Advice can change quite rapidly in the wacky world of the gay ill health sector. One minute you are being told to be a fabulous barebacking slut on PrEP the next you are being told not to kiss and have a phone wank.
The sector is now in utter crisis after years of destroying the safe strategy of “protect yourself and protect others”. With condoms being the key to keeping yourself safe from HIV and STIs.
The message changed to one of “risk reduction”: the crazy toolbox strategy of trust, communication, testing and do whatever you want, we will not judge or stigmatise you.
COVID-19 is now challenging their risk reduction strategy. However after years of hand wringing and pandering to the wants and needs of a small minority of barebackers, chemsex addicts and self destructing gays will the gay health sector be able to flip back to the “protect yourself and protect others” strategy?
COVID-19 is the new HIV in many respects. It’s a global pandemic which will change our lives and behaviour. It popped out of nowhere with devastating consequences. And as with HIV in the 80s people react in two ways.
There are the gay men who seek out as much information as possible from many sources. They listen to the government, NHS and the experts. They do all they can to be responsible citizens, they wash their hands, they social distance or self isolate if symptoms occur. They give up their sex lives with a “wait and see” approach, because sex isn’t the be all and end all of their “gayness”. It isn’t their lifestyle or hobby or identity. These are the gay men who are still here in their 40s, 50s, 60s and still HIV negative.
Gay men who took on messages and had the ideology of “protect yourself and protect others”. In the 80s onwards they assumed every gay man could have HIV, whatever he said, limited partners and wore a condom consistently for anal sex. These are the guys who “survived and thrived”.
On the flip side, as with HIV, there are gay men who are selfish, don’t give a flying fuck about anyone else and will continue fucking raw with multiple partners, going to chemsex parties and so on. Some will even get off on the risk. It’s a mental illness, an addiction.
Will there actually be COVID-19 bug chasers as there have been with HIV? These gay men probably went out for one last booze up on Friday night (20 March 2020) in their local gay bar before it was shutdown. Irresponsible gay men to be avoided, shamed, stigmatised and judged. The car crash gays.
After years of crackpot policies from the gay ill health sector, with their woke ideology, we shall see the consequences in the weeks to come.
It’s been reported that the dating/sex apps are seeing an uplift of traffic as more gay men are at home and hook ups are aplenty. This is madness but it’s what the gay ill health sector ideology has brought to the gay community. Pure recklessness, selfishness and a bareback agenda.
Will we have gay men infected with COVID-19 unable to get a ventilator and saying “the NHS failed me!” as they drop dead? The very same gays who blamed the NHS for not providing PrEP and became HIV+ because “the NHS failed me!”. No personal responsibility to protect themselves or others.
Will the gay charities be here for you in your time of need? Their complete turnaround from their woke ideology is astounding. Many leading gay ill health unprofessionals, look petrified, say they will observe social distancing and give up their sex lives for the foreseeable future, and are advising the same.
Many Prepsters, the wise ones, are stopping taking PrEP and giving up on sex, or certainly unprotected sex. The gay ill health sector is even saying wear a condom for oral sex as a “risk reduction” strategy! Some just can’t let go of the ideology.
Here at GMAP we’ve banged on for several years that you just don’t know what’s round the corner. That the good old condom would protect you if PrEP failed. That trust and U=U should not be a “no condom required” human right and we should be concerned about drug resistant STIs. However COVID-19 takes it to another level.
Which gay man are you going to be? Take a chance, not listen or learn, be reckless and not give a fuck, as some did in the 80s with HIV? Or one who is responsible, protects himself and others? Are you a survive and thrive gay or a not-so-fabulous slut? It’s up to you but history teaches us a lesson about who will be here when this is all over.