Allow me to invite you to the latest in the evolution of gay culture.
It's called the Transitioning Party and before you make any uneducated guesses as to what it is, let me just say that it has absolutely nothing to do with drag queens, make-up or make-overs, for that matter. It won't be featured on one of the Logo Channel's embarrassingly tepid subjects of the month. RuPaul won't be judging and Tyra won't be snapping. None of today's stereotypical gaieties will be on deck.
Before I launch into this new phenomenon, allow me to preface with this: this is not judgement. This is a hypercritical tongue-lashing. I wanted to refrain from writing with a creased brow or hypocritical pen. I wanted it to be an observation. But that would be a lie and, therefore, I can not.
During my days chained to Corporate America's sweat-stained armpit, I was trained to approach possibly sticky situations through HIP PA filtered eyes and with much caution, as to avoid lawsuits or possibly agitating the accidentally employed and terrifyingly deranged.
So....it has come to my attention and noticed by others that a vast number of HIV-(negative) men around the globe are having parties in which the only people invited are men who are HIV+ (positive) regardless of sexual orientation (gay, bi, confused).
Why are the only people on the guest list men who are HIV+? It is for the simple yet morally reprehensible/irresponsible task of infecting the HIV- party thrower. Consensually. Of course. Talk about the gift that keeps on giving. I must reiterate that this is only a segment of the gay populace but can hardly be polled since so many gay men live in denial about, well, everything, including safe sex practices. (Just because you've not tested, ever, does not make you negative. Being positive, yet, undetectable, does not make you suddenly negative.) Many gay men I've told about this 'party' are horrified like normal gay men should be and don't want on any guest lists.
I don't think the gay populace wants to open its eyes to facts. One fact being that coupling HIV strains can possibly cause what is known as the Super Virus which speeds up the rate of the virus, exponentially, killing its host quickly.
So....this is what is known as the Transitioning Party. One of the gay scene's dirty little secrets....among many. Attending a party where someone who is not infected requests that the infected guests infect him, transitioning him into the vast, mythical world of the infected, possibly freeing his mind of all that pesky worrying that he may get infected through his unsafe and life-threatening sexual practices and not have fun! And what is sex if not unprotected and risky? Well.....a roll of the dice.
Dr. Aline Brown, leading Infectious Diseases doctor, specializing in the treatment of HIV/AIDS in Oklahoma, spoke with me months ago. "I receive a new patient infected with the virus everyday." Daunting news. She is not the only person to speak of the evaporating limits within the gay communities with a tone just shy of grieving. She went on to liken it to the 1980s early outbreak of the virus and strolling through the once bustling streets of Haight/Ashbury in San Francisco. She said it looked like a ghost town. The virus has swept through the gay districts and either wiped many out or sent many into a panic, hiding and waiting for Madonna to emancipate with, "It's okay, gay men. It's o-kay. Now, strike a pose."
These HIV- men know the advances in medicines assisting those living with the virus. These advances have stripped away many of the bad side-effects of the earlier medicines, so, getting the menace of infection over and done with sounds like a clever idea! But it is, in fact, destroying the gay community and casting an ever widening shadow of disdain over a community that wants equality and cleaner bathhouses. Oh...and lawful marriage. I tend to forget.
Self-destructive behavior such as this merely loads another bullet in the chamber for a community hell bent on playing Russian Roulette with its own lives and the the lives of others.
It's no longer defeatist.
It's nihilism at its most macabre.
It's called the Transitioning Party and before you make any uneducated guesses as to what it is, let me just say that it has absolutely nothing to do with drag queens, make-up or make-overs, for that matter. It won't be featured on one of the Logo Channel's embarrassingly tepid subjects of the month. RuPaul won't be judging and Tyra won't be snapping. None of today's stereotypical gaieties will be on deck.
Before I launch into this new phenomenon, allow me to preface with this: this is not judgement. This is a hypercritical tongue-lashing. I wanted to refrain from writing with a creased brow or hypocritical pen. I wanted it to be an observation. But that would be a lie and, therefore, I can not.
During my days chained to Corporate America's sweat-stained armpit, I was trained to approach possibly sticky situations through HIP PA filtered eyes and with much caution, as to avoid lawsuits or possibly agitating the accidentally employed and terrifyingly deranged.
So....it has come to my attention and noticed by others that a vast number of HIV-(negative) men around the globe are having parties in which the only people invited are men who are HIV+ (positive) regardless of sexual orientation (gay, bi, confused).
Why are the only people on the guest list men who are HIV+? It is for the simple yet morally reprehensible/irresponsible task of infecting the HIV- party thrower. Consensually. Of course. Talk about the gift that keeps on giving. I must reiterate that this is only a segment of the gay populace but can hardly be polled since so many gay men live in denial about, well, everything, including safe sex practices. (Just because you've not tested, ever, does not make you negative. Being positive, yet, undetectable, does not make you suddenly negative.) Many gay men I've told about this 'party' are horrified like normal gay men should be and don't want on any guest lists.
I don't think the gay populace wants to open its eyes to facts. One fact being that coupling HIV strains can possibly cause what is known as the Super Virus which speeds up the rate of the virus, exponentially, killing its host quickly.
So....this is what is known as the Transitioning Party. One of the gay scene's dirty little secrets....among many. Attending a party where someone who is not infected requests that the infected guests infect him, transitioning him into the vast, mythical world of the infected, possibly freeing his mind of all that pesky worrying that he may get infected through his unsafe and life-threatening sexual practices and not have fun! And what is sex if not unprotected and risky? Well.....a roll of the dice.
Dr. Aline Brown, leading Infectious Diseases doctor, specializing in the treatment of HIV/AIDS in Oklahoma, spoke with me months ago. "I receive a new patient infected with the virus everyday." Daunting news. She is not the only person to speak of the evaporating limits within the gay communities with a tone just shy of grieving. She went on to liken it to the 1980s early outbreak of the virus and strolling through the once bustling streets of Haight/Ashbury in San Francisco. She said it looked like a ghost town. The virus has swept through the gay districts and either wiped many out or sent many into a panic, hiding and waiting for Madonna to emancipate with, "It's okay, gay men. It's o-kay. Now, strike a pose."
These HIV- men know the advances in medicines assisting those living with the virus. These advances have stripped away many of the bad side-effects of the earlier medicines, so, getting the menace of infection over and done with sounds like a clever idea! But it is, in fact, destroying the gay community and casting an ever widening shadow of disdain over a community that wants equality and cleaner bathhouses. Oh...and lawful marriage. I tend to forget.
Self-destructive behavior such as this merely loads another bullet in the chamber for a community hell bent on playing Russian Roulette with its own lives and the the lives of others.
It's no longer defeatist.
It's nihilism at its most macabre.
I was always told, you learn something new everyday...and I just did. This article was shocking, but the truth is most of the time. Keep it comin' Henry!!!
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