The continuing acceptance of unprotected anal sex, gaypornography's depiction of the act, and the extent to which online dating hasreplaced face-to-face cruising were the most compelling hot button issuesduring a gay men's health forum last Wednesday night, November 30.

At the San Francisco Gay Men's CommunityInitiative-sponsored forum, panelists from the health department and othersweighed in on subjects like serosorting sex partners, Internet cruising's bodypart fetishism, party drugs, and methods for activism. The event had agame-show format and was moderated by Joan Jett Blakk.

Not everyone embraced unprotected anal sex and the topicremains controversial. At points during the meeting several participantspointed to the fact that unprotected anal sex is the most common way HIV/AIDSis transmitted among men who have sex with men. Audience members applaudedduring these comments.

It glamorizes and normalizes the behavior, said panelist andLGBT events Web site editor Ggreg Taylor, who said he lobbied Miller beer towithdraw sponsorship from the Folsom Street Fair for allowing one bareback pornproducer to advertise in the fair's program guide.

"How many cum loads can they take? I'm not going tohelp a 20-year-old kid in Iowa do something unsafe," said Webb."Twink barebacking is reprehensible – using kids, paying them torisk their lives."

David Van Virden argued that not producing such films, evenwith external cumming, takes Titan out of the dialogue and leaves it wide openfor renegade producers.

One should not model one's sex life on entertainment and thepeer pressure argument against particular pornography, responded TreasureIsland cameraman Nick Stevens.

"You can't say I watched a murder mystery and now I'm aserial killer," said Stevens, a four-year employee of the 7-year-oldcompany. Treasure Island does not pair actors of different HIV statuses, withfew exceptions.

The health department has no official opinion on the films,as there exists no current data on how they affect viewers' behavior. "Inthe meantime," said STD Prevention and Control Director Dr. JeffreyKlausner, "we have to support free speech."

Acknowledging barebacking's "liberating" feel,Klausner said that while many super infections are related to unprotected analsex, it's uncommon in men infected for over a year. "It's a much moreserious concern with re-infection, if recently infected," he said.

Serosorting – sex between those with the same HIVstatus – might help decrease infections, said Klausner, who urgedsexually active men to lobby the www.Craigslist.org Web site for a "Poz for Poz" personals section. He also urged men toask their doctors for nucleic acid amplification gonorrhea and chlamydia tests.

While the evening was energetic, one invited panelist'sabsence overshadowed the event. Jeff Sheehy, UCSF AIDS Research Institutecommunications director and Mayor Gavin Newsom's AIDS policy adviser, objectedto the term "disability queens." Sheehy declined his invitation,calling the forum topic, "What do we think of disability queens?" away to replace a doctor's objective diagnosis with what he views as judgment.He questioned whether the topic was part of a health department agenda insteadof a community-initiated topic. The SFGMCI was started by people who work forthe Department of Public Health.

"Deciding the health status of another individual isnot a subject for community debate," said Sheehy. "What is therelevance of that question to community building? We're passing judgment onpeople living a life of medical duress," whose condition is defined basedon specific criteria and circumstances – serious opportunistic infectionor progression to full-blown AIDS and CD4 counts under 200.

A vibrant-looking gay man may have "a carefullycalibrated lifestyle that preserves their physical resources," said Sheehyin his RSVP to SFGMCI's Doug Sebesta.

"As one panelist said, it's the elephant in the roomthat everybody makes reference to," said Sebesta, a DPH epidemiologist."Whether in jest, whether or not it's based on fact or not fair, it's outthere. Who is hanging out in the Castro during the day – the Starbucksboys."

Disability queen is an inflammatory, derogatory label formany people living and struggling with HIV, agreed Sebesta. "But, thereare many healthy people who get to hang out."

The DPH staff who brainstormed the forum's topics includedFrank Strona, the recently deceased Mike Pendo, and Sebesta, who noted they'reall longtime members of the gay community.

Sometimes called "AIDS exceptionalism," thedisability queen label is potentially stigmatizing, implying taking advantageof the system, said Klausner, who noted that PWAs fought for their resourcesand are still underserved in areas such as financial support and housing.

The emergence of dysmorphia – internalizing displaysof steroid-pumped body parts in what many view as cold, disheartening, limitedcommunication of online cruise sites – was another theme the panelistspassionately laid out. Body fetishism creates narrow self-conceptions, and Websites like www.Manhunt.net eclipsebrick and mortar gathering places, making, as Taylor noted, reopening the baths"a mute point."

Instead of making friends in baths or in bars, "Westart viewing people as body parts, if that's your major mode of socialinteraction," said Sebesta.

Although some meet long-term partners online, andhypothetically, online discussion groups can lead to real life meetings, acompulsive, hyper media-focused, Internet-based social and sex life createsisolation, said Sister Constance Craving.

Taylor agreed, saying that promiscuity and using growthhormones for validation is a symptom needing self-reflection, not societaljudgment. He added that men lie about their penis size and HIV status online.

For those coming out before Will & Grace, body image resulted from childhood "chronicconcealment," said Steven Tierney, the new deputy director for programs atthe San Francisco AIDS Foundation. "It's a miracle we're here with thehostility we grew up with," he said.

Drawing on his background in adolescent substance abusecounseling, Tierney eloquently explained the ongoing meth crisis, the drug'squick, deep, and permanent effect on neurotransmitters, relapse patterns, andthe thousands of addicts who have talked in recovery meetings about how thedrug robbed them of housing, jobs, and dignity. He persuaded the crowd to takeresponsibility for change from within, not abandoning that role to publichealth.

Government should not regulate erectile dysfunction drugs,Tierney added, with a wary glance toward Klausner, who only recently abandonedhis campaign to get federal officials to increase the penalties for illegal useof erectile dysfunction drugs.

The SFGMCI will hold a community planning summit Saturday,December 10 from 10 a.m. to noon at 1360 Mission Street, Suite 401 (between 9thand 10th streets). Interested community members are invited to participate.

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