There is a particular appeal to barebacking because it is sexier. That is an important and beautiful thing, although it can have harmful and damaging consequences. To Tom Coates, the director of the UCSF AIDS Research Institute, the implications of such thinking are saddening. I am surprised at POZ not only for sensationalizing the movement, but for not presenting a balanced view. This vision of a generation gap within the gay community permeates much of the discussion of barebacking and the shift to riskier sexual practices.
Surveys show younger gay men are more likely than their older peers to engage in unprotected sex.
To younger gay men such as Scarce, AIDS has become interwoven as part of gay identity. Such talk, in the view of some veteran AIDS activists, dishonors the dead, and makes not only for bad public health policy, but disastrous gay politics. Rene Durazzo, program director for the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, said the POZ article provides a service in bringing discussions about barebacking into the open. We need to give men opportunities to talk about it and make their own decisions. The long history of AIDS in San Francisco, he suggested, shows that the city's gay community has acted responsibly and will continue to do so.