Richard Berkowitz

Richard Berkowitz (born October 6, 1955) is a gay American author and activist best known as an early advocate of safe sex in response to the AIDS crisis among gay men in the 1980s. The award-winning 2008 documentary Sex Positive directed by Daryl Wein is about his life and activities.

Life and career Berkowitz was born to Jewish parents and raised in New Jersey, where he attended Rutgers University in the mid-1970s. While in college, he helped to organize what he believes was the first gay rights protest in the state, demonstrating against an anti-gay effigy hung by the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity. After college, Berkowitz moved to New York City in 1978 or 1979, earning a living as a self-described S&M hustler.

Even before AIDS was recognized as a syndrome, Berkowitz became concerned about protecting his clients, many of whom were married, from sexually transmitted diseases. He met physician Joseph Sonnabend and became a patient, learning from Sonnabend the practices for risk reduction that would later become known as safe sex. The 1983 pamphlet How to Have Sex in an Epidemic: One Approach by Callen and Berkowitz (in consultation with Sonnabend) is widely considered the first sex-positive guide to practicing safe sex.

Selected publications Richard Berkowitz and Michael Callen, with Joseph Sonnabend (1983). How to Have Sex in an Epidemic: One Approach. News From The Front Publications Berkowitz, Richard (2003). Stayin' Alive: The Invention of Safe Sex. Basic Books. .