There’s an article in the NY Times today about HIV infection rates in New York. In the five years 2001 to 2006 the overall rate of infection was down, the rate among men who have sex with men (MSM) over 30 years of age was down 22%, but the rate among MSM under 30 was up 32% (up 34% for blacks and hispanics).

They attribute the increase among young men to a number of things including drug abuse and a growing stigmatization of HIV among gay men which results in a “don’t ask, don’t tell” attitude about HIV status.

I’m too much of a control freak to have addiction issues – when I was young I didn’t like feeling out of control, I never really have done many drugs (just X a few times and pot a couple of times), and I don’t smoke. It’s rare for me to feel drunk, and prescription pain killers don’t really do much for me either… The point is I feel for these young guys with addiction issues, but can’t say I really understand what they’re going through. But obviously guys who do drugs are having a lot more ‘uninhibited’ sex than guys who don’t – it matters how many guys fuck you in a night…

The other curious thing is the whole “don’t ask, don’t tell” thing that’s going on. I’ve had bottoms who had ‘negative’ in their profile tell me they were poz and they had neg in their profile ’cause they had friends who knew which profile was theirs who they didn’t want to know about their being poz…

The article talks about how being poz is now related to reckless behavior, not seen as a tragedy like it it was in the past. Personally, I don’t think of it as either of those items – but that’s the topic for another post… I think we see some of the stigmatization in the vitriolic comments on this blog. And ironically the condom nazis are shooting themselves in the foot – by stigmatizing guys who bareback, they stop people talking about it (people just bareback without any discussion) and the HIV infection rate goes up. I don’t mean to say they’re solely responsible, but they do play a significant role…

The article also talks about a 20 year old kid who realized one day that he was the only person in his circle of about 20 guys who was still neg. That’s absolutely unreal to me and makes me think things like a drug culture really are at the heart of the issue.

The other thing I found really disturbing in the article was the whole idea that poz guys aren’t worthy of relationships. There was one guy who talked about the fact that after he found out he was poz (at the age of 23) guys would hook up with him and maybe go on what he called a “pity date” with him, but no one seriously considered him as boyfriend material. Guys – that’s fucked up… First off, why is it that poz guys aren’t dating poz guys? And why is it that sluts aren’t seen as potential boyfriends? I mean Dawson has a boyfriend… This whole “be like straight people”, “be monogamous” shit is really counter productive. I just do hookups because I’ve got a boyfriend – but long-term relationships are important.

Take a moment, read the article and think about the issues it raises…