The simple messaging by the Prepsters is you can take PrEP and have “sex without fear”. This is of course marketing bullshit which needs to be called out.
For the past 35 years gay men have been having “sex without fear” by using a condom and protecting themselves from HIV and other STIs. However you can never really have “sex without fear” as STIs can be transmitted orally but if everyone uses a condom these can be dramatically reduced as it’s easier to catch an STI through unprotected anal sex and thus spread the infection on.
What they really mean?
Their whole agenda is based on “sex without a condom” not “sex without fear”. Therefore they must push PrEP and barebacking as the desirable “choice” and that bizarrely even when we are wearing a condom we are still not having “sex without fear”.
The bareback agenda is HIV is “the big one” and all other STIs are treatable therefore you should be a “fearless fucker” as their T-shirts say. We should ignore all other STIs, take PrEP (ignoring the possible long term health consequences), bareback for gay liberation and see the “bigger picture”.
How they now see HIV prevention
They want to rewrite history and will give a wicked slant on the past HIV prevention campaigns. They believe, as barebackers do, that condom promotion was instilling “fear” into the general public about HIV and unprotected sex was unjustly “stigmatised”. We would say the HIV campaigns and condom promotion were extremely successful in the UK inspiring group responsibility within the gay community where you could have sex without fear from HIV if you simply wore a condom. It was that easy.
They are now suggesting promoting safe sex with a condom, was and is now “moralising” and somehow counterproductive in HIV prevention, even to the extent condom use is a form of “social control”. You can see why these people became HIV positive, they had no boundaries, no respect for other gay men, thought barebacking was some kind of rebellion from an evil patriarchial system that stopped them being “liberated”. They were the naughty school boy in the playground, breaking the rules. When in true fact they were self hating selfish gay men who simply just “didn’t give a fuck” about themselves or other gay men. They had and still do have mental health issues. They have a victim mentality and that catching HIV is somehow “just bad luck”.
They also ignore, or don’t care, about the long term side effects of you taking these powerful ARV drugs which cause liver and kidney damage, bone density issues etc. Why would they? Most of these Prepster are HIV positive and have no choice in the matter, as they are the same drugs. The simple marketing is they are “tolerable”. They are delusional.
Like any naughty schoolboy the barebacker wants you to join them so they don’t feel their self destructive behaviour is wrong or feel isolated in the playground. They want barebacking and PrEP not to be an “option” or “choice” but the “social norm” as they won’t therefore be “stigmatised” and “judged” as every gay man will be doing it, it makes them feel better. The bareback promoter wants his “social control”.
We here at GMAP have been having “sex without fear” all our lives WITH a condom. The inconvenient truth is that barebacking without a condom and taking PrEP is still “sex with lots of fears”. A daily reminder as you pop your ARV pill that you “fear HIV”. As you sit in the clinic every 3 months you will be in fear “did PrEP work?” and of all those other nasty STIs which are knocking about in the “couldn’t care less” loving liberated bareback community. Some of those STIs which are becoming untreatable and very hard to treat Hep C. Do you feel lucky? The HIV positive PrEP promoter did and look how that turned out! Learn from their mistakes and wear a condom every time.