'HIV chasing' a trend in gay community (Bug Chasers - fantasy or fact?)

[CCC]

'HIV chasing' a trend in gay community

A Melbourne man who fantasised about contracting HIV before actually being infected by the virus has spoken of a gay subculture in which infection is seen as "desirable".

The 20-year-old man, who does not want to be named, told Fairfax newspapers both complacency about the virus and the wish to have unprotected sex with an HIV-positive man he was in love with led him to become infected.

"I wasn't actively seeking it, but maybe there were parts of me, dark corners, that wanted it, that were thinking, 'Let's just do it and get it over and done with and then it won't be an issue'," he said.

The young professional is the first to speak out about "bug chasing", a behaviour in the gay community in which men seek to become infected with HIV.

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Bug Chasers - The men who long to be HIV+

Carlos nonchalantly asks whether his drink was made with whole or skim milk. He takes a moment to slurp on his grande Caffe Mocha in a crowded Starbucks, and then he gets back to explaining how much he wants HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. His eyes light up as he says that the actual moment of transmission, the instant he gets HIV, will be "the most erotic thing I can imagine." He seems like a typical thirty-two-year-old man, but, in fact, he has a secret life. Carlos is chasing the bug.

"I know what the risks are, and I know that putting myself in this situation is like putting a gun to my head," he says...

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HIV 'bug chasers': Fantasy or fact?
By Richard Pendry
Producer and Director, "I Love Being HIV+"

Gay men fantasising about passing on HIV may encourage some to set out to become infected with the virus, a BBC programme has found.

According to previous media reports, HIV positive men, or "gift-givers", who want to transmit the virus to so-called "bug chasers" - HIV negative or untested men - do so in an apparently negotiated exchange.

HIV positive man Ricky Dyer, who investigates the apparent bug chasing phenomenon for a BBC programme, "I love being HIV+", says that an air of complacency about the realities of living with the virus may be one reason why infection rates have been rising.

Dyer tries to find out the truth behind the reporting by going online on a gay dating website, saying he is an HIV positive man who wants to talk to bug chasers.

"I'm not saying I am offering them sex...talk is all I want," he says in the programme.

However, Dyer is appalled to find dozens of apparent bug chasers contact him within days saying that they want to be "pozzed up" - infected with the virus.

(snip)

Dyer finds that the overwhelming majority of the talk is pure fantasy.

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[86Dude]

The gays should be exterminated for intentionally taking the bug and putting unfair financial burden the overtaxed medical system. Either that or they should simply be refused treatment.

[fat mike]

i think it's for real-living your life for orgasm after orgasm has to get really tedious...

[86Dude]

Sicko freaks from hell. We need an Island to send them all.

[EMTrue]

Is this on the line of sickness some people get that causes them to hurt themselves or kids to get attention? -can't remember the name of the 'disease'....

[Mystlet]

Münchhausen syndrome...oh wait, those ones fake illness...nevermind.

[jojo]

A sense of fascination with death is natural for all human beings.

[orangikan]

Originally Posted by jojo

A sense of fascination with death is natural for all human beings.

But hedonistic self destructiveness is a hallmark of quite a few in the gay community. When you have a choice between safe (and less interesting) sex and unsafe and more exciting sex and you deliberately chose the latter, then the little head is doing the thinking...not a good evolutionary strategy.

[jojo]

Originally Posted by orangikan

But hedonistic self destructiveness is a hallmark of quite a few in the gay community.

Gays certainly do not have a monopoly on such things of course.

When you have a choice between safe (and less interesting) sex and unsafe and more exciting sex and you deliberately chose the latter, then the little head is doing the thinking...not a good evolutionary strategy.

It would be better for everyone if they stopped fuggin' each other in the ass.

[TheLateGreat]

[SwiftSloth]

Go ahead LG. Fess up.

[TheLateGreat]