Barebacking or having unprotected sex?

If a straight man and a straight woman get together and have sex without a condom, we call it unprotected sex, but when two gay men get together and have sex without a condom, we call it barebacking, a term that has nasty connotations of recklessness and irresponsibility. Lots of questions arise from this apparent imbalance in labeling. Is using the term barebacking a symptom of continual societal demonization of gay people? Furthermore, does it actually scare gay men into practicing safer sex? Or, does using the loaded term barebacking, in fact, lead to an increase in HIV infection within the population of men who have sex with men?

These are just some of the issues covered in Barebacking and AIDS 2009, a great article from Edge. All in all, the piece brings to mind just how much we as gay men have to deal with two very different yet equally complex four letter pandemics - AIDS and FEAR.

As one of my favourite thinkers, Joseph Goldstein, writes:

"It would be difficult to overestimate the potential power of fear to control our lives. This mind state has extraordinary range, from mild worry to chronic anxiety to abject terror. It can contract our mind and body and cripple our will. And not only is fear a great power in itself, it also too often provides hidden motive energy to other states that cause us pain. Behind every act of greed lies fear of deprivation. Behind hatred and aggression lies fear of harm. Behind so much delusion lies fear of knowing and feeling painful conditions."

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