HIV/AIDS

bigboybaltazar: Hi

Apart from just talking about the fun and exitement of being hung I just thought I'd share some thoughts about HIV/AIDS and other STIs (Sexually Transmitted Infections). ( U have probably heard this to death, but I take the risk of being a party pooper).

You know things really started to rock when the ART (Anti Retroviral Treatment), or the "coctail" came around. Today many people who would have been dead before are still around. Statistics on HIV and STI show a sharpe increase of new HIV infections, not only in the poor part of the world, where I mostly work, but also in Europe and US. People seem to think that now there is a cure for HIV/AIDS. This is far from true.

It is true that the deaths have gone down, but life on the coctail is not always a fun life. Side effects may be severe, and many people I meet in my work live a difficult life. Many decide to stop using their drugs for a period (drug holidays) to be able to live normaly for a while. Infectiousness when on the cocktail is probably reduced, but when on a "drug holiday" ig goes right up again.

HIV/AIDS is still a serious illness. Other STIs such as Syfilis, that was almost eradicated in the western world before, has now started to show signs to be on the rize again. So just a word of advice to all of you.

Sex is great ! Hung lads like us probably have the chanse to get layed more than most people ;) do take HIV/AIDS in consideration ALWAYS, for your sake, and for the sake of your significant others. Get tested and act accordingly,

if negative - try to stay negative
if positive- stay as healty as U can and don't pass it on

I've always used condoms. NEVER bareback unless 1) you're in a monogamous relationship, 2) it's been 6 months, and 3) your partner just got his/her HIV test back. Of course, you CAN still use condoms in mutual masturbation. Now frottage and docking, I don't know. They haven't been fully studied.

I've seen a lot of programming lately concerning information on HIV and AIDS, transmissions thereof, battles between safe sex and abstinence, and global caucases engaging in discussion on what can be done to slow the epidemic.

Ever since I had been fooling around with guys, the subject of HIV has always been on my mind. I think it became all the more real when, in my times of trying to figure out my bisexuality, I sought a college support group, met with them on a regular basis, and soon met a guy who had become HIV+. You know how it goes. One thing about education the young: they quickly develop an "invincibility" complex about some serious shit going on out there. They think their small-town and insulated lives are free from such scary things, when in reality, nothing can be farther from the truth.

The guy, sad to say, eventually died. I was never really friends with him, but still, it was something tragic in its own merits -- that AIDS claimed somebody I used to see once a week.

One occasion will always stick out in my mind: I was ready to meet up with a guy online when, before I signed off, he asked me if it was OK that he was HIV+. I think all we were going to do was mutually masturbate and he would suck me off, but as soon as I found out that information, I panicked and shut my computer off. I didn't even say goodbye. I don't think I could have given him a respectable response anyway; to think, he knowingly has a killing disease and it just "popped" up like that.

Thankfully I have done low-risk behaviors -- risk nonetheless, but nothing like barebacking or swallowing semen, etc. -- and I feel pretty safe in my status. I won't lie. I bet I'm not the only guy out there who's scared of getting tested; it's a necessity, yes, but it's still a scary thought. I know people can be rather foolish and risky, thinking that everything will magically work out fine and there's nothing to fear. But I know better. And still, I'm quite the scared guy inside...

I hope I see the day when the epidemic is successfully tackled. Right now, it's just slightly contained.

kyle: Many fine points, baltazar. I don't think you're a party pooper at all. A person has to be informed. And it is very sad that many people let their guard down and have unsafe sex because they figure if they contract HIV they can just "take the cocktail." It's an unpleasant way to live. One of my friends with HIV takes between 25 and 35 pills a day and aside from the expense, he sometimes has awful side effects. Also, living with such a disease, there is a terrible amount of stress.

In junior high I took a mandatory Health class which covered STDs in great length, although it was during the "ARC" period of understanding AIDS so it wasn't covered at all. I think visiting an AIDS hospice or at least watching a good documentary should be part of the curriculum.

My preference - I loathe condoms. I just won't have it. But because of my choice, I ensure that I'm safe. As jonb said, be monogomous, wait at least 6 months, then get tested. When you get the all clear, sex is how it should be - all pleasure, no worries.

And remember, monogomy doesn't just take a trusting person, it also takes a person worthy of trust. When it concerns your very life, "you better wake up and pay attention."

ORCABOMBER: All of you, great words said, I just wish in the UK that HIV and AIDS was talked about more often, I mean, you can't get over it, it's fatal or near fatal unless on enough drugs to get a whale fucked up and yet most people still aren't educated!!!

It really pisses me off when I can act smug by saying "I know how aids works."

I was born in the late 1970's. By the time I was sexually active, AIDS was already a factor, so I have never fucked without the 'raincoat'. I don't know what it feels like to bareback, so I don't miss it. Safer sex combined with regular HIV testing seems like a small price to pay to continue living after having sex. No ... I've never experience sex so good it was worth dying for. On the other hand, I have a family and a boyfriend worth living for. Monogamy has its plusses!

kyle: Orca, that reminds me of something I experienced a while back.

I was in a class totally unrelated to STDs or even general health, but one day the entire class was about AIDS. *I was stunned to realize (by the guest speaker asking various questions) that I was the only one in a group ranging in ages from 18 - 60 to know anything about AIDS and how to contract it.

Lot of ppl are ignorant of HIV; that's why you have all these snake oil salesmen claiming to prevent and/or cure AIDS.

Late_Bloomer: HIV ≠ Death

I always like to point that out. It will eventually kill you, but your life is not over once you get it. These days many people in America live well into a second decade with the disease. Of course it's always best to simply not get it and use as much precaution with it as you can, but if you were to get it, at least now it isn't a ticket to instant death, I suppose. :-[

So, on this vein of thinking. Smartest approach: pushing abstinence or prevention? I know this leaves much of you abroad out in the cold because, for as much as I can recall, I don't see too many world leaders advocating the whole marriage / family / abstinence / purity / God / non-heterosexual agenda.

Late_Bloomer: I think more people would listen to someone pushing prevention over abstinance. I know for a fact that something as simple as a bowl full of free condoms at the medical center on my campus is a very useful and used service there, and I'm sure it helps to prevent STD spread very well.

ORCABOMBER: Late Bloomer, my Uni does that as well, good service, haven't tried it, but it's handy, if not really discrete at all, you have to ASK for them instead of just being "there", I know that'd be a put off for me.

One thing though, personally okay, AIDS isn't fatal straight away, but I don't want to have to live a life where my lifespan is record breaking if I max 30 years with the disease y'know. I might die of a cardiac arrest. repsiratory problems, brain damage, maybe even a fucking terrorist attack, but at the end of the day, if I've lived a decent life, I can walk safe knowing that I don't hava an instant "timer" over my head counting down.

Sorry to get philospohical, it's just me.

Kyle, well I was intrested in it, just by the name. Aids, y'know, a disease with a happy name "AID?" that can kill you over time that spreads about as nastily as "the thing" does. I dunno if you've ever had to study the virus in school, but it is the evilest fucker on earth practically designed to ruin our lives almost.

Talk about waepons of mass destruction, I feel sorry for all the poor people born with it, or with blood transfusion infections, and complete hatred for those who have it, but can't stop with the prostitutes in the third world.

Uh, feeling complete hatred for those with AIDS ... Red, please tell me that you don't mean what it sounds like.

Now THAT was out of context. He said "I feel complete hatred for those who have it, but can't stop with the prostitutes in the third world," and I agree.

Please understand that I'm not trying to accuse Red of anything; that's why I wanted clarification. I was not taking the statement out of context; I omitted the part about the Third World prostitutes because there was nothing in that bit of text that negated the feeling of complete hatred for those who have AIDS. Please realise that I'm bound to feel strongly about this issue as I have lost several people very close to me to AIDS. I have attended funerals that were picketed by self-righteous pricks calling themselves God's Holy Crusade Against Perversion. In New Orleans there was a funeral of a seven year-old hemophiliac boy who contracted HIV from a transfusion a few years earlier. There was actually a GHCAP protester carrying a sign that read, 'Praise God for killing the little fagget [sic] before he could mollest [sic] our sons'. So excuse me if I see anti-victim sentiment where none is present; that is not my intent. It's just that I have loved ones dying and shit like that I described above has me edgy and paranoid.