As New York was hunkering down for the Covid-19 pandemic on March 21, the city Department of Health released a statement advising New Yorkers on how to have sex while saying safe and healthy. The guide, which advised residents to abstain from rimming and to engage in virtual sex, circulated widely on social media. Now, as we’ve entered phase 1 of reopening and New Yorkers are looking to restart their romantic and sexual lives, the Department of Health has updated those guidelines.
As in the first iteration, the new guidelines highlight that “all New Yorkers should stay home as much as possible, and minimize contact with others to reduce the spread of Covid-19.” However, in response to the question “But can you have sex?” the guide responds with an enthusiastic “Yes!”
While this version of the guide still emphasizes that “You are your safest sex partner,” and that “the next safest partner is someone you live with,” it also includes updated guidelines for navigating sex outside the household, and in group settings. If having sex with someone you do not live with, DoH recommends New Yorkers treat Covid-19 transmission like one would STD transmission. Discussing Covid-19 risk before sex, they highlight, is critical, as is having sex only with partners who you trust, and testing liberally if you think you have been exposed.
Group sex should still be avoided, according to the guide, as “large gatherings of any type are not safe during Covid-19.” However, “if you decide to find a group,” DoH recommends that you keep the guest list small and familiar (“Keep it intimate”), bring hand sanitizer, choose “larger, more open, and well-ventilated spaces,” and wear a mask.
The DoH guide emphasizes that an antibody test does not necessarily ensure immunity from Covid-19, and that sex partners should use “test results with caution in helping you make decisions about sex.” It also emphasizes frequent testing after engaging with sexual partners outside the home, and to avoid any sexual contact with partners who are immunocompromised, or over the age of 65.
Finally, the guide advises New Yorkers to avoid face-to-face contact by using masks and to masks, and to “make it a little kinky” by experimenting with sexual positions, barriers (“like walls”), and forms of mutual masturbation.
This guide acts as a telling step in the process of reopening that New York began this week. As many residents have returned to a degree of normal life, officials have begun to adopt a tone that calls to mind a safe-sex education policy, rather than abstinence-only (as discussed by Julia Marcus in The Atlantic). Increases in MTA ridership, the reopening of retail stores, the increase in people drinking and eating outside of bars and restaurants, and ongoing protests against police violence have indicated that New Yorkers are again taking to the streets and public spaces, even without a coronavirus vaccine. As teased as the sex guides are on social media, they represent a pragmatism the City has discovered as it has weathered the very worst of the pandemic– as the AIDS-era LaTour song goes, “People are still having sex ,’ so how can authorities help them to achieve that without putting them in danger?