A couple years ago, Rolling Stone ran an article about “Bug Chasers,” subtitled, “The men who long to be HIV+.” In the article, writer Gregory A. Freeman noted, among others things, a number of gay men had created screen names on sites promoting bareback sex identifying them as interested in contracting HIV. He saw this longing to become HIV-positive as a growing phenomenon in gay culture. To many of those individuals,

The virus isn’t horrible and fearsome, it’s beautiful and sexy — and delivered in the way that is most likely to result in infection. In this world, the men with HIV are the most desired, and the bug chasers will do anything to get the virus — to “get knocked up,” to be “bred” or “initiated into the brotherhood.”

When the piece was published, many gay activists and writers denounced the piece, some saying it gave ammunition to anti-gay voices in American society. (Indeed, a google search yielded several hits of social conservatives using the phenomenon to promote their agenda.) Others said this phenomenon was very limited, if it existed at all.

Yet, just tonight, a friend of mine told me that when he was in San Francisco, an HIV-positive man invited him to a party which shortly after his arrival, he discovered to be a “bug-chasing” party, similar to those described in the film, The Gift. He watched as a number of HIV-positive men tried to infect several young HIV-negative men. He described the event as “intense” and offered a few anecdotes which I won’t present on this blog.
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Well, I think [President Bush has] done an incredible job, his administration, on AIDS. And 250,000 Africans are on antiviral drugs. They literally owe their lives to America. In one year that’s being done. ? Yes, there’s a lot of pressure on President Bush. If he, though, in his second term, is as bold in his commitments to Africa as he was in the first term, he indeed deserves a place in history in turning the fate of that continent around.

–U2’s Bono on Meet the Press (via Powerline).

Earlier in the week, Eva Young e-mailed the link to Michelangelo Signorile’s post taking issue with Andrew Sullivan’s Advocate column where that blogger formerly known as a conservative seems to extol the virtues of being HIV-positive.
I have to say that I’m not quite sure what to make of the piece, indeed, find myself agreeing (**GASP**) with some of what Signorile has to say, especially when he asks, “what is the purpose of this column“? I read it through a couple of times and also read BoiFromTroy‘s thoughtful post on the topic — as well as some of the comments to Boi’s post and remain perplexed by Andrew’s intentions.
Andrew talks about how long he has survived with HIV, how he feels better, even suggests that he looks better. We all know that thanks to medicines developed in the mid to late 1990s, people with the virus can live normal, healthy lives. Like Andrew, many who follow the regimen don’t get sick. Yet, for some, the drug regimen doesn’t work. Their health continues to decline and many die. As I understand it, doctors have not yet been able to figure out why the regimen works for some, but not for others.
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Just last night, I pulled my copy of Gabriel Rotello‘s “SEXUAL ECOLOGY: AIDS AND THE DESTINY OF GAY MEN” off my shelf. I had thought to review my underlinings, margin and back-page notes as I prepared a followup to my piece wondering why knowing what we know some gay men continue to have unsafe sex.
This morning, I noted this article from the “WASHINGTON BLADE,” “HIV strain prompts prevention rethinking” on the Outlet Wire on the left column of this page. Writer Dyana Bagby devotes nearly one-third of the piece to comments from Rotello. Rotello echoes something that HRC’s Winnie Stachelberg noted in a recent release — and which caught the attention of Christian Granthan and myself: “we see these wonderful ads of successful beautiful, healthy [HIV positive] people taking drugs and living wonderful lives.”
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Here is a disturbing story out of New York City (home of the “super AIDS virus”).
New AIDS Shock in NYC — 365gay.com

New York City’s health department Wednesday acknowledged that an estimated 45,000 residents are HIV-positive but do not know it. The figure raises the official count of PWAs by 50 percent. New York already has 88,000 people living with HIV/AIDS.

Last week I commented on a opinion survey showing that a majority of physicians and the general public supported mandatory HIV testing. I said I was very torn about this.
However, stories like this one really get me wondering if mandatory HIV testing might be the only way to help stop the spread. I am obviously very concerned about privacy, discrimination issues, and unfortunate mistakes like the one in West Palm Beach, FL. But at some point, the benefit/risk test must be applied for society as a whole and those who are unaware they are infected.
My biggest concern about mandatory testing is the fact that our healthcare system is not adequately prepared to deal with the privacy safeguards and counseling that would be needed.
But I do have to tell you, I’m leaning toward supporting mandatory HIV testing. We should have cracked this disease through other means many years ago.

Like every gay man I’ve met, I know about the risks of unsafe sex and how to protect myself against contracting HIV. In the 1990s, I assumed that all single gay men practiced safe sex and that those who became infected during that period had just been plain unlucky. Either the condom broke or some other mishap negated its effectiveness. It never occurred to me, knowing what we know about how the virus is spread, that a gay man, particularly an intelligent one, would not take proper precautions. It made sense to assume that all gay men played safe.
But, at the end of the decade, friends starting telling me about times when they played “unsafe.” And in many cases, the indiscretion occurred not with somehow they knew, but with a random hookup. In some cases, the guys had been high on drugs. Others got lost in the moment. But, in some cases, both men were fully conscious of what they were doing. An online “chat buddy” (whom I never met) confided that he contracted the virus when he allowed a guy he met at a bar to penetrate him without protection; the guy had assured him he was negative.
When I moved to LA in 1999, I soon learned that unsafe practices, while not the rule, were certainly not the exception. A friend related how one man pursued him for several months online, but [the pursuer] stopped chatting with him when he [the friend] made clear that he only played safe. I kept hearing stories of unsafe sex that, at one point, it seemed I was the only man in West Hollywood who had never played unsafe. Thankfully, I have learned that I am not alone. Many, if not most, gay men continue to play safe.
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A new survey was published yesterday by HCD Research showing that a large majority of physicians and the general public favor MANDATORY HIV testing.

The survey revealed that among the general public:
— 63% of Americans believe that mandatory, federally funded HIV testing would improve the overall health of the U.S. population
— 60% indicated that the associated health care benefits of mandatory, federally funded HIV testing outweigh the social implications
— 40% indicated that the social implications of mandatory, federally funded HIV testing outweigh the associated health care benefits

Hat tip on this one goes to Charging Rhino. And Ted has his own very strong thoughts on the prospects.

First comes the “mandatory testing”.
Next comes the databases.
Followed by armed raids, and “…rounding up the usual suspects”.
From there it’s tattoos and “legal” sanctions.
Then the “camps”.
…From my cold, dead hands.

Well, I’m not so sure. I haven’t had to think about this…. so I’d like to open up to comments and see what y’all think. This is a toughie.
Also, an enterprising reader might want to find out more about HCD Research. Follow the money, as they say…
-GayPatriot: gaypatriot2004@aol.com

I don’t always agree with Christian Grantham. Indeed, like many readers of this blog, I often find myself at odds with him. But, in short post on a New York man’s contraction of a “highly drug-resistant” strain of HIV, he’s right not to mince his words:

I’m tired of irresponsible gay lifestyles so obsessed with sex that the value of other people’s lives come second to personal pleasures. The incessant appeals by a handful of community “leaders” for liberal sensitivities on crystal meth abuse and the willful spread of HIV is nothing short of complicit neglect and murder.

Maybe his language is a little strong, but his outrage is that of the Greek goddess Nemesis, righteous indignation. Some readers accuse us of self-hatred, but what do they call the behavior of men who frequently do drugs and repeatedly practice unsafe sex?