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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 3, 2003)
22 • January i 2£m Risky Business Continued from Page 21 can STD s com plicate h ealth care for poz fel las, hut acquiring new strains of H IV can quash effective drug regimens. • D runk, drugged and buggered. A nother major reason harehacking is on the rise is sub stance abuse. G et dm nk or get stoned, and get fucked in more ways than one. Alcohol and drugs affect how you decide who you sleep with and what you do. In short, lower your inhibi tions and increase your risks. Among my guy gang, about half said alcohol and drugs sometimes are involved when they sex it up. Three said “always.” Similarly, of the 11 man-sex syphilites in M ultnomah County, seven reported using alcohol or drugs, such as poppers or meth. “Portland is a huge meth town,” Knowlton remarks. “People who use meth find it hyper- sexualizing and get very turned on. They’re hav ing unprotected sex because it’s something they don’t have to think about.” W hich sounds hot, until you hear that guys who com bine m eth and sex are five times more likely to becom e infected with HIV. • A natural resistance. T h e third rea son— safe-sex fatigue— is the m ost en co m passing and perhaps the most widespread. You’ve built up a tolerance to th e message. You know it, you understand it, hut you accept the consequences because you d o n ’t want to live in a “bubble of fear" com e hell, high water or HIV. You refuse to rem ain lone ly or live in a closet. “My status will change someday, but my whole peer group is poz, so I’ll just be in the club," one barebacker writes. “As a society, we don't talk about sex. We don’t see people on TV or in ads or in the movies negotiating safe sex and talking about how they’re going to have sex. It’s always the thrill of the moment.” — Margaret Lentell Exhaustion over prevention tactics and weariness of “condom police” have left mixed feelings of apathy and fatalism. Lacking 20 years o f “condom s, condom s, condom s," young studs think the HIV epidemic mode applies only to old fags. O ld fags think the epi demic should’ve been long gone by now. In the middle are average Joes who believe HIV and STDs are just part of being gay. “I hear the logic when people say: ‘Why fight it? I can take these drugs. I can become a client of CAP, get my rent paid for and get extra cash. I don’t have to ever use condoms again, and I don’t have to go through the worry of wondering am I positive? Is this guy positive? Is there a condom involved .r ” Knowlton reasons. “T hat’s a lot of pressure for gay men.” So much pressure th a t some bareback because they want to become HIV-positive (including two hug-chasers even in my small group of 27). K now lton says it’s n o t u n com m on. Outrageous, maybe, but an HIV- positive diagnosis is the second part o f their com ing out. “How do you co m p ete w ith that?" he asks. “Guys look better th an they have in th eir entire lives because they get to go to the dtK tor and take steroids w hen their testos terone is low because of HIV. They pum p up. T hey d o n ’t have to work. T hey get to travel around to circuit parties. W h at is the downside to that?” T he downside, he reveals, is that you don’t see the guys when their drugs start to fail and they get so sick they can’t leave their house. “People think that HIV today is different than it was 20 years ago, and it’s not,” Knowlton argues. “If anything, it’s stronger.” Strategies for sex ou can already hear the lecture. You can picture the finger-shaking. “Condom s every time, all the time.” T h a t is still w hat “disease intervention specialists” w ant to say, hut today’s reality is Pfun spRincs Serving your real estate needs fo r... 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