From wikipedia I was able to find this unbelievable article. Just thought it was interesting enough to share
Main article: Bugchasing and giftgiving
A subculture of homosexual men desire and actively pursue HIV infection by seeking partners who are HIV-positive and voluntarily having unprotected intercourse with them. In slang terms, those who seek infection are called bugchasers and those who infect them are called giftgivers. This phenomenon should be distinguished from barebacking, which is the preference for unprotected intercourse without the active desire for HIV infection.
The exact extent of practice remains largely unknown. Not all those who self-identify as part of this subculture are actually intent on spreading HIV. Some bugchasers try to connect with giftgivers via the Internet. Other bugchasers organize 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").
1 comment:
Good old Wikipedia. That's a pretty thorough article.
This whole topic hit the news big time in 2003 when Rolling Stone magazine published a feature called 'In search of death' that really brought this subculture to people's attention for the first time. The story made some fairly controversial claims about the prevalence of such behaviors that were not well supported by the data. (eg '25% of all new HIV infections in gay men (are) caused by bug chasing'.) The phenomenon appears to be real but its magnitude appears largely unknown.
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