Apparently, party attendees pay entrance to such parties at private Bay Area homes. Two rules prevail; no condoms, and no talk whatsoever of HIV status. The catch?
Only the hosts of the party know for sure what person or persons at the party have THE BUG.
How many such people are present? I don't know that, but I guess it varies. I got the feeling that at most parties your odds of getting staying healthy afterwards are pretty good for a 1-time visit, assuming you have only a couple partners.
Look in the SF Chronicle about 18 months ago or so. The article was listed here at FR around that time, and drew many, many hits.
I'm not really an expert on this issue, but I'd wager that what we're dealing with here is an ironic side-effect of acceptance of homosexuality.
Eroticism, you see, comes from transgressing some kind of taboo.
In the old days before reliable contraception, sex outside of wedlock was quite a bit more erotic than the sex of this very same type prevalent these days. The reason is that part of the thrill was the awareness that you could be creating a new, unwanted life- obviously something heavily laden with implications for both parties.
But with the arrival of The Pill, part of the air fizzled out of the tire. Today, yes, you have people hooking up on a much more frequent basis, but I'd wager it's not as exciting.
Same thing with gay sex: in the stuffy old days when guys ran some risk of getting cracked upside the head with a police trucheon for persuing their natural inclinations, such assignations realllllly got these guys' pulses racing --it must have been realllllllllly hot stuff.
Times have changed: you've got gay marches that take over cities. You've got mainstream TV programs with gay characters. You've got straight people required at at some schools' orientation programs to introduce themselves as, "My name is Mike, and I AM GAY" --especially if they AREN'T, just to break down perceptions and barriers.
My point?
Much of the taboo against homos has gone up in smoke, and with that, much of the eroticism that gay people crave.
-->SO FACED WIT TOLERANCE, BUG CHASING IS WHAT SOME DO TO RECAPTURE EROTICISM.<--
I have some really strange-sounding advice for these guys: Go to Tehran, and your PULSE WILL RACE ON!