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View Full Version : Gay men sought out virus?!


Hito
01-22-2003, 06:46 PM
Source:Drudge Report (http://www.drudgereport.com/rr.htm)
MAG: 25% OF NEW HIV-INFECTED GAY MEN SOUGHT OUT VIRUS, SAYS SAN FRAN HEALTH OFFICIAL

New ROLLING STONE Managing Editor Ed Needham is set to hit complete controversy with a 4-page report: "Bug Chasers: The Men Who Secretly Long To Be HIV+."

Filed by Greg Freeman, the shock story claims some men with HIV are deliberately having unprotected sex with those who want to be infected!

"The men who want the virus are called 'bug chasers,' and the men who freely give them the virus are called 'gift givers.' While the rest of the world fights the AIDS epidemic and most people fear HIV infection, this subculture celebrates the virus and eroticizes it," reports Freeman in the February 6, 2003 edition of ROLLING STONE.

At least twenty-five percent of all newly infected gay men fall into [bug-chasing] category, according to one claim in the "special report".

"In this world, the men with HIV are the most desired, and the bug chasers will do anything to get the virus."

Gay groups "aggressively encouraged" Freeman to drop the article.

One sad passage captures a young man in New York City who wants to be infected:

"His eyes light up as he says that the actual moment of transmission, the instant he gets HIV, will be 'the most erotic thing I can imagine.'"

An infector is quoted as saying: "I'm murdering him in a sense, killing him slowly, and that's sort of, as sick as it sounds, exciting to me."

Most AIDS activists prefer to deny the problem exists to any significant extent, says Dr. Bob Cabaj, director of behavioral-health services for San Francisco County and past president of Gay and Lesbian Medical Association. "They don't want to address that this is really going on."

In a gonzo-journalism ROLLING STONE moment, Cabaj claims at least 25% of all newly infected gay men fall into [bug-chasing] category.

END


Drudge has some pretty off the wall stuff on his page.
But this is too weard.
Anyone else hear of this?

ism
01-22-2003, 07:05 PM
I believe there would be people who would want to do that, though the figures are doubtful. 25% is large, but then how many newly-infected gay men are there? Is this like 1 out of 4? Seems sensationalistic to me.

BeTheReds
01-22-2003, 08:09 PM
... evolution at work ...

Chris
01-22-2003, 09:30 PM
:angry: Yes there are PEOPLE and Yes I know people (their not my friends) that will want the "Tranformation" to be HIV and that is TOTALLY SICK. People sure got some twisted minds out there. But please don't group all of the gay people in the same catergory. It just that when a gay group something like this it get so much media press. *sigh*

YuheiCarreau
01-22-2003, 09:38 PM
Originally posted by Chris@Jan 22 2003, 11:30 PM
:angry: Yes there are PEOPLE and Yes I know people that will want the "Tranformation" to be HIV and that is TOTALLY SICK. People are some twisted minds out there. But please don't group all of the gay people in the same catergory. It just that when a gay group something like this it get so much media press. *sigh*
Seriously. These people are a subcategory of wackos, not a subcategory of gays. Not only that, but there are straight people who do this stuff too; I remember a couple years ago a man was arrested for having sex with a number of 14 year old girls with the intent to infect them with HIV.

ism
02-02-2003, 12:25 AM
Dan Savage's column this week covers the story a bit more in-depth: here (http://www.theonionavclub.com/avclub3903/savage3903.html)

Hanuman
02-02-2003, 01:22 PM
Originally posted by YuheiCarreau@Jan 23 2003, 12:38 AM
Seriously. These people are a subcategory of wackos, not a subcategory of gays. Not only that, but there are straight people who do this stuff too; I remember a couple years ago a man was arrested for having sex with a number of 14 year old girls with the intent to infect them with HIV.
Exactly! White, black, yellow and gay can all have their share of sickos. Also those numbers seem exceedingly high, and how the hell sis he obtain his facts? By by polling all HIV infected men. Don't forget that HIV is still seen as a stigma amoung most circles, so there must be a large number that are infected (accidentally), who have not come out. This has to skew those numbers significantly.

Elizabeth A.
02-02-2003, 01:41 PM
Still more homophobic nonsense flooding the newswires. If it's not coming from the Vatican, it's always something else.

Elizabeth A.
02-02-2003, 01:43 PM
Originally posted by BeTheReds@Jan 22 2003, 08:09 PM
... evolution at work ...
:pissed: If you're implying what I think you're implying then kindly [edited for content].

deez nuts
02-02-2003, 02:13 PM
Originally posted by Elizabeth A.@Feb 2 2003, 04:41 PM
Still more homophobic nonsense flooding the newswires. If it's not coming from the Vatican, it's always something else.
Actually it's not. Chris is right, it's pretty true. I have encountered a few people in med school rotations and in my residency that come in for HIV tests that told me they hoped they were positive for HIV this time.

You never forget the freaky patients you'vre treated or encountered. First time I heard it, I was stunned, speechless and actually said "Excuse me?"

Elizabeth A.
02-02-2003, 02:24 PM
Originally posted by Chasiubao_Boy@Feb 2 2003, 02:13 PM
Actually it's not. Chris is right, it's pretty true. I have encountered a few people in med school rotations and in my residency that come in for HIV tests that told me they hoped they were positive for HIV this time.

You never forget the freaky patients you'vre treated or encountered. First time I heard it, I was stunned, speechless and actually said "Excuse me?"
I'm not saying it doesn't exist. What I meant to say is it only focuses on gays. Straight people could very well have this sort of attitude towards HIV, yet they are only choosing to focus on the gays. The "deviant" stereotype is still, unfortunately, alive and well. Basically, I agree with what Chris and Yuhei said.

achtungbaby
02-05-2003, 01:20 PM
Originally posted by Elizabeth A.@Feb 2 2003, 02:24 PM
I'm not saying it doesn't exist. What I meant to say is it only focuses on gays. Straight people could very well have this sort of attitude towards HIV, yet they are only choosing to focus on the gays. The "deviant" stereotype is still, unfortunately, alive and well.
That may very well be the case, but the cold reality is, one gay man seeking out the HIV virus is akin to 50 straight men doing the same thing. It's not fair at all, but those gay men who do seek it must be aware of the irresponsibility of their actions to their community...

Elizabeth A.
02-07-2003, 01:30 PM
Good old Salon.com!

http://www.salon.com/opinion/sullivan/2003...ling/index.html (http://www.salon.com/opinion/sullivan/2003/01/24/rolling/index.html)


"........... As soon as the story faced any scrutiny, it began to unravel. On Wednesday, Cabaj responded to an e-mail from the blog site Morons.org and retracted the 25 percent figure altogether -- and claimed he had asked Rolling Stone's fact-checker to do just that. Then Thursday, Newsweek reported not only that Cabaj denies giving Freeman the 25 percent figure ("That's totally false. I never said that") but that Dr. Marshall Forstein of Boston, quoted in the Rolling Stone story saying that "bug chasers are seen regularly in the Fenway health system, and the phenomenon is growing," says that quote "is entirely a fabrication" and that "I said, 'We have seen a few cases, but we have no idea how common this is.'" This is the paltry evidence Freeman provides for his astonishing claim, and it's been retracted within hours of being published. Way to go, Rolling Stone............"