The popularity of gay barebacking is leading to increasing HIV cases
Let’s clear one thing up right away. HIV is a serious illness. Developing AIDS is worse. Using a condom during anal sex will drastically reduce your risk of contracting HIV.
However a mighty row is brewing in the UK gay community recently over the growing popularity and visibility of gay barebacking (fucking without a condom). The number of gay men contracting HIV is still growing year on year, and there is a worrying spike of HIV infection rates in our young gay men under 24[1].
1980s AIDS advert
A Pink News article by Gary Leigh ’Killing Us Softly’ argues for a return to hard-hitting no-nonsense AIDS campaigns like those from the 80’s. It has attracted 175 comments already, many of them critical of the prominent gay sexual health charities like GMFA and THT. ‘This has happened on your watch’, Leigh seems to be saying.
The actor Alan Cumming has also been very vocal on the issue in this month’s Attitude magazine:
“There will be a new wave of AIDS deaths”, he states, adding
“AIDS will kill you, and it will make your life terrible. You can live longer now but there will be a wave of death when the new combinations stop being effective.”
Alan Cumming
But how does Alan Cumming know there will be a new wave of AIDS deaths? And why does he assert that the drug combinations will stop being effective? There is simply no evidence to support either of these statements.
Facts
It’s time for some facts.
Fact Number 1 - Near Normal Lifespan
If you contract HIV today, and seek prompt treatment, you can expect a near-normal lifespan [1][4]
Fact Number 2 - Less Toxic Meds
Today’s medication regimes are far less toxic and less intrusive than in the past. Katherine Sladden from National Aids Trust (NAT) said most newly diagnosed people receive one or two pills to be taken once or twice a day, and some do not need to start meds straight away. What’s more, research for new drugs is continuing all the time.
Fact number 3 - Normal Quality of Life
You can enjoy a normal quality of life with HIV. Providing you are diagnosed promptly you can expect to be healthy, work and have relationships like everyone else.[1]
Fact number 4 - Work Unlikely to Suffer
Your work is unlikely to suffer. NAT have just published a survey[3] of 1830 gay men from Gaydar with HIV. Over 58% of them said their HIV status had no impact on their work - and this survey includes men who’ve had HIV for years - guys recently diagnosed will be even less likely to experience work problems.
No Bed of Roses
Living with HIV is not a bed of roses
All that said, if you contract HIV there will be serious consequences. You may experience some stigma for instance, and maintaining the drug regime and medical check ups can be inconvenient. There are still doubts over the long term effects of the illness and the medications.
The Danger of Exaggerating
We seem to be bombarded by the horrors of HIV and AIDS, the facial wasting, the dementia, cancer and considerable suffering that can result from full-blown AIDS.
Yes, gay guys do die from the disease - in 2007 172 people gay men died with HIV infection in the UK. However, 57% were over 50 and HIV was not a cause of death in many cases (although it may have been a contributory factor). In the same period 30-32000 gay men were living with HIV.[3]
The HIV virus
Those who paint a worse picture than actually exists are well-intentioned - the purpose is to act as a deterrent to gay barebacking, and ultimately to ’save lives’. However, such ‘doom-mongering’ actually does far more harm than good, and even if it were successful would it really save lives? The evidence suggests otherwise.[4]
Matthew Hodson of GMFA told the Mothership Blog that depicting an unrealistic ‘horror-show’ scenario of the disease has detrimental effects, including:
* Gay men are less likely to test
* Depicting HIV+ men as being very thin, or with lesions/facial wasting etc encourages the myth you can spot HIV+ guys just by looking at them - whereas in actual fact you cannot spot who has HIV by looking at them - most HIV+ men DO look healthy
* Exagurating the toxicity of the drugs acts as a deterrent for HIV+ guys to take their meds
Not only that, but if we over-blow the effects of HIV then it undermines the trust with our gay youth and they may tire of hearing us cry wolf.
HIV/AIDS Minefield
HIV and gay barebacking can be a minefield
HIV/AIDS is a complex and emotive minefield which is extremely hard to tackle. But before we start looking at solutions and finding the best way forward for gay men we need to begin on a bedrock of FACTS, not hysterical scaremongering.
Tomorrow we’ll take a look at one of the biggest HIV challenges we face in the UK: getting gay guys to test often and getting gay men diagnosed early. Early diagnosis is VITAL to the ongoing health of guys with HIV (see table below).
By David Abrehart
(c) Copyright 2009. All rights reserved.
Sources
[1] National Aids Trust
[2] National Aids Trust – Working with HIV
[3] GMFA
[4] The Lancet
From the Lancet:
Life expectancy HIV+ men
Age at diagnosis 20
at diagnosis cd4 count (<100 is very poorly)
<100 an extra 36years (56)
100-199 an extra 41 years (61)
200+ an extra 49 years (69)
Age at diagnosis 35
at diagnosis cd4
<100 an extra 25years (60)
100-199 an extra 30 years (65)
200+ an extra 37.3 years (72.3)
Note these figures are include injecting drug users who have a lower life expectancy
Related posts:
HIV tests - test early and test often
Dustin Lance Black bareback photos – apology needed?
Dustin Lance Black sues over bareback photos
Don’t demonise gay bareback sex
Is douching all it’s cracked up to be?
Pink News lose teeth after Downing Street butt-ering up
To bareback or not to bareback?
Gay barebacking - reducing the risk
What do you think about building an HIV strategy for gay men based on the facts? Please feel free to comment below:
November 13th, 2009 at 12:02 pm
Hi William
Did you read my article?
Please look at the section entitled Facts. If you get HIV today, and get prompt treatment, you can expect a near normal lifespan.
Source: National Aids Trust, and the Lancet.
Gay men don’t need nannying, or told what’s best for them. They need to look at the FACTS, and decide for themselves whether or not they choose to bareback or not.
It is their decision, and we need to respect them by giving them the facts - something I have tried to do in this article.
November 12th, 2009 at 11:29 am
I don’t think Gary Leigh in his article on Pink News is calling for campaigns like tombstones or the icebergs, nor indeed campaigns depicting people with lesions and wasting. What he is calling for is the truth about the reality of living with HIV, including the stigma, the social isolation, the existence on benefits, etc. that are a real possibility. And also the fact that HIV remains a chronic terminal condition and that, contrary to the misinformation spewing from the likes of the THT and GMFA, it WILL shorten your life expectancy by on average 21 years, and the antivirals WILL seriously impair your health. After all, you are ingesting toxins on a daily basis - do you really think that does not come at a price? Don’t believe me? Then check out these two new major studies:
http://www.aidsmap.com/en/news/594FA817-F6A3-4CAA-9051-22A1FB71F25B.asp
http://nymag.com/health/features/61740/index1.html
David, you really need to get your facts straight. You clearly will not get them from the GMFA, who are partly to blame for the crisis we now have on our hands. It simply is not an option not to impact on gay men today that HIV is simply no picnic, and with the spectre of public service savings cuts looming, who’s to say that gay men won’t be forced to pay for their treatments somewhere down the line? Will we reach a scenario where only those who can afford to will live while the rest of us die?
September 9th, 2009 at 5:53 am
Hi Almost
Some very good points here about responsibility - I’ll be exploring the issue regarding drug/treatment costs in another article.
The only thing I’d point out is that this article is talking about guys NEWLY diagnosed, and PROMPTLY diagnosed. The medical outcome can be very different to guys who’ve lived with HIV for some time, or who weren’t promptly diagnosed.
Thanks for the input, especially as you’re positive yourself.
September 8th, 2009 at 10:49 pm
Hi you guys! I guess you have been expecting me to put in my two penneth! So here we go! Most of you know my status is positive!
The one thing that stands out here to me is, NO ONE who has HIV should even CONSIDER having bareback sex with some one who is disease free! In the first instance, there are the legal implications. YOU CAN BE CHARGED! You are required to advise your sexual partner that you are HIV pos if you are bare backing! Otherwise you leave yourself open to a change of recklessly passing on an infectious disease!
Another point, which to me is more relevant really! WHO PAYS for the meds? The NHS which is you lot! Have you any idea what those costs are? I’ll bet not! My treatment costs £1200 a month! I’ll bet if you all had to find that money and pay for it yourselves, you’d not be having this discusion at all! Simply because you could not afford to pay for it. So it becomes a thing of conscience really!
I can tell you that in the main I am quite fine health wise NOW! But it certainly interfered with my work! I had to resign my well paid job! I simply could not work. As a matter of fact, I nearly/almost died! Strange how things work out because a lot of you knew me as nearly! I am now known as almost!
Joking aside, it is not worth the risk. It afects different people in different ways and NO ONE can tell you in advance, not even the specialists, how it is going to afect you personally! You are simply STUPID if you take the risk knowing the posible consequences!
Thats my two penneth worth for what they are worth!
September 4th, 2009 at 1:34 pm
I am truly sick and tired of this ‘victim’ culture where gay men try to portray a positive HIV status as equivalent to bowel cancer or MS or severe arthritis or any number of diseases which are genuinely terrifying, genuinely debilitating, genuinely crippling and cause genuine severe suffering.
And on that false basis they want a return to the scare mongering of old.
The majority of HIV+ men can lead near to normal independent lives with a near to normal life span. They can have careers. They can indulge in extreme sports. They can go out and have a full social life.
So Anonymous is tired “…of all this pity me because I am diagnosed with HIV or AIDS. Why? Because you were too lazy to stop it in the first place.”
Well I, and I suspect a growing number of tax payers, are starting to get tired by the number of HIV+ men who are cashing their benefits payments whilst on the way to the gym, or a club, or the travel agent to book their activity holiday in bolivia.
September 4th, 2009 at 10:36 am
Thanks Jason and Anon
I completely agree HIV is a serious illness, and the best thing is to wear a condom.
However, the evidence is now showing, that for new guys being diagnosed with HIV the disease is no longer a life or death matter (provided they are diagnosed promptly).
This isn’t spurious research or from a dubious source - it is from the Lancet.
Also, bear in mind that life itself is a life or death matter - we’re all going to die someday, of something. If you can expect a near normal lifespan with HIV, and a near normal quality of life - as the research is now showing, then that puts things in a different perspective.
What my article is trying to do is to say ‘look - let’s study the facts - and from there educate guys to make their own informed choices in life - including as to whether or not they wear a condom’. After all, the decision is theirs and it is their life - we shouldn’t nanny them.
There are considerable risks of overstating the dangers of HIV as it may put guys off testing early, or of taking their meds - as Matthew Hodson of GMFA says above, and if we cry wolf too much we lose credibility.
Cheers
September 4th, 2009 at 10:04 am
HIV and AIDs are no laughing matter, barebacking is stupid and you literally are playing with life and death. It is quite simple no condom no sex
September 4th, 2009 at 9:37 am
You know what, it’s a condom, no one is asking you to clamp your dick in an iron casket. It’s a very thin piece of rubber. If it was a pill, you would take it wouldn’t you? So what’s the problem? Stupidity, laziness, arrogance?
I also get tired of all this pity me because I am diagnosed with HIV or AIDS. Why? Because you were too lazy to stop it in the first place. To wear or insist on your partner wearing a condom? Then don’t come running for help, because you simply don’t deserve it.
August 28th, 2009 at 8:37 am
Hi John
Agreed - and I remember the news of the mystery illness too (I was at school!). That 1980s campaign was very negative and increased homophobia.
Interrupting sex in order to put a condom on can stop sex being spontaneous. I think for the active partner there is a slight increase in sensitivity without a condom, however you’re right about the psychological factors being dominant - the thought of coming inside your partner (or having someone come inside you) with no protection is highly arousing.
I suppose if you think about it 90% of sex is psychological - the rest is co-ordinated friction applied in the right places - although that last 10% is crucial!
August 28th, 2009 at 8:05 am
Once upon a time bareback sex was what we all had. I recall it was in 1982 that snippets on tv, the odd article in newspapers, and a particular report in Time Out magazine drew my attention to a horrible mystery illness which was causing panic and premature deaths in gay men in America.The rest is history, as they say.
The public education ads on tv here in the UK featuring a huge marble tombstone with AIDS engraved on its surface, complete with doom-laden music and voiceover were, in retrospect, less than helpful as the media whipped up fear and loathing. Such a campaign should never be repeated in my opinion, as it made the prospect of going for an HIV test totally daunting.
The current preoccupation with barebacking is, I believe, driven by psychological factors rather than any enhanced physical sensation that it yields. There is the thrill factor in that barebacking seems risky and daring. Also, there is a sense of violation in exposing someone, or being exposed, to unprotected sex. The climax to this is, of course, the thought of coming inside a partner, though I defy anyone to say the actual sensation involved in bareback or sex with a condom is any different. The thrill is in the imaginative components I’ve described.