Scarce, who has investigated the Internet phenomenon and is writing a book about it, said he has interviewed numerous "inoculation party" participants. Using street parlance, the Web sites describe the act of seeking HIV ("bug chasing"), or seeking to infect willing partners with the virus ("giving the gift"). Scarce, 28 years old and HIV-negative, describes a subculture of gay men who eroticize risky sexual practices, and in some cases, are embracing the prospect of becoming infected.Īcross a network of Web sites, gay men from Wichita to Rotterdam advertise group sex parties for barebacking men. It includes a visit to the Castro "Bareback House" and an account of what goes on inside. It uncritically explores the methods and motives of men who have rejected condoms and are having unprotected sex in organized venues. The subculture of barebacking is explored in depth in a second POZ article "A Ride on the Wild Side," by San Francisco free-lance journalist Michael Scarce. We want to see less condemnation of it as a behavior, and more discussion about why gay men are wanting to stop using condoms." "We wanted to try to give a fair, and considered, and nonjudgmental analysis of why this is taking place. "It's not that we wanted to defend barebacking," he said. POZ, which has a modest national circulation of 130,000 is not just trying to sell magazines, said Armstrong. "Anything that glamorizes putting your own health at risk is irresponsible and threatens to unravel all our progress," he said. We're willing to take the heat for that."īut AIDS Action's Zingale finds this "bareback chic" appalling. I understand people's criticisms," said POZ editor-in-chief Walter Armstrong. "The cover photo definitely turns him into a sex object. While the story describes the plight of Valenzuela as an outcast in the San Diego gay community for publicly advocating barebacking, the photos and graphic images portray a glamorous, sexy new icon. The cover features a handsome gay model, Tony Valenzuela, resting naked atop a black stallion. But nothing is creating quite the stir as the lastest issue of POZ, a glossy monthly magazine brimming with ads for AIDS drugs, featuring a sympathetic portrayal of the barebacking phenomenon. The practice of barebacking has been fiercely debated in the gay community for several years.
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"Groups of men engaging in high-risk sex with multiple partners, that is the kind of behavior that caused the epidemic to explode," said Robert Perez of the Stop AIDS Project in San Francisco. Rates of sex with more than one partner also rose, and of those engaged in the riskiest practices, 68 percent did not know whether their partner was infected with the AIDS virus. Yesterday, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that among men who have anal sex with other men, the portion of men who did so without condoms rose to 39 percent in 1997, from 30 percent in 1994. New research from San Francisco confirms that an increasing number of gay men are having sex with multiple partners, and without the protection of condoms.
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"More than anger, I find it heartbreaking and tragic," said Daniel Zingale, executive director of AIDS Action of Washington, D.C., the nation's most powerful AIDS lobby. Even so, many veteran AIDS activists, who championed the "safer sex" ethic that has checked the spread of the AIDS virus since the mid-1980s, are disturbed by the trend. Only a tiny fraction of gay men are believed Four of those must be HIV negative, but the fifth is already infected with the AIDS virus. Web sites are offering lists of "extreme sex" party sites where the prospect of becoming infected or of infecting others is part of the erotic allure.Īt a "Russian roulette party" set for next month in Houston, a posting seeks three healthy men to have sex with five other men. Now a fringe element, linked by the Internet, is taking it even further.