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I have also met people who foolishly believe that HIV meds are like taking a daily vitamin with zero side effects at all, and that herbs and homeopathy can actually reduce HIV until it is like a minor cold.
edit: in the 2nd paragraph when I wrote about people who are newly Poz showing up as negative on tests I meant how there are people who have frequent bareback sex and will show up negative on an HIV test that's taken then and there when they are first infected then show up being Poz 6 months later. It's also very disturbing how many people seem to be into barebacking even with total strangers and act like it's no big deal at all, even gay men who lived through the AIDS pandemic and should know better. I do not care how non PC it is we should get the message out that barebacking -as in barebacking when you are not in a very monogamous relationship with a partner, and becoming Poz on purpose because you do not want to use condoms and have safer sex are not acceptable things that any sane and rational human being should or wants to do. I am sick and tired of all the nutty bug chasers and men who act like becoming or being Poz is no big deal and that have the dangerous attitude that being Poz is somehow exactly like being diabetic.
I hope that this is true but I doubt it based on what I've seen and experienced. Just go on Craigslist and do a search for for PNP, clouds, or party and you'll see what I mean. Or just look at the bareback only sites that are out there and how everyone seems to be ignoring safer sex messages of the past 26 years and thinking that it's OK to bareback with a select few people who you think are HIV neg or who are very newly infected and show up as neg or that if you're a top you won't get HIV and that if you have HIV you can't become reinfected or give strains to other people. It's sad and crazy how many people of all orientations, especially straight people, seem to think that barebacking with people who you're not in a monogamous relationship with and who have a sexual history that you don't really know is a perfectly safe and healthy thing to do. Granted people are still going to use crystal meth and PNP despite messages and if they are addicted unless they want to get sober and change they are not going to care about the anti drug messages. People PNP everywhere not just in NYC's gay ghettos of Chelsea and Astoria in Philadelphia's [sic] Gayborhood, in the Castro, in West Hollywood/Silverlake, or any other gay ghettos across America. Even when I lived in the middle of nowhere people would PNP. What the researchers do not know or don't want to accept is that even drugs like Booze and herb someone can PNP on and they can lower someone's sexual inhibitions and make them do things that they would not do sober. Granted they are not crystal meth but some people's inhibitions do get lowered while drunk or on other drugs and they do things sexually that they would not do sober. I think most people have had at least one drunken one night stand even if it was just to decide that sex with strangers and while drunk was not for them. I know one total bottom who would PNP on Oxycontin and heroin. While I do not have one night stands anymore I always assumed that whoever I was having sex with both men and women that they were Poz and I did not bareback and I would ask them if they were into IVing drugs, PNP/Crystal meth or having sex while on drugs and I did not have sex with people who use drugs or drink alcohol before sex and I never did high risk sex with strangers. I also know and am friends with many people who either do or once did IV drugs and shared needles and you would never know this about them unless they told you.
""Stated" HIV status means nothing; everyone should be practicing safer sex (most importantly meaning not bottoming raw) and not taking a trick's "word for it". Words don't protect you, safer sex does. In that case, your trick can be poz or neg." VERY well said, Ken. I hope you don't mind if I steal that phrase - "Words don't protect you, safer sex does." Truer words were never spoken.
great news peter... and again you are validated by following your heart...
A few years ago you put up a few ads in my neighborhood--Chelsea. These ads carried the ironic message that a meth pipe came free with a life-time of addiction and misery. They were eye-catching. And, more importantly, they helped begin a discussion that was long overdue. A lot of important developments followed--in particular our mainstream organizations getting involved in more effective meth education. But you started it. So take a bow, Peter. You did it.
You took a chance. You risked a lot. And now it's paying off with results. Kudos to you.
mm
I think this article is totally untrue. Crystal meth use is on the rise, along with bareback sex, bareback porn, etc. The author or the founders of the study must be talking to gay men who are afraid to tell the truth or listening to what they want to hear. Crystal meth use in NYC is RAMPANT. Go on Manhunt, to a bath house, a party or wherever-it's there. Believe me I know-I live in NY and have participated in this culture. I am not proud of it, but most of the time, I find that it has become de rigeur in gay life. Trying to stop doing it is also incredibly hard. You really do have to stay away from certain places, people and websites.
July 19, 2010