HIV a badge of recognition amongst gay men

I laughed even harder when I read she had nothing to back up her claims, other then some interviews that are probably fake.

But it said so on the internet. THE INTERNET.

(I sort of hoped this would plummet off the HoP radar, it's yet another oversensationalized exaggerated generalization with no insight and dangerous and offensive implications.)

Actually, if you have any gay friends, you should ask them about how they were treated by other gay people when they were young. I have a friend who is a lesbian, and she told me a couple years ago about how she was doubted by other lesbians because of her age. They were afraid she was just experimenting or not sure of her sexuality, and so if they got involved with her, they would get a broken heart. I think there's some fact to this story, but yeah some of it could be exaggerated.

I dunno. When I came out, I was received with open arms. Now, whether this is because a number of people had crushes on me is another thing...

Anyways, I think that there is a lot of miseducation about HIV/AIDS. People think that it's this chronically manageable disease. They don't realize that we've only had good antiviral drugs for about 4-5 years only and that the side-effects are pretty horrid. They don't realize the cost and illness that come with being HIV+, even if they don't have AIDS.

Having said that, as a gay man have I ever heard of ANYONE wanting to catch HIV as a "badge of their sexuality?" Nope. Not a one.

Sounds like homophobic smear tactics to me.

Indeed it does... and putting a university's name behind it is supposed to add weight to the statement... I can't see Brunel being overly pleased at their name being put to this completely unsupported theory.

She said some gay sex clubs, pubs and saunas had a throughput of up to 500 people a day with some men managing 30 to 40 sexual partners a visit.

firstly..... where do i go to become homosexual and secondly...

where do i go get to these places?

30 - 40???? thats more then all the people i know full stop let alone the poeple i could have sex with......

LOL, FunkyM, don't worry they didn't "Know" all those people.

well, only in the biblical sense

The most disturbing thing I ever heard was a subculture of gay men who deliberately allow themselves to be infected with HIV through unprotected sex with other HIV-positives so remove the 'worry' of being infected and carry on 'barebacking' regardless...

Not sure if they're taking into account the multitude of other STDs they could be exposed to or risk mutating the HIV virus into a far stronger strain...

Even heard of some who would willingly use their own HIV-infected blood as a weapon against anyone who attacks them.

I assume that the deliberate infection of HIV can also akin to a sub-culture taking back certain negative associations as anti-establishment statement distancing itself from the norm. Like black people taking back the N-word or gay people taking back 'Queer'.

'If the facist heterosexual orthidoxy will view me as an AIDS-ridden degenerate, I'll GIVE them an AIDS-ridden degenerate!'

Uh-huh. Do it properly or not at all..

Am i the only one who is being prompted for a password and can't view the link?

ho i got pw screen 2

no, you're not the only one helen.

OK, I went to Brunel Uni, studied social anthropology and Melissa Parker, who conducted this sexual networking study, was my personal tutor for the last two years of my degree.

I unfortunately can't access the article you're all referring to on Reuters, but I think from your comments that the findings are being totally misrepresented.

The study was conducted over three years, it began at an STI clinic in London and Melissa originally wanted to trace the sexual networks of people with Herpes. As time went on, she found people were more willing to discuss HIV/AIDS than other sexual diseases at the clinic. She began initially by making a handful of contacts with whom she was in regular contact with over an extensive period of time, seeing them at the clinic, thier homes and by socialising with them and their friends.

The study was not conducted exclusively on homosexual men, but all the people that her key contacts (two of whom were homosexual) had been sexually involved with. This eventually included married men, women and prostitutes, people from all walks of life. The interviews were not 'fake' either.

The study is an ethnography, it wasn't trying to 'prove' a hypothesis but was an attempt to search for deeper understanding of why people still engage in risky sexual behaviour when they are aware of the risks involved and how to take precautions, regardless of whether they were gay or straight.

The point about gay men deliberately wanting to get HIV/AIDS was only put forward by one respondent. It was much more complicated than wanting to get rid of the worry so he could carry on being promiscuous, it was about watching his friends becoming infected, going through treatment etc and a whole host of other worries. The man in question was not happy with his life. She never implied that his feelings could be applicable to the whole male population, but that it may be representative of some feelings out there that are experienced by some people, thus perhaps another reason why people don't always take measures to protect themselves.

The main findings of the study were that the health service's way of identifying 'risk groups' of people more likely to get HIV/AIDS (i.e. gay men and injecting herion addicts) is extremely misleading, as the disease itself does not discriminate... there was one case where a woman was infected by her husband, unknowingly, because he had slept with a HIV+ prosititute behind her back. (It was quite scary stuff to study, when you actually see the networks developing as little blobs representing people with different coloured lines drawn between them to indicate types of sexual contact and HIV status, gradually growing from 10 people to 40 people to 150 people who are HIV+).

I've had enough of trying to defend Parker's work, but she is a very good social/medical anthropologist with a lot of experience in the field, looking at cultural issues at home and abroad. If you want to find out more, I suggest you read the actual ethnography ('Stuck in GUM' by Melissa Parker) before reaching conclusions about her objectives or findings. I know her, and she certainly is not homophobic, or operating with any underhanded political agenda.

Not having read the article, I can only imagine it was either a misrepresentation of her findings (The media misrepresenting something?! NO!) or one aspect being focused on to the detriment of others.

Neon, I've heard some stories re: HIV as a weapon which have been either (again) misrepresentations of what some presumably militant campaigners have said, or just lies made up by 'Christian' ministers to scare their congregations. I can't recall any exact quotes or references off the top off my head though.

Well I cant get into that link its prompting me for a password. But I do know there is a sub culture called (amounsgt other things) 'bug chasers' in the gay community, its common amoungst gay men who look for an (easy) idenatie, and often pulls in young gay men who are suffering conflicting emotions, I will avoid saying 'confused' its a little overused.

That and people with low self asteem and selfworth try to become a part of the community alot of the time, alot of gay man have been questiond about what they do and a large majority of them do it because they want to be close to the people they have sex with and try to get something more out of the experiance, often because in the past they have gone through something painfull, so they seak out something distructive or taboo or dangerouse for the thrill. Which leads them into a cycle that goes around and around.

Then there are the ones who just want to sleep around for 10 years or so and think to hell with the consiquences, I'll get ill when im 30.

So some do wear it as a badge, its one of those things that once you start to annalyse it it just goes on and on and on.

(edited for grammer purposes. hope that was better)