Barebacking

From Homolexis Glossary

Prior to the appearance of HIV/AIDS early in 1981, homosexual and bisexual men generally did not distinguish verbally between anal sex with a condom and without. While there were health campaigns that encouraged condom use, most gay men saw a trip to the clinic for antibiotics as an easy solution to any negative consequences (usually gonorrhea or syphilis). However, as the understanding of pathways for the transmission of HIV/AIDS became better understood, researchers and public-health officers encouraged condom usage as an effective way to reduce HIV transmission.

The gay male community, having been affected the most by this pandemic, mobilized quickly and the practice of unprotected anal sex quickly became unpopular within the community. At this point the need for a term to describe the difference between "protected" and "unprotected" sexual acts arose.

Despite these problems, the practice of barebacking seems to have become increasingly common again among men. There are several reasons for this belief, including correlations based on: an upswing in the level of new HIV infections among gay men in younger age groups, a more public presence of "bareback" literature, personal ads, and publicity that may have unintentionally glamorized the practice.

During the late 1990s and into the new millennium, gay columnists have offered several explanations for the recrudescence of barebacking in the 1990s in advanced Western nations. Among these are the following. 1) The advent and ensuing success of protease inhibitors and other drugs for HIV infections has changed the perception of HIV infection from an untreatable terminal illness to a treatable chronic malady. 2) Decreasing effectiveness of health education messages in the gay community failed to promote condom use (this factor is sometimes termed condom fatigue). 3) Methamphetamines have become a kind of "drug of choice" within gay male (and other) populations; individuals under the influence of meth are less likely to be concerned over potential hazards of their behavior. 4) Gay men with opposing beliefs about the practice of barebacking get more publicity about their feelings than in the past. 5) Bareback pornography is readily available, serving to romanticize the practice.

Anonymous or casual heterosexual sex without a condom has not created the moral panic that gay barebacking has. This difference has several explanations, notably the fact that gay men have become more organized in confronting STDs.

In the sex trade, the willingness to bareback tends to be a selling point for sex workers to their clients. Some consumers of gay pornography seek out older films where unprotected sex appears as a matter of course.