Peoria Journal-Star: "Some gays yearn for infection"

[Tweed]

http://www.pjstar.com/stories/012005/PHI_B5BKS5I2.033.shtml

"Bug chasers and gift givers probably can't hurt you. But they're trying to kill each other.

You've probably heard of neither. And you probably couldn't fathom their taste in an astoundingly risky sexual behavior.

Bug chasers are HIV-negative gay men hoping to contract the virus. Gift givers are HIV-positive homosexuals who enjoy obliging bug chasers.

It's no urban myth. They're real - and they're here."


All I have to say is :wtf:

[liberalhistorian]

1. I have, indeed, heard of both of these

types before; mostly, however, from the mainstream media. I'm not a gay man, obviously, so I can't speak for the truth of this, but it seems to me that, if this is indeed true, it would likely be a very, very tiny percentage of the gay community and not in the numbers that the media is claiming whenever they cover it. They make it sound like it's most gays, when it's hardly any gays at all.

[Tweed]

3. Yeah, I'm not even saying WTF to their behavior so much as

I'm more shocked about the tone this guy took in his article, why he felt the need to write the article, and how this guy got a job with a semi-respectable newspaper.

I mean, yeah, WTF, why would you want the disease and why would you want to give it!

In the end I think this Phil guy is more sick because of his desire to spread this information around to a town that has a very small gay community. He also writes about the Canton HIV group shutting down because they couldn't get alot of funds... as if these actions are becoming so common place that people have stopped caring about AIDS because people are WANTING the disease now. I'm baffled.

[Withywindle]

10. I have to agree

Pretty sick to propagate a myth that this is common "subcultural" behavior. I've heard of it (from reading Dan Savage, I think), but self-destructive behavior of all types is hardly some specialty of gay men! (Straights who like to have unprotected sex with random strangers are doing the same damn thing, they just don't have a catchy, urban-legend-perpetrating name for it!)

It's unconscionable when AIDS treatment and education all around is so much under attack everywhere.

[Cocoa]

2. I'm surprised this fellow puts so much faith in "Rolling Stone"

does Mr. Luciano believe everything he reads in RS so uncritically as he's relaying this phenomenon?

[Kingshakabobo]

4. Yep. They are out there.

I think the 10,000 number sounds like an exaggeration, but, who knows?

I have a good friend that tested positive about eight years ago. At the time, he thought it was kind of a joke and didn't take it too seriously because a good number of his friends were already positive. Well, he doesn't think it is a joke now. He has been pretty much handicapped and unable to work for the last 8 years due to the side effects of the "treatments". Believe me, those drugs are no picnic and have very serious long term effects.

Drugs, namely crystal meth, play a big part in affecting people's judgment.

[Tweed]

6. Welcome to DU Illinois Forum

I don't believe I've seen your user name here before, so let me welcome you or at least welcome you back if it's been awhile. Be sure to check in on one of the Illinois Roll Call threads. It's alot more active here than in the past. Scroll through a couple of pages of this forum and I'm sure you'll find a lot of threads that will spark your interest.

[Kingshakabobo]

7. Thanks! Will do.

Honestly, I didn't know the forum existed until a week ago. I've been spending all my time in GD and GD Politics.

[Tweed]

8. Yeah, we are like a local, mellow verison of GD & GD Politics

Not as many posts, but still a pretty good moving pace. You get to know posters better and don't have nearly as many "drive-by" posts. People are friendlier because we all have the same background geographically at least. I'm glad these forums exist.

[Raster]

5. Give me a fucking break!!! Another attempt to sensationalize and

demonize gay men. Here's one of the last paragraphs:

"How prevalent is this dicey pursuit? Nationally, Rolling Stone blamed 10,000 new infections a year on bug chasing. Gay advocates later criticized that number as too high, calling bug chasers a small fringe element among homosexuals."

Yes, this element does exist in the gay community. Thankfully it is a VERY SMALL element.


on edit: I am a gay man. I am pissed as hell because the bush* administration has done everything it can to limit funding for AIDS education and prevention, both here and abroad. AIDS is rapidly becoming a disease of women and minorities. But, you don't see that in the media. Guess it doesn't sell as many papers as gay men speading infections.

[Tweed]

9. Yeah, that's pretty much my reaction too

Some freeper with a printing press wants his moderatly Democratic Peoria to turn in regular ol' gay=bashing America. How sad.

[Can o Beans]

11. Some newspapers yearn for bankruptcy.

This one is a likely candidate...

[Tweed]

12. Great laughs as always

Thanks Can :toast: