Really interesting long comment piece on Poz by Tony Valenzuela. He caused a stir back in 1999 when he wrote about openly barebacking and it not being a terrible thing (yes, shock horror!). Given how a similar comment would go down today to an audience consisting of academics/campaigners/health workers/out reach workers etc, I can but imagine how horrendous the outpouring of opposition must have been. The truth is that if ever there was an example of there being no gay community, this issue would be it. You have some groups of individuals engaging in unprotected sex fully aware of the risks but choosing it, others bug chasing, others stealthing, others 100% safe sex, some unprotected in a relationship and so on. There is a mass of opinions and more and more gay men seem prepared to have unprotected sex but that's a view that can't be accepted by a sort of gay establishment. Anyway, that's perhaps for a longer piece and a longer piece of research I'm hoping to complete later this year that examines this very issue within a public policy legal framework.For now, take a look at his excellent comment piece and on there you will also see a link to his original 1999 article: http://www.poz.com/articles/killer_gay_sex_hiv_401_14539.shtml
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