Despite a 14-year-old urban legend that won’t go away, The Villages didn’t make the list of the worst cities for sexually transmitted diseases.
That distinction belongs to Baltimore, Maryland – the 26th largest city in the United States with a population of about 602,495 – which had the highest per capita rate with 2,004 cases reported per 100,000 residents, according to statistics recently released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and analyzed by online medical and testing guide Innerbody.com.
Dubbed the Sexually Transmitted Disease Surveillance Report, the study looked at cases involving HIV, chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis. Los Angeles led the way with a total of 92,401 cases, followed by Chicago with 58,322, Houston with 36,710, Phoenix with 34,973 and Philadelphia with 28,866.
A host of Southern cities were included on the per capita list, including six in Florida – two of which are within a short driving distance of Florida’s Friendliest Hometown. Those Sunshine State cities were Tallahassee (ranked 14th), Jacksonville (45th), Gainesville (51st), Pensacola (61st), Orlando (64th) and Fort Lauderdale (99th). Four of those cities are home to large college campuses, one houses a military base and the other is a top beachfront travel destination.
The rampant STD rumor in The Villages first erupted in 2006 when a local gynecologist reported that she’d treated more cases of herpes and human papillomavirus in The Villages than when she practiced in Miami. It was a statement that she’d later somewhat recant and clarify, but the damage was done.
There was a heightened awareness of the possibility of promiscuity in The Villages and the story spread like wildfire. Those rampant reports sent adult children scurrying to the telephone to contact their parents to find out what was going. And some retirees quickly rethought plans about where to spend the best years of their lives.
Of course, it wasn’t long before crews from Orlando television stations descended on the community and the story became even more legendary. There was talk of a black market for Viagra. And sordid tales of prostitutes frequenting Katie Belle’s at night quickly spread across the community – with some residents and area residents saying they fully believed that to be true.
In 2008, the rumor gained steam when author Andrew D. Blechman released a book called “Leisureville” that told sordid tales of nightlife in The Villages. Blechman’s neighbors had moved to The Villages from New England and during a visit to the mega-retirement he claimed to have spent time at several hotspots and watched seniors swap phone numbers or leave together for the evening. He told of the exploits of a 63-year-old bachelor known as “Mr. Midnight” and the sordid details of his sex life, comparing the night out with him as attending a keg party with the high school quarterback.
A short time later, the New York Post released a story with the headline “Romance and STDs: Inside Florida’s Wild Retirees Getaway.” If Blechman’s book cracked the door open for the STD rumors to roar back to life, the New York Post article flung it wide open and put just about every sordid detail possible on the table.
It talked about Villagers having sex in their golf carts. It claimed that the ratio of women to men in the community was 10 to 1. And it offered this assessment: “Welcome to ground zero for geriatrics who are seriously getting it on.”
In December 2017, an article published in Senior’s Health took on the controversy. It pointed out that stories about a high rate of STD cases in the community were likely exaggerated. It claimed that some news media outlets took advantage of the opportunity to sensationalize a juicy story that was sure to grab readers’ attention. And it pointed out that with 80,000 residents in the community at the time, it should come as no surprise that a certain percentage would be interested in things like alcohol and sex.
