found ways of doing his job that minimized risk for both him and his clients. This led him and Callen to write a pamphlet on sexual health called “How to Have Sex in an Epidemic: One Approach” In it they explained the basics of Safe Sex that are now taught in Health Classrooms in the US. One of my favorite tips they gave was to love your partner even if it is just for one night. If you love them you won’t want to risk hurting them and you will be more careful.

The fate of different gay venues would continue to be a hot button issue in the community even to this day. There were arguments made about closing gay bars, sex clubs, and bathhouses in the name of public health. And there were arguments made to keep them open because many feared if they closed down they would never open again.  

So what am I getting at here? Well really I just wanted to highlight how the needs of the community can conflict with themselves. And how that conflict has always been part of the community. We need a diversity of spaces in order to embrace the diversity of our community. We need non sexual spaces. We need them for our a-spec siblings and so that I can go on a nice date with a guy and talk in peace and safety without having my ears blown out by a subwoofer. We need loud party spaces. We need places we can dance and grind and flirt with strangers. We need sexual spaces where people who are interested in kink can explore that interest with like minded people.

And finally we need to acknowledge that kink is an integral part of our community. Our community was built by sex workers and we need them. First and foremost they are a part of our community and they are valuable in their own right. But further, for many reasons that are too numerous to name many members of our community will experience their first time with a professional. Many queer people will for numerous reason be sex workers. Their involvement in our movement can help make us resistant to those who would sanitize Pride. It can make our events advertiser unfriendly and help keep corporate greed from monetizing our identities. We have to remember that although our community is becoming more respected, that respectability is not the goal. Liberation is the goal.

The First Pride was Riot.

[scarletfieldsofcankanorey]

I’m reading ‘How To Survive A Plague’ and catching all types of feelings for Richard Berkowitz and Peter Staley 😑😑

[247snob2]

[scarletfieldsofcankanorey]

I understand that Larry was this ~figure, whatever~ but anytime he opened his mouth and started talking shit about Richard, he makes me so incredibly angry.

[scarletfieldsofcankanorey]

I find it so amusing that when Rich was on that TV show with Larry, and Rich started talking about promiscuity being bad…even though Larry didn’t want him to say it on National TV, he’s over there with his head down, unconsciously nodding agreement to everything Rich was saying 😏

[abbie-a-aaronson]

Sex Positive (2008)

Sex Positive is the story of Richard Berkowitz, a controversial gay S&M sex worker turned AIDS activist in the 1980s, who along with Dr. Joseph Sonnabend and beloved activist and artist Michael Callen, helped invent the idea of ‘safe sex’. Berkowitz emerged from the epicentre of the epidemic demanding a solution before anyone else would pay attention.

Directed by Daryl Wein, Sex Positive explores Berkowitz's life and his contribution to the invention of safe sex. Aside from  Richard Berkowitz, the movie also features Dotty Berkowitz (his mother), Don Adler, Susan Brown, Demetre Daskalakis, Richard Dworkin, William A. Haseltine, Larry Kramer, Ardele Lister, Michael Lucas, Francisco Roque, Gabriel Rotello, Joseph Sonnabend, Bill Stackhouse, Krishna Stone, Sean Strub, and Edmund White.

This woefully short but incredibly deep movie about a complex subject doesn’t shy away from telling the story from as many sides as possible, and is one of my favourite documentaries. In 2008, the film won the Grand Jury Award at the Los Angeles Outfest for "Best Documentary Feature".

[commiepinkofag]

Michael Callen [at typewriter] and Richard Berkowitz, 1984

In 1982, Michael Callen and Richard Berkowitz, two gay men with AIDS living in New York, invented the practice of safer sex, forever changing the way people dealt with and prevented AIDS.

Courtesy Richard Dworkin