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from Political News
Alarming Number of HIV-Positive Gay Men
Sought Infection, Says Health Official
The Director of Behavioral Health Services for San Francisco
County, Dr. Robert Cabaj, has told Rolling Stone magazine
that at least one-quarter of newly infected gay men may have sought out the fatal disease.
There are no hard numbers to back up his estimate, Cabaj
said, but men known as "bug-chasers" are alarmingly common
in the gay community--both men who consciously seek the
virus, and those who are in denial about their wish to
become HIV-positive.
According to Rolling Stone, Cabaj charged that gay organizations are actively covering
up about the problem because "it's a difficult issue that
dredges up some images about gay men that they don't want to
have to deal with."
Some gay men say being HIV-positive "opens the door to
sexual Nirvana" because they need no longer worry about safe
sex, Rolling Stone noted, while others say they can't stand
the idea of being different from their HIV-infected lover.
The newly published magazine article, entitled "In Search of
Death" (February 6th) tells the story of Carlos, a man who
considers HIV-transmission "the most erotic thing I can
imagine."
Carlos estimates that he has already had several hundred sex
partners; he eagerly awaits the day when he tests
HIV-positive--at which time his erotic interest, Carlos says,
will then turn toward infecting another person--which is
known as "gift-giving."
"As sick as it sounds," Carlos said, "killing another man
slowly" is exciting.
The thrill of unsafe sex is further heightened for Carlos by
his own duplicity as a volunteer at the offices of the Gay
Men's Health Crisis (GMHC), where he teaches other men how
to protect themselves with condoms.
At the GMHC, an assistant director of community outreach,
Daniel Castellano, admitted that "bug chasing" does exist.
But Castellano told Rolling Stone that although he would try
to "work with" a counselee who said he wanted to get
infected, if that's a decision a man wants to make, he would
ultimately respect that decision.
The Director of the office of HIV/AIDS at the Miami-Dade
Department of Health confirmed that deliberate HIV infection
is a "definite problem" in the Miami-Dade area as well.
The author of the Rolling Stone article, Gregory Freeman,
said representatives of some gay organizations "actively
dissuaded" him from writing the article.
In a follow-up to the Rolling Stone report, the Sunday
Herald (www.sundayherald.com) described internet sites
dedicated to bug-chasing, where "conversion parties" are
celebrated, in which HIV-positive and HIV-negative men
gather with the goal of having the HIV- positive men infect
the others.
The Sunday Herald mentioned that a new documentary film, "The Gift," is
to be shown at the prestigious Berlin International Film
Festival this February. It features Doug Hitzel, a
21-year-old gay man from San Francisco who chose to become
infected with the "gift" of his fatal infection. Dealing
with the day-to-day reality of illness, Hitzel now says he
regrets his decision.
Updated: 8 February 2008
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