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VIDEO: BAREBACK MOUNTAIN
Video by HOMOVISION on February 16, 2009 at 7:53 pmTweet
Bareback porn has been controversial for the gay community since the arrival of HIV/AIDS in the 1980′s when it was seen as taboo. However, recent years has seen a huge growth in the number of bareback titles available (sales of bareback outstrip safe porn by 10-1), leading to claims that it’s rise has promoted unsafe sex within gay youth. In 2007 three gay porn actors were diagnosed with HIV after taking part in a gay porn shoot, fuelling debate as to the dangers of barebacking.
Last Friday (13th Feb) saw author Paul Burston and the House of Homosexual Culture gather together a group of gayers to discuss bareback porn. The panel included HIV activist Spike Rhodes, porn director Christian Marshall and journalists Karl Riley and Tim Teeman and was followed by a lively Q&A session with members of the audience.
Topics included the banning of bareback porn, the role of porn producers in promoting safer sex, and the lack of sex education for gay youth.
We took along the cameras and grabbed some of your views after the show:
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
Tags: AIDS, christian, Friday, gay, gays, HIV, porn, promoters, sex, video, Videos
3 Comments
How many loved ones do we have to lose to HIV before a light goes on about the need for education and more education? We are faced with a generation gap between those who were faced with the discovery of a devastating disease, the “cocktail solution generation” and now the young ones who feel it’s a choice. If we can help just one of our friends, family members or lovers understand the implications – and chose life – we can truly say we’ve made a difference. Thanks Burston, please keep hammering the message home.
M
Thanks Brasil. As someone more eloquent than me said on Friday, if we can prevent just one person from contracting HIV, it was worth it. People’s attitude seems to be that it’s no big deal, the drugs are there and the state will provide. This is wrongheaded in so many ways. All it takes is for a right wing government to come in, say, ‘Why are we paying the medical bills and benefits for these people who aren’t taking proper care of themselves’, and we’re screwed basically. They’re doing the same with smokers already ,and they at least have the argument that they pay for their treatment through the heavy tax on ciggies. Plus of course there’s the deeply unfashionable view that maybe we ought to be looking out for each other, especially the younger generation who don’t have the experience we have. Interesting that nobody from THT or GMFA came on Friday. Maybe it’s just not seen as a relevant issue. Better to stick with ads that say ‘So you’re HIV, now what?’ and feed the idea that HIV is somehow inevitable. It’s not. And the last thing we should be telling the younger generation is that it is.
I also find it interesting that the THT and GMFA were not there.
A while back I volunteered to help GMFA build a website to educate the seemingly ignorant generation of gay and straight youth on the issue of HIV and AIDS. But was shocked when I was told they wanted a section “How to have safe bareback sex”. When I raised an objection, I was shocked to find people around the table thought that this was possible…
Others thought that it was a good idea to have a “how to minimise risk when having unprotected sex” section.
You can imagine the uproar if a publicly funded anti gun crime site had a section on “How to safely play Russian roulette”
What chance do our youth stand when the very people who donate their time to the fight against the spread of HIV are preaching such sick misinformation.
Where are they getting their money? From the Pope?
As you said the agencies seem to be focussing their minds on what to do with people once they have converted. I think its about time we start reminding people that the hospital wards are still full of people dying, and increasingly people are running out of options with their combination therapy and are facing life or should I say death with resistant strains.
BUT I guess GMFA says it in the title… Shouldn’t it be GMFHIV? I say we scrap them and start GMFI Gay men fighting ignorance.
Having said all of that, back to the subject of barebacking porn. I work in the adult industry and whilst we have a outright ban on any bareback content, I understand the psychology behind why people like to watch it. The absence of condoms being an absence of a visual reminder that sex is unsafe. When you are indulging a sexual fantasy, you don’t want to be reminded of death and illness.
And in the UK there has already been a massive drop in the amount of bareback titles being produced, but I think that has more to do with cheaper production costs in eastern Europe, than a change in direction.
But above and beyond all of this, we really need to inject self-respect and a sense of personal responsibility into the community. There are far too many people out there having unsafe sex, knowing full well the risks…
They just don’t care…