Skeggy Dogging: The Final Chapter?

Back in January I blogged about the Skegness dogging controversy.  Well, I'm sure you've been desperately awaiting news on how things panned out.  What's really interesting in the most recent report, is that the Police seem to have stepped away from the issue.  Instead, we have some gentrification measures - the cutting back of shrubbery - and a new Friends group has been set up.  Curiously, it states that it's hoped a Treasurer position will be created, which means they don't seem to have a third member who can be Treasurer.   So, it's two men wandering around sand dunes throughout the year looking out for sex just in case there are men wandering around the dunes all times of the year looking out for sex.  

Dogging as Bad Character

The Philpott case continues to rumble on and without getting into the details at this stage, it does strike me as interesting that dogging has featured throughout the case as a way of establishing 'bad character'. The latest aspect is - as the Sun reports today - that the man (who is accused of killing 6 of his 17 children in a fire) took his wife dogging as a way to cope with the deaths.  I'll explore these themes further when the trial is concluded, but I thought it worth noting the bad character aspect now.  I'm not aware of another case using dogging activity in this way.

Let's Talk About Bareback

Apologies for the lack of posts recently.  I'd like to say I'll be back posting regularly, but until I get back on track with various writing commitments, I'm afraid I will probably continue to be a little sporadic with my posting.  Let's begin then with a topic that continues to fascinate me, and which I regard as a key issue concerning contemporary gay identity, and the regulation of identity, bareback sex.

I finally for around to watching the How to Survive a Plague documentary.  I'd been really excited about watching it and found it a very emotionally draining documentary.   That said, I think it would have been a little shorter, and it did seem at times to lack the energy that was suggested in the trailer.  The "plague" moment from Kramer - which seems to dramatic in the trailer - actually sent a shiver down my spine when shown in context.  The descent into chaos, argument, and division will be familiar to anyone involved in gay politics and campaigning. Kramer's eruption, and genuine passion - shown in that context - is all the more powerful and underlines the importance of that unifying voice.  The documentary also helped to clarify in my mind the role of TAG in relation to Act Up!  A post on the Petrelis Files blog in recent days reveals how TAG continue to be a controversial group, and this documentary again helps younger gay men like myself to understand those historical tensions.

The documentary also left me wondering whether in the long run, it was worth it.  The trials that people pushed for, didn't work, and the documentary seemed to suggest that actually we would have got to the same destination whether there had been any intervention by the LGBT community or not.  Potentially incendiary stuff.   On a personal level, the documentary persuaded me to order a HIV home testing kit.   If it does nothing else, but inspire many viewers to do that, I suspect the film-makers will be pleased.

A really interesting post on BuzzFeed also caught my attention.  It's a blog by Kyle Bella who wonders why it's so hard to talk about bareback sex.  After all, we know more and more men who have sex with men, are having that sex without condoms.  Bareback is - I would argue - already normative in gay pornography, and will - if it isn't already - become normative in sexual practice.  We also see HIV rates continuing to rise, creating ever more socio-legal pressure for responses, health-policy responses such as we've seen in LA regarding pornography, and also specific campaigns such as that currently being waged against bareback company Treasure Island Media (albeit a particularly botched effort).

The puzzlement of Bella is - I suspect - shared by some, but I think most people know the reasons.  The trouble is the reasons are inconvenient, both politically and in policy terms.   If for example, we accept that bareback sex feels better - that it is a much more sensory engaging experience, then the arguments of safer sex campaigners over recent years will be seen as being less than completely honest.  It is also an emotionally different experience, and this again is not truly engaged with by many campaigners.

Our continued socio-legal pre-occupation with bareback sex, also furthers any fetishisation of bareback sex, whilst - and I can't emphasis this enough - the failure of large sections of 'our' community to be dropping dead from bareback sex, or popping up on a Friday night in a club looking like hell, dying from AIDS makes any 'HIV is a bad thing' message difficult to deliver.  Not that anyone has been trying to.  Recent years have seen campaigns focus on testing, and HIV campaigners seem more focused on discrimination than health needs (all of which fuels silence about being positive, or knowing if one is positive).

Then we have direct attempts to silence debates around bareback. This has taken the form of attempts to snuff out companies like Treasure Island Media (which I would suggest reflect back the reality of our sexual play) and, as this Queerty story revealed last month, Facebook banning a page about bareback (after it hit 20,000 likes).

Can we all honestly state whether we engage in bareback sex, and why?  I don't think our culture currently allows for that.  If we can't even be honest about our own behaviours, we are not going to get to grips with this subject.

New Blog Resource

York academic Paul Johnson has taken the plunge and started a blog called 'ECHR Sexual Orientation Blog'.  Well worth a look! 

Postal HIV Testing Kits

The previous oral test

Pink News carries an intriguing piece this evening.  They report that the Terrence Higgins Trust and the Health Protection Agency are co-launching a pilot project that will allow gay and bisexual men to access HIV home sampling kits by post.

Read the full story here.

It follows other trials via the post - and I think this is a very welcome move.  However, my puzzlement comes as I don't see how it is compatible with the HIV Testing Kits and Services Regulations 1992.  You can read those regulations here.  I've long thought that the regulations need revising to allow home testing - and I'm sure that the HPA and THT are aware of the regs.   I must be missing something, but how have they therefore got around the regulations now?

Gray's Inn Seminar: Criminals or Victims?

Readers may be interested in this forthcoming event

CRIMINALS OR VICTIMS?
A Necessary Guide to the Non-Criminalisation of Victims of Human Trafficking

Panel
Peter Carter QC
18 Red Lion Court

Parosha Chandran
1 Pump Court

Pam Bowen
Head of Trafficking Policy, CPS

An expert seminar aiming to bridge gaps in knowledge concerning the criminalisation of victims of trafficking.

Principally for Judges, Barristers and Students with an interest in criminal law and public law, the seminar seeks to raise awareness of how to identify possible victims of trafficking and how to protect the legal rights of such persons

 Monday 4th February 2013 Gray’s Inn Hall 6.15pm – 8.15pm

The cost is £10 for students to attend the seminar and drinks afterwards. Everyone must register in advance for the event.  For mor einfo, and the registration form, contact cpd@graysinn.org.uk

Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill

Unless you've been living on the moon, you'll probably already know that the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill -which will introduce same-sex marriage into English law - was published last week, along with a set of guidance notes.  You can download both documents and monitor the progress of the Bill here.

I published my take on the Bill on Pink News.  You can check out that article here.  The comments also make for very interesting reading.

Nude Norms: The Curious Case of the Castro

One aspect to my role at the University is to lead research for the law team.  It's often the case that beyond teaching, students rarely see what we do.  I've been keen to change that by introducing student research internships, in which students apply to work with academics on small discrete research activities, and in the course of which students get to see how we spend their not insignificant fees.

Anyway, I worked on a little project with a student intern last year, kicking around some ideas for a potential project, which ultimately led to this little piece which appeared on the Freedom in a Puritan Age webzine earlier this week.

It examines the controversial nudity ban in San Francisco.  Take a look at what I hope will be the first of many publications for my wonderful student intern, Sara Mohammadzadeh.