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If you're a teacher, acknowledging that you most likely have an LGBTQ student can give a whole new sense to your sex-ed lessons. It means you understands you're not just teaching straight kids about gay sex, but helping the queer teen in your classroom make smart decisions.
While Catholic bishops in the Philippines have opposed modern forms of birth control, the public paralysis this has engendered over sexual health care has led to high rates of abortion. The Philippine Catholic Church can thus be seen to be at odds with its ministry for the poor.
Pope Benedict XVI acknowledges the relative moral value of a prostitute showing concern for protecting others by using condoms. But it is far from being sufficient. For him, it is not really the way to promote HIV prevention. One would say: the finality does not justify the means.
Pope Benedict's remarks on condoms have offered rich pickings. Speculation arose whether his statement heralds the collapse of Catholic condemnation of contraception. But the Pope's words were less significant for their content than for their style.
Abstinence and fidelity win little public support in Western discourse, but are increasingly included, even favoured, in national AIDS strategies in Africa. Culture counts, and a condom is more than a piece of latex.
The Pope's criticism of condoms was forged in a Western context, but reflects an aspect of the African experience of AIDS. There, a value-free Western strategy has been inadequate because it does not deal with important cultural factors.
It's close on a quarter of a century ago that I first became enmeshed in the world of HIV/AIDS. I found myself labelled an 'activist', catapulted into confronting my church over its attitude to condoms. Last week saw a return to the beginning.
A response to 'Condoms discussion returns to traditional moral norms', discussing the rationale of 'the lesser evil'.
Benedict XVI will need all his theological sophistication as he negotiates the different moral arguments offered for the use of condoms in AIDS.