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Within the past week, two former gay students of mine texted to relate their agony at not having boyfriends and the inability to see any in their futures. All the potential Romeos they meet are just interested in one-night stands or are on the down-low. No love on balconies.

“You both have just encountered the Walking, Raging, Testosterone-Filled Humanoids -- or Men. Run!!!!” I thought.

Of course, when I was their age, during the Sexual Revolution, copulation always seemed to come first and possible relationships occasionally built upon those chance encounters. Nowadays, the young Lgbt crowd has the option of gay groups and courses on campus, the Gay Community Center, and, of course, NewFest at Lincoln Center, which annually brims over with documentaries and narratives showcasing the ins and outs of same-sex intimacies. What safer way is there to learn about life and meet a mate while purchasing popcorn? “Take that,...

"Let me get this gay stuff out of my system." Richard Berkowitz (pictured above in both images) did not set to be an AIDS activist, or even to live openly as a gay man. He fully intended to meet and marry a woman, settle down, and raise a family, which would have pleased his liberal New Jersey Jewish Democratic family. Enrolling at Rutgers University in the early 1970s, however, changed his life.

Berkowitz's journey from college student to S&M hustler to safe sex advocate to gay community outcast is carefully chronicled in Sex Positive, a documentary by Daryl Wein that opens today in New York after a successful series of festival screenings. (Regent Releasing will open it in Los Angeles and Denver next week and in San Francisco on July 3.) Berkowitz is nearly forgotten today, despite co-writing two key texts that introduced the concept of "safe sex" and generated considerable controversy upon their publication.