Posted on 01/20/2005 8:25:39 PM PST by Graybeard58
Bug chasers and gift givers probably can't hurt you. But they're trying to kill each other.
You've probably heard of neither. And you probably couldn't fathom their taste in an astoundingly risky sexual behavior.
Bug chasers are HIV-negative gay men hoping to contract the virus. Gift givers are HIV-positive homosexuals who enjoy obliging bug chasers.
It's no urban myth. They're real - and they're here.
You might think such a thing possible in San Francisco and New York. But bug chasers and gift givers practice their lethal thrill-seeking locally.
"We have bathhouses in Chicago and we have adult bookstores in Peoria. There are people in these places searching for infection," says Alan Grebner, president of the board of directors of the John Keets Foundation.
The Canton-based AIDS-awareness group announced earlier this month that it soon will disband. They've had an increasingly tough time soliciting help and funds.
Still, Grebner and other members plan to keep speaking out about AIDS and HIV. One of Grebner's pet peeves is the commonplace - yet erroneous - belief among young gays that newer drugs practically halt the threat of HIV.
"People (say), 'Oh, goody. We have a cure,' " Grebner says.
Grebner, 38, knows first-hand that the treatments aren't foolproof. HIV-positive himself, the licensed therapist has grown too sick to work. His liver and spleen have severely swelled under his regimen of drugs.
"They're toxic," he says. "It's not a pleasant thing."
Yet to some gays, slick pharmaceutical ads suggest HIV is easily controllable. That mindset has helped spark a surge of bug chasers and gift givers.
But there are other, insidious reasons behind the phenomenon, as explained two years ago in an extensive piece in Rolling Stone magazine.
Rather than fear the virus, bug chasers take control of their fate and welcome HIV. Other gays feel lost, bereft of community, and think HIV will give them a sense of brotherhood among other positives.
And some bug chasers just see the thrill of the hunt of the most extreme sex possible. One told Rolling Stone that contracting HIV would be "the most erotic thing I can imagine."
Meanwhile, gift givers are happy to expand their ranks. To Rolling Stone, one gay man explained the fun of infecting a partner: "I'm murdering him in a sense, killing him slowly, and that's ... exciting to me."
Web sites and chat rooms help these seekers find each other. To a small extent, that might be happening in Peoria, Grebner says.
"I bet some of it's going on online, because people are hooking up (unprotected) all the time," he says. "It's rampant."
But in Peoria, the quest is quieter, with little of the brazen flamboyance of big cities.
"They're not going to say (in Peoria) at 2 a.m., 'Hey, I'm looking for a bug chaser,' " Grebner says.
How prevalent is this dicey pursuit? Nationally, Rolling Stone blamed 10,000 new infections a year on bug chasing. Gay advocates later criticized that number as too high, calling bug chasers a small fringe element among homosexuals.
Grebner says he's unsure of the numbers in Peoria: "It's such a small percentage of the gay community."
He pauses, then adds, "It's gotta be, I hope."
PHIL LUCIANO is a columnist with the Journal Star. He can be reached at pluciano@pjstar.com, 686-3155 or (800) 225-5757, Ext. 3155.
And, of course, it would be heartless to suggest that medical insurance not cover the cost of treating 'successful' bug chasers, so this particular form of suicide inflict social costs far beyond the cleanup and burial of the sadly deluded wretch's corpse.
I can't help but draw a similarity between these guy's and our Islamic fundies. Both are chasing something that will bring about their demise. Not to mention the splodydopes over there in Palestine.
Puts me in mind of the scripture that says "they will be given over to depraved minds."
I saw some of these guys interviewed a few years ago on a news magazine show. They were so pathetic. I felt terribly sorry for them. It was like they didn't belong anywhere, and getting sick would bring them into a community or something. They would get some attention and be cared about.
I just thought about them being someone's son...that some mother could be watching her son on this show. Very sad.
It has nothing to do with drug company advertising. We are bombarded daily with advertising for drugs and treatments for everything from the flu up through cancer. Yet no normal person watches these and says, "Gee, I wish I'd get colon cancer so I can try these new drugs or treatments."
The truth is that this intentional spreading and contracting of AIDS is a symptom the same mental-disorder that manifests itself in the practice of homosexuality and other sexual perversions in the first place.
Meanwhile, gift givers are happy to expand their ranks. To Rolling Stone, one gay man explained the fun of infecting a partner: "I'm murdering him in a sense, killing him slowly, and that's ... exciting to me."
These individuals do everything in their power to contract a fatal, expensive disease. They then expect the rest of us to subsidize their healthcare.
Right.
Every time one of these mentally ill cretins is found out, he should be taken off the public dole immediately.
It makes me doubly thankful that I have 4 normal, healthy adult children.
There was a time that I didn't think that both of my boys would live to adulthood - they fought all the time. Now they are the best of friends at age 30 and 31
I am glad for you. It must be such a relief when they become healthy, functioning adults. Mine are 18 and 16 and I just want to get to where you are. No major problems (messy rooms and a little mouthy now and again), but I still worry!
Getting help by finding Jesus would be better alternative yet.
In my opinion it's their only hope.
I've seen His miracles.
And once infected, these guys will expect government to pull out the stops to both treat them, and to find a cure for HIV.
These must be the same people who seek to reduce the number of years you have to be married to claim spousal social security benefits. (currently 10 years)
Homosexual Agenda Ping. Nausea Alert. Not graphic, but so psychotic that it might as well be.
More on "bug chasers" - words just fail me. More proof - if any is needed - that Same Sex Attraction Disorder is serious mental illness; and the practice causes deeper illness.
But there are thousands of former homosexuals. It isn't incurable. Of course, if one contracts AIDS, that is incurable. And they're indoctrinating OUR children in schools, as we speak, into the joys of accepting and celebrating "gay" families. And telling the Big Lie - that if any kid has had one "gay" thought or done one "gay" act - they ARE "gay" forever and can't change.
Let me and DirtyHarryY2K know if anyone wants on/off this pinglist.
Don't get too sentimental about them. They get very generous disability pay from the state if they are too ill to work, subsidies for apartments, free drugs and medical care. Lots of gay doctors in a place like San Francisco will certify anyone who's HIV positive as too sick to work.
Also, many gays abhor the idea of getting old. It's ALL about looks to them, you know. Once a gray hair or wrinkle appears, the "fems" go into emotional tailspins. Why live?
Yeah, I know it's all about youth with them.
Thus NAMBLA...the inevitable outcome of a "younger is better" mentality.
Where does all of this money come from for those in SanFran who are collecting? Is this money federal?
-deviant depraved pseudo procreation? A perverse disillusioned mimicking of life realized in truth as conception of but death...
I have friends who are gay.
Some are just like normal middle aged couples.
But some of the younger ones that I know (I'm involved in musical theatre, so it attracts them...I am not actively seeking to be a fag-hag, btw)..worry me.
I see them literally 'pimping' for each other.
I'm in small town Ireland.
Some of the stuff they tell me, makes my hair curl. I try to advise them. Sometimes I tell them straight out...'What you are doing is SICK'.
What they do behind closed doors is not my business. But some of the stuff they do..that they tell me about, is something I cannot ignore.
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