Here is a shocker...H.I.V. Cases on the rise for young gay men!

[SueleenGay]

Posted: 1/2/08 at 11:16am

This should be shocking, but really, is anyone surprised?
I hope you are all being careful.

You must assume that whoever you are with is positive.

Why do we sing the same song every year?
Shocking Statistics!

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 1/2/08 at 11:20am

Because every year new young gay men become aware of their sexual desires.

Updated On: 1/2/08 at 11:20 AM

[DayDreamer]

Posted: 1/2/08 at 11:23am

Because responsible-sex education in this country is so lacking?

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 1/2/08 at 11:30am

Because the current administration insists that condoms only be discussed in terms of failure rates.

Because abstinence-only education is a betrayal of the basic tenets of public health.

[SueleenGay]

Posted: 1/2/08 at 11:31am

But that article make it seems as if it is drug and alcohol use and complacency, not lack of education.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 1/2/08 at 11:34am

People make assumptions that because they put HIV facts "out there" into the world, it reaches people, even those who may feel that the messages are speaking to "somebody else" and not them for a whole host of reasons, including that they are not out even to themselves, or that they are in denial.

[SueleenGay]

Posted: 1/2/08 at 11:42am

Oh, I agree with that, but this study shows the increase of men under 30, not teens just discovering their sexual desires.

[DottieD'Luscia]

Posted: 1/2/08 at 12:02pm

I think the increase in HIV and crystal meth use go hand in hand.

[SonofMammaMiaSam]

Posted: 1/2/08 at 12:04pm

The number of skiers on Craigslist would seem to indicate that.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 1/2/08 at 12:14pm

Oddly enough, the wisest words in that article come the city's health commissioner: party drugs that make people feel sexually invincible and treatment-drug ads that make HIV seem no worse than asthma or high blood pressure.

It's awful to say it, but the only thing that will change behavior in the 20-something and 30-something generations is what changed it ours: losing friends and lovers, going to hospitals, going to a different memorial service each week, watching friends die horrible, grueling, way-too-early deaths.

And the band plays on...

===

The city’s health commissioner, Thomas R. Frieden, said in an interview that the increasing rates among younger men was being driven by stubbornly high rates of substance abuse, involving drugs like crystal methamphetamine and cocaine, which not only reduce inhibitions but can also lead to “hypersexuality”: extended periods of sexual activity, potentially with multiple partners.

Dr. Frieden also said that another likely explanation was “treatment optimism,” and the many messages gay men receive through AIDS drug advertisements that people like Mr. Arriola can live long and normal lives.

“People who grew up watching their friends die of AIDS are a lot more careful than those who didn’t,” said Dr. Frieden, who said he cared for large numbers of AIDS patients in his earlier medical practice.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 1/2/08 at 12:25pm

I think "skiing" referred to the other powder, not meth. Is it just a catch all now? I'm so out of touch with how the kids talk these days.

I just don't know anymore about all this. I used to get upset, enraged, frustrated, et al. Now I just shrug. I know there a million and one reasons for reckless behavior and sexual ignorance, but for the love of god... You know, I can't even finish the thought. I really don't have it in me to get myself worked up over this anymore.

[DayDreamer]

Posted: 1/2/08 at 12:27pm

I really don't have it in me to get myself worked up over this anymore.

I am not picking on you, Phyllis, but that is the "burn out" attitude being faced by a lot of people like yourself, and a lot of younger kids who just don't want to talk about it.

[SonofMammaMiaSam]

Posted: 1/2/08 at 12:27pm

That's correct Phyllis. Meth is T or Tina. You see those requests on CL also.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 1/2/08 at 12:29pm

I know you aren't picking on me, dearie. And there's nothing to pick. I get a battery of tests four times a year, I stay informed, I ask questions, and I take responsibility for my own actions. My burn out is actually a burn out of getting myself worked up over the actions of others.

[robbiej]

Posted: 1/2/08 at 12:29pm

I think an assumption is being made that these are all out gay men, when the article has clearly taken pains to label them the phrase (one that I used to hate) "men having sex with men." One point also made is that the rate of incidence is extremely high among Latino and black men.

Sure...we can aim all the info and education we want at gay men...but if people do not identify as gay, how are they to identify themselves at being at risk for HIV/AIDS? If people are using to medicate themselves against self-hatred and the fear that their families won't accept them, how does one truly combat that?

[DayDreamer]

Posted: 1/2/08 at 12:33pm

When I say "responsible-sex education" I also don't mean AIDS education for young adults. I mean it when we are young, pre- and early-teens starting to explore our sexuality. It's not about being preachy, just teaching responsibility. I believe if young people were taught this even before they became sexually active, we would see not only a decrease in new HIV cases but also teen pregnancies.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 1/2/08 at 12:39pm

Skiing on "snow" is doing cocaine. "Partying" is the catch-all term that's come to mean only crystal meth, although some people use it for "E" or "G" or "K." "Rock-climbing" is smoking rocks of crystallized cocaine--what we used to call "crack.

I know a couple--two beautiful, sexy, otherwise smart 28-year-old guys--who have been partying and having 3-ways for a while. They started barebacking--but only, they said, with guys who "said they were negative." (They told me this after the fact, not before, otherwise I would have slapped them so hard their pretty faces would have cracked.)

After one night of partying, surprise, surprise, and HIV diagnosis. But what happened is acutely painful: For whatever reason (and both bottomed with the guy) one seroconverted, the other didn't. That was a year ago. They're still together, one poz, one neg, but the anger, the guilt, the shame... It's like 1982 all over again...

EXCEPT THESE GUYS SHOULD HAVE KNOWN BETTER!

Don't get me started...

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 1/2/08 at 12:44pm

EXCEPT THESE GUYS SHOULD HAVE KNOWN BETTER!

That's generally my thought, one that usually gets me verablly bitch-slapped or lectured on the political reasons for barebacking. I see what robbie's saying about the DL, but I look at these young kids on gay.com, etc who admit to being negative and I just can't figure out what's going on out there.

[robbiej]

Posted: 1/2/08 at 12:52pm

"EXCEPT THESE GUYS SHOULD HAVE KNOWN BETTER!"

They did know better. They, however, made a different choice. To say the information is not out there, particularly to people who are in a generation close to my own, is just not true.

I agree with Joey that the concept of HIV is simply theoretical to people who are younger. It won't become concrete till they see their friends dying...or at least having a very difficult time with their health issues.

But the fact that the men who have experienced the sharpest increase are black and Latino cannot be discounted. It's astonishing to me that so many factors in their lives can lead to this.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 1/2/08 at 12:53pm

I agree with Joey that the concept of HIV is simply theoretical to people who are younger.

I just don't get that. Not that I disagree. I just don't get it.

[jrb_actor]

Posted: 1/2/08 at 12:56pm

Denial is so powerful.

"That won't happen to ME".

"It won't happen if we do it for just a minute".

"Or a minute longer".

"He's healthy looking. He says he's neg--just tested! He says he doesn't sleep around".

[DayDreamer]

Posted: 1/2/08 at 12:56pm

Why do people trust what someone says without any further proof or security? Just because your last test was negative does not mean you ARE negative, especially if you have been active since then. AND some of you might be surprised at the number of HIV+ people that pass themselves as negative, or don't disclose, on sites such at gay.com and gaydar.co.uk.

[SonofMammaMiaSam]

Posted: 1/2/08 at 1:00pm

or on Manhunt, M4M, Bear411 ... not that I would know.

Back on topic ... STUPID (insert word) IDIOTS!

[PalJoey]

Posted: 1/2/08 at 1:19pm

Or bigmuscle.com, bigmusclebear.com or normalgay.com.

Or adam4adam!

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 1/2/08 at 1:35pm

But haven't we delved into what's not really sex education and is just more or less common sense education? I mean even someone on the DL can't have managed to avoid hearing at some point that there was this thing out there called HIV and that gay sex is perceived to be the most risky sex of all.

If these people who see ads for protease inhibitors and think that HIV/AIDS isn't a big deal exist, how do we educate them? Seriously.

It's thoughts like these that cause my burnout to set in.