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Bug Chasing

The Logic of “BUG CHASING AND GIFT GIVING:  THE POTENTIAL FOR
HIV TRANSMISSION AMONG BAREBACKERS ON THE INTERNET”
I am very interested in the phenomena of bug chasing and gift giving.  This is not a term I had ever heard of before.  Bug chasing is when someone looks to get infected with HIV on purpose.  A person that knowingly wants to give someone HIV is known as the gift giver.  This concept seems so bizarre and foreign to me because I had always thought of HIV and AIDS as a very negative, undesirable and deadly disease. I looked on the internet and found out about this phenomenon and the terminology surrounding it.
The main purpose of “BUG CHASING AND GIFT GIVING:  THE POTENTIAL FOR HIV TRANSMISSION AMONG BAREBACKERS ON THE INTERNET” was to explore the prevalence and possible reasoning behind someone intentionally becoming infected with HIV (Grove and Parsons 2006).  Since bug chasing and gift giving is a relatively new idea, there have not been any major published research papers on the topic.                                                                                          
The authors are trying to explore and find out how to reach the bug chasing and gift giving subculture and to analyze the data they collected from a gay dating/hookup website for men who have sex with other men.  There is a small percentage of men who have sex with other men who barebackers, which is to have unprotected anal sex without a condom.  Among barebackers, there is a smaller subculture who identify as bug chasers or gift givers.
This exploratory study looked at profiles on a barebacking website.  The study looked at all the profiles and picked out the 1,600 profiles that “specifically indicated they were a bug chaser or gift giver” (Grove and Parsons 2006) on this website.  The goal of this study was to explore bug chasing and gift giving and to evaluate how big the problem has become.
The study noted that the use of the internet assisted in locating like minded sexual partners.  Also because there are many treatments available, the seriousness of HIV and AIDS transmission may not be perceived as a “death sentence” as it once did.  The following four reasons were given for bug chasers to choose to be infected with HIV:  1) Fear – the feeling that getting HIV is inevitable and they would rather choose their time/method of infection, thereby taking control of the situation;  2)  Eroticism – in the risk of potentially being infected;  3)  Loneliness – a feeling of being left out, sometimes accompanied by survivor guilt when others they care about have become HIV positive;  and 4)  Political action – empowering themselves by reinforcing negative stereotypes society places on gay men. 
When analyzing the profiles, six categories of bug chasers and gift givers became evident:  1)  The Committed Bug Chaser – who is HIV negative, looking for HIV positive partners and indicated receptive sexual positioning;  2) The Opportunistic Bug Chaser – who is HIV negative and sexual partners status didn’t matter and were versatile with sexual positioning;  3)  The Committed Gift Giver – who is HIV positive looking for HIV negative sexual partners;  4)  The Opportunistic Gift Giver – who is HIV positive and sexual partners status did not matter;  5)  The Serosorter – who selected profile of a bug chaser or gift giver, but actively looking for  a sexual partner that is the same HIV status as themselves;  and 6)  The Ambiguous Bug Chaser or Gift Giver – who didn’t know his HIV status and was seeking a sexual partner of a specific HIV status (Grove and Parsons 2006).
The study found that while the incidence of bug chasing and gift giving may be going up, the prevalence may not be as high as it originally seemed.  Different information in the profiles did not always match the bug chasing or gift giving status selected.  For example, someone who selected that they were a bug chaser may not have shown a preference towards a sexual partner that is HIV positive, nor any preference to being an insertive or receptive sexual partner.  The study noted that “it seems bug chasing and gift giving are an infrequent phenomenon” (Grove and Parsons 2006).  Of gay men who have sex with other men, not all are barebackers.  Of the barebackers, not all classify themselves as a bug chaser or gift giver.  Even of those men who did classify themselves in this way, many of these men were not actively seeking out sexual partners with a differing HIV status.  The main outcome of this study is to recognize the bug chasing and gift giving subculture as real, realize that more in depth studies and outreach needs to be done to educate gay men who may consider a bug chasing or gift giving lifestyle.
HIV should not be sought after.  Even though treatments are better than they have been in the past, HIV should still be avoided if at all possible.  People that don’t have HIV risk being infected with drug resistant strains of the virus.  People that are HIV positive may potentially get a more potent strain of HIV.  If this phenomenon is not studied in depth, then people will not be properly educated as to the dangers that still exist.  Bug chasing and gift giving may be a reality for a lot of people.  We need to research it more, come up with a plan and execute to keep purposeful HIV infections down.  This isn’t a problem that society can just ignore.


 Works Cited
Christian Grove and Jeffrey T. Parsons.  “BUG CHASING AND GIFT GIVING:  THE POTENTIAL FOR HIV TRANSMISSION AMONG BAREBACKERS ON THE INTERNET.”  AIDS Education and Prevention, 18(6),490-503,2006, Web. June 17, 2016 

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