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Bugchasing and giftgiving |
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Bugchasing (or bug chasing) is a slang term for a subculture of gay men who desire, and actively pursue HIV infection. Bugchasers "chase the bug" by seeking sexual partners who are HIV positive for the purpose of having unprotected sex and sero-converting; giftgivers are HIV+ men who attempt to infect bugchasers with HIV.
Bugchasing is not viewed favorably in the gay community. Many people, who consider it a reprehensible activity, seek to eliminate the practice.
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Bugchasers indicate various reasons for their desire to contract HIV, most commonly a sense of inevitability and a desire to take control by being active in their seroconversion. While by their very nature, bug chasers practice bareback sex, members of the bareback subculture are not necessarily bugchasers. To quote:
| “ | In reviewing the scarce unpublished and published materials on bugchasing, as well as general healthcare speculations, a common theme appears- the lumping of bug chasers with barebackers...Although these two groups share some of the same practices, namely unprotected anal intercourse (UAI), there are distinctions that differentiate bug chasing...even though all bug chasers are indeed barebackers, not all barebackers are bugchasers."[1] | ” |
Some bugchasers organise and participate in "bug parties" or "conversion parties," sex parties where HIV positive and negative men engage in unprotected sex, in hopes of acquiring HIV ("getting the gift").[2]
Over the past decade, researchers have endeavored to document, explain, and look for a solution to the problem of bug chasing. Dr. DeAnn Gauthier and Dr. Craig Forsyth put the first academic article forth in 1999. They explored the emerging trend of gay men who eschew condoms and the development of a barebacking subculture. They also noted through their qualitative research that some barebackers were in search of HIV. Dr. Richard Tewksbury was one of the first researchers to acknowledge bug chasing online and that bug chasers were using the Internet to post their interests in seroconversion. In his more recent research, he gave a strong analysis of what bug chasers and gift givers resemble in their behaviors, attitudes, and demographics.
Drs. Christian Grov and Jeffrey T. Parsons' (2006) research using the Internet profiles of 1,228 Bug Chasers and Gift Givers identified six categories of bug chasers and gift givers.
1. "The Committed Bug Chaser" included men who indicated they were HIV-negative and seeking HIV-positive partners. Of the committed bug chasers having indicated a desired sexual position, the majority were bottoms (62.2% anal receptive). Only 7.5% of the sample were classified as committed bug chasers
2. "The Opportunistic Bug Chaser" included men who were HIV-negative and indicated that their partner’s HIV status did not matter. Most of these men were either versatile (43.6%; meaning anal receptive and anal insertive) or bottoms (46.3%). In total, 12.1% of their sample included opportunistic bug chasers
3. "The Committed Gift Giver" Included men who were HIV-positive that also indicated they were seeking HIV-negative partners. Notably, only five men from the entire sample of 1,228 fell into this category.
4. "The Opportunistic Gift Giver" included men who indicated they were HIV-positive and that their partner’s status did not matter to them. Most of these men (61.8%) were versatile. Opportunistic Gift Givers comprised 26% of the sample.
5. "The Serosorter." Although all men Drs. Grov and Parsons sampled indicated they were a gift giver and/or a bug chaser in their Internet profile, behavioral intentions did not consistently match with bug chaser/gift giver identity. Some HIV-positive men (8.5% of total sample) indicated preference for other HIV-positive men. Meanwhile, some HIV-negative men (12.5% of total sample) indicated preference for other HIV-negative men. Although having indicated they were a bug chaser or a gift giver, these men were serosorting for partners of similar HIV status.
6. "The Ambiguous Bug Chaser or Gift Giver" included men who indicated they did not know their HIV status and thus it was difficult to determine if they were seeking to bug chase or give the gift. This category comprised 16.3% of the sample.
In total, Drs. Christian Grov and Jeffrey T. Parsons concluded that bug chasing and gift giving might occur among a select few individuals. Further, their research found that there was substantial variation in intentions to spread HIV (with some not intent on spreading HIV) among those who indicated they were gift givers or bug chasers.
Dr. Mark Blechner found that some bug chasers were lonely and alienated, and saw HIV as a path to becoming part of a community that elicits public sympathy and caretaking. Other bug chasers were so overwhelmed by the anxiety of contracting HIV that they thought it would be a relief from that anxiety to become HIV-positive and "get it over with." And most recently, Dr. David Moskowitz and Dr. Michael Roloff attempted to quantitatively explain why bug chasers chase HIV. They claimed that individuals who look for HIV are more likely sex addicts. These individuals have exhausted the sexual high they previously derived by performing other sexual risk taking behaviors, and now turn to bug chasing to achieve the risk-oriented high.
All research mentioned here has been cited below.
Bugchasing has, more recently, been taken more seriously by medical health promotion bodies, such as the Centers for Disease Control, which hosted a workshop on the topic, hosted by Dr Michael Graydon of Carleton University, Ottawa, at the 2004 National STD Prevention Conference.
The bugchasing/giftgiving phenomenon gained press coverage - and notoriety - after Rolling Stone magazine printed an article in 2003 by a freelance journalist, Gregory Freeman, entitled "Bug Chasers: The men who long to be HIV+". The article provoked a storm of controversy, primarily because - based on the statistics in the article - it suggested that the practice might be relatively common.citation needed The reliability of that article has since been questioned, as it cited only two sources. One source, who claimed that as many as 25% of HIV+ men had contracted it on purpose, gave his information anonymously. The other source was a doctor who, when confronted, denied the quotations attributed to him in the article.citation needed
Writer Daniel Hill outlined a scenario where such behavior might occur: "In private sex clubs across the U.S. men gather for a chance to participate in what is called Russian Roulette. Ten men are invited, nine are HIV-, one is HIV+. The men have agreed to not speak of AIDS, nor HIV. They participate in as many unsafe sexual encounters with each other as possible, thus increasing their chances to receive "the bug." These are the men known as 'Bug Chasers.'" [3]
Writer/director Daniel Bort made a 2003 short film on the subject called Bugchaser, which premièred at the 16th Annual Austin Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, and was shot mainly in New York sex clubs. In an interview with the Austin Chronicle, he explained: "The matter-of-fact declarations of a string of articulate, apparently nonsensical people … affected me tremendously. I had to find out the reasons why such individuals will seek suicide in this almost symbolic way." At the Austin G&L Film Festival, the film was shown with an accompanying documentary The Gift by Louise Hogarth.
HIV positive man Ricky Dyer, who investigated the apparent bug chasing phenomenon for a 2006 BBC programme,I love being HIV, said that an air of complacency about the realities of living with the virus may be one reason why infection rates have been rising. [4] However, the BBC also described bugchasing as more internet fantasy than reality, saying that, "Dyer finds that the overwhelming majority of the talk is pure fantasy." The article also quotes Will Nutland, head of health promotion at Terrence Higgins Trust, as saying, "The concepts of 'gift giving' and 'bug chasers' are definitely based more in fantasy than reality" as well as Deborah Jack, chief executive of the National AIDS Trust saying, "There is very little evidence of people trying to get infected with HIV."
General press coverage:
Fictional movie:
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