'Lesbians' get tips on safer oral sex

MARANYANE NGWANAAMOTHO
Staff Writer | Monday April 26, 2010 00:00

Mogapi Skipper, Prevention and Research Initiative for Sexual Minorities (PRISM) assistant officer, told The Monitor yesterday that they are currently holding workshops in different locations to educate not only lesbians, but all people about the use of dental dam to protect themselves whenever they engage in oral sex.

'I personally do not think there is anything like lesbian or gay sex. We hold workshops for everyone to teach people on the use of dental dam to protect themselves from getting infected during oral sex,' he said.

He advised that though dental dams are not available in Botswana, individuals could access them through lesbian and gay organisations in South Africa. 

'We do not provide them and we don't have them in Botswana.  However, we encourage people to buy them from South Africa'. He stated that they cost approximately US$10. Dental dam was originally used in dentist's office to keep teeth dry during dental surgery.

It is a square sheet of thin latex that can be used for safer sex by lesbians. One partner holds the dental dam over the other partner's vulva and clitoris for oral sex to prevent the transmission of bodily fluids.

He also advised that gays and lesbians to use surgical gloves during intercourse to avoid the other person's fluids. 

He said that these could be used with lubricants to prevent friction, which further exposes partners to infections.

Skipper advised that it is also important that lubricants be used together with dental dam during sex.

Skipper said that it is important that lubricants be used since there are no natural fluids produced, which can cause friction, then sores, which can result in one person passing the virus onto the other. 

He said that it is important that lubricants be distributed together with condoms to help people who experience dry sex. 

He said that usually there are no fluids when gays engage in sexual intercourse because naturally there are no fluids produced in the anus.

'This means that there will be a lot of friction which can break someone's skin and therefore easily gets infected. But if they use lubricants they will be able to avoid such situations,' he said. He added that it is not only gays who could benefit from free provision of lubricants.

'There are also heterosexuals who can not produce enough fluids or experience dry sex who also need to use lubricants,' he said.  Skipper said that dry sex equally exposes partners to infections as their skins break during sex and start to bleed.