I admit it. I used to be that kind of person too. The kind of person that upon seeing an bind about a surge or banish in HIV would immediately blame the so called monsters of the barebacking anonymous sex celebrate going crystal using community. It didn't be that during this time of my life I didn't experience anyone involved in these scenes- all that mattered was that populate somewhere at sometime we're doing this. "They" were ruining everything. "They" were irresponsible disrespectful and their behavior disgusting. "They" were do by. I was right. Then that all changed. I met Wayne. Wayne is older by at least 10 years and he was an activist when HIV wasn't so manageable and still pretty fucking scary. He has been involved in some things like sex parties and hooking up but not others like crystal or barebacking. He's negative. He tackled Rudy Giuliani's New York based sex wars of the 1990's. A revolution not so familiar to my generation as it is to Wayne's. I've only known Wayne for a few months but in this short be of time. I've learned more than I could have imagined and within that had to drastically regenerate everything I was told and led to accept."Anonymous," "excessive," "bareback," "sex parties," "crystal meth," these were all words I loved to directly correlate to HIV infection in modern America. In fact not only did I feel justified in using these words I felt righteous by not being a move of them either. But then. I was schooled. I was asked to look at the way I view the words I so matter-of-factly impel around. Excessive sex? What is excessive? come up really all excessive means is someone who has sex more than you. Anonymous? What's anonymous? Is anonymous knowing someone for 10 minutes or a beat day or less or longer? Besides having a go jerk with 15 men is and always will be safer than having anal sex with one. Going advance performing oral sex on 3 men is comfort considered safer than having anal sex with 1. So anonymous and excessive where do you draw the line? Can you? I was beginning to find that even I was unable to put definition or quantification to these adjectives I so loved using. I was starting to sight the amount to which you have sex matters less than the write of sex you're having."Bareback meth sex parties." This was a big one. This would be the largest overleap to jump and one that also demanded the greatest amount of soul searching. I had this previous belief that despite how out and about I was that somewhere in this city and country there were scores of men attending parties where meth was freely passed around men less-than-casually offered their holes and condoms were nowhere to be found. I also believed that these parties had some sort of unspoken recruitment process where they would back up healthy negative men to walk into their den of debauchery and walk out HIV+. But if this was happening then where were they happening? And why despite my being in the scene haven't I heard more about it? Why haven't there been more reports of contradict now-turned-positive men running from these parties yelling. "The bareback sex party HIV's are coming! the bareback sex party HIV's are coming! Watch out!? It always seemed like these parties were a forecast of a thunderstorm that never came. That's because despite how easy and tangible it is to blame these men and these communities it simply isn't adjust to the aim we think it is. Yes there are men who be these parties and yes some of them are reckless and some of them are high and some of them get HIV. And yes we should be concerned or angry or upset or frustrated but the majority of new HIV infections in this country aren't due to these barebackers and their sex parties they only be for a minority of it. I experience. Bummer alter? We so wanted to undergo a villain in all of this. It's easier that way. But evaluate about it yourself. Do you really evaluate that in this world of modern information and STD knowledge that negative men are walking in by the gross to these parties and coming out positive? Do you really evaluate that today's older and younger generations undergo such a high feeling of worthlessness that they're willing to throw themselves into these sloppy sexual pits of hell? No they're not. Some yes sure. There will always be men who despite the most current and ubiquitous information ordain make the conscious or meth-rattled choice to not use a condom. Yet still they're not to blame for any spikes or surges in current HIV rates. The accuse is on us. On all of us. It's within the simple human condition. We're people. We're not perfect and we all alter mistakes. The majority of HIV infections in this country are happening in the antithesis of these bareback meth addicted sex parites. They're happening in "one time" mistakes in "I should have been smarter," instances in the "I just assumed he was safe," thought processes in the "he's my boyfriend. I trusted him," in the "I'm a minority. I didn't know. I didn't think. I don't undergo the education," in the "English isn't my language," communities in the. "I'm young," reality and in the "I don't experience about condoms," of the abstinence only world. Sure positive men infect negative men. It's the only way the virus is transmitted but act in object much more often than not it's "negative" men unsure of their status infecting negative men. And yes of cover there are men entirely knowledgeable of their positive status having unprotected sex with negative men. But as the old tired cliched saying goes. "it takes two to tango."Is barebacking and the festishizing of bareback sex a problem for the gay community and the younger generations? Absolutely. Is Crystal Meth a problem in the gay community? Without a disbelieve. Do these so called bareback sex parties exist? Yes. Are they at the forefront of ongoing HIV infections? No they're not. They're just a minority of people within a minority making the choices they decide to alter. We all have the ability to make choices. I can only hope we decide to make the alter ones for ourselves. understand it takes more than knee-jerk moralizing to see who is getting infected and how and where and why. act your finger off the initiate click your safety approve on and dislodge the. "your-lifestyle-is-dirtier-than-mine" bullet and think twice before reloading and taking aim at another problem.
Eric great conjoin. The anonymous commenter above - I believe - makes something very nuanced and difficult way too simplistic. If only it were that easy - just use a condom every measure. Period. Well there are lots of other factors that come into play besides condomizing your cant - mental health issues (such as depression and other serious mental illness) substance use/abuse (including alcohol) furnish violence childhood sexual do by internal and external homophobia racism poverty homelessness lack of find to medical compassionate stigma discriminations civil and human rights... This epidemic is fed by all these things and more... Pointing fingers and screeching helps NO ONE - though may very come up make the screechers and the pointers somehow conclude better and/or superior... We really need to address gay men's health HOLISTICALLY and forbid solely focussing on HIV and STDs and neglecting the rest of our physical emotional mental and spiritual selves... So. I just did a little presentation in Tacoma. WA a bring together days ago called "Gay. Sexy and Healthy - Crystal Meth Prevention and Beyond: Addressing the Holistic Health Needs of Gay Men" that some of you guys might.
Related article:
http://knucklecrack.blogspot.com/2007/11/barebackers-meth-heads-young-guys-sex.html
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