The forum, which used a gameshow format, included panelists from the health department who spoke about various gay subjects, including serosorting sex partners (choosing sex partners with the same HIV status), Internet cruising's body-part fetishism and party drugs. Methods for activism also were discussed.
During the forum, several attendees spoke on the issue of unprotected anal sex and the HIV/AIDS virus that is transmitted between men in this manner.
“It glamorizes and normalizes the behavior,” LGBT Editor and forum panelist Greg Taylor said.
“Such films fetishize internal ejaculation,” Titan Media Vice President Keith Webb added. “How many cum loads can they take? I'm not going to help a 20-year-old kid in Iowa do something unsafe. Twink barebacking is reprehensible — using kids, paying them to risk their lives."
STD Prevention and Control Director Dr. Jeffrey Klausner said the health department has no official opinion on barebacking content in films, as there exists no current data on how it affects viewers' behavior.
Klausner added that serosorting might help decrease infections and urged sexually active men to lobby Craigslist.com for a "Poz for Poz" personals section. He also advised forum attendees to ask their doctors for nucleic acid amplification, gonorrhea and Chlamydia tests.
'Disability Queens'
UCSF AIDS Research Institute Communications Director Jeff Sheehy, also the AIDS policy advisor to San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, said he objected to the term "disability queens." The term is commonly used as an inflammatory, derogatory label for people living with HIV.
"Deciding the health status of another individual is not a subject for community debate," Sheehy said. "What is the relevance of that question to community building? We're passing judgment on people living a life of medical duress."
A vibrant-looking gay man may have "a carefully calibrated lifestyle that preserves their physical resources," Sheehy added.
However, SFGMCI's Doug Siesta countered that open dialogue can result in addressing misconceptions, debunking myths, and changing attitudes.
"As one panelist said, it's the elephant in the room that everybody makes reference to," Sebesta said. "Whether in jest, whether or not it's based on fact or not fair, it's out there. Who is hanging out in the Castro during the day – the Starbucks boys."
Sometimes called "AIDS exceptionalism," Klausner said the disability queen label is potentially stigmatizing.
Online Cruising and the Meth Crisis
Forum panelists also discussed the emergence of dysmorphia — internalizing displays of steroid-pumped body parts in online cruise sites.
"We start viewing people as body parts, if that's your major mode of social interaction," Sebesta said.
Though some meet long-term partners online and web-based discussion groups can lead to meetings, forum attendee Sister Constance Craving said a compulsive, hyper media-focused, Internet-based social and sex life creates isolation.
Other forum members agreed, saying that promiscuity and using growth hormones for validation is a symptom needing self-reflection, not societal judgment. Some said that men lie about their penis size and HIV status when online.
"It's a miracle we're here with the hostility we grew up with," San Francisco AIDS Foundation Deputy Director of Programs Steven Tierney added.
Drawing on his background in adolescent substance abuse counseling, Tierney also discussed the continual meth crisis, the drug's quick, deep and permanent effect on neurotransmitters and relapse patterns. He urged attendees to take responsibility for change and not abandon that role to public health.
“Government should not regulate erectile dysfunction drugs,” Tierney said. "Activism works when we believe we have something to offer [that] we're worth saving.”
The SFGMCI will hold a community-planning summit Saturday, Dec. 10 from 10 a.m. to noon at 1360 Mission St., Suite 401 in San Francisco. The event will be open to the public.
