Yet more talk about the increasing rate of STD's in Australia, with syphilis in particular increasing, apparently largely in gay men. The
SMH even has an interactive map for looking at each State's rate over the last decade or so. (One of more unusual uses of an interactive map you're likely to see.)
I am also surprised at the apparent popularity of ice amongst the gay community.
The Age had an article the other day:
Gay men are openly trading ice on dating apps such as Grindr as
soaring use of the drug raises fears it is fuelling a 20-year high in
Australia's HIV diagnoses.
Grindr, which has more than 63,000 active monthly users in
Melbourne, connects men for casual sex but is increasingly becoming an
online playground for ice dealers.
The drug is popular with some gay men during sex as it causes
a surge of the "happy" chemical dopamine, boosts libido and strips
away inhibitions.
Another article I linked to before said that ice was, in England, seen as only a rich, urban gay drug.
Like I say, I find it rather hard to credit that any people use the drug at all, when there is a very real risk of addiction and long lasting psychosis. I also find it a little hard to credit that some gay men, living in an environment where free casual sex has become easier than ever to arrange, don't remain satisfied with the mere availability of sex, but want to actually artificially enhance the feeling of orgasm more and more. (I suppose you could say that is part of what is behind ecstasy and cocaine use for straight rich people - although I see from some sites the latter can impair orgasm. It at least won't end with making you feel you've got bugs permanently under your skin. Bizarrely, I also see at a
Reddit site that someone claims LSD can be great for sex. I would be very surprised if that were consistently the case; I would have thought there is a fair chance it could involve your partner turning into a giant spider at an inconvenient time.)
I don't know - I just keep getting the feeling that being non judgemental about these things isn't working out great. Isn't it time some people in drug and STD education started saying something obvious like: "look guys, sex and orgasms are fantastic, but if you're doing it right, you don't need drugs to make it feel better. Seriously. We've got thousands of years of collective human experience to back that up. Oh, and a chancre sore on your penis or mouth is a really bad look, and you kinda deserve to feel bad if you've spread it around to some stranger you met on Grindr."
In a now legendary text by Laurie Garrett, The Coming Plague, based on her Ph. D., there is a section on the early days of AIDs in the USA where it was noted that when the researchers went to California to interview homosexuals they were amazed at the number of sexual partners in a year. Not 10 but hundreds. STDs were rife in the community and simply accepted as part of the lifestyle.
ReplyDeleteYet these findings were kept tucked away, it became remiss to mention that the rapid spread of STDs amongst homosexuals might have something to do with their lifestyle.