AIDS in Maine 2005 (continued)

Bonam, who is currently working with focus groups in Portland to evaluate the proliferation of dangerous drugs and their connection to STDs in the gay community, told the Phoenix that he doesn’t believe that meth use is peaking in Portland — yet.

"I have to admit that I haven’t seen a lot [of meth use] socially or anecdotally, it really isn’t a hometown drug like pot or cocaine," he says. "But it will make its way here. I’ve been working with the Bureau of Health for about a year now and we’ve had discussions with all the AIDS service organizations in the state — my perspective is when it does hit the state, we’ll be prepared for it unlike the rest of the US. What we’re hearing now is that a lot of young people are using it and people are traveling to Boston and New York City, doing it, and coming back."

That said, some people aren’t traveling far at all for their sex or their drugs.

According to Putnam, sex parties organized around crystal meth and Viagra, which causes the epic erection that is often lost in the meth rush, are becoming more prevalent in Portland. She says that the people who frequent the parties aren’t the ones who are coming in to be tested: They already know they are at risk and don’t care.

"We know that there are a lot of people being infected this way by tracking Web sites," she says.

But most stunning of all, "There are a lot of people out there who want to get HIV; they want people to ‘poz’ them; and the phenomenon is pretty big," she says. Putnam says that she and her colleagues are anecdotally aware of at least three large groups, although no one knows how large, in Southern Maine who get together a few times a week for such sex parties.

Knowing that I probably wouldn’t be welcome at any of these parties, I turned to Manhunt.net, one of the sites that may be used as a portal for organizing such gatherings. I asked for information about these parties.

Anecdotal information started to fill my in-box. One guy told me he really gets into bare backing (unprotected anal sex) and, just recently, he was at a party where he overheard a couple of guys who were trying to get HIV so that they could increase their financial aid for college. Of course, this is email and the Internet, where anonymity reigns and verification is difficult.

Another respondent, identifying himself as a 43-year-old gay retired local police officer who’s been to a number of sex parties, had this to say about crystal meth: "It is a cancer growing on the community as a whole. It is changing . . . the outward perception of the gay community in Portland and Southern Maine." He added his thoughts on who is using and why. "Teenagers who believe that it intensifies the moment. These are the same guys, late teens to mid-twenties, who are not that concerned about becoming infected OR infecting others. Their belief is that, ‘I’ll just have to take some pills for the rest of my life. It’s worth the extra intensity of bare backing, seeding, etc.’ "

Although a disturbing, and perhaps overblown, topic, the concept of "seeding" someone with HIV is fascinating and I wanted to know more.

He responded: "The parties were, umm, different. I saw all kinds of things. Bare backing was/is the norm. Most parties would provide lube [and LOTS of it] and porn. While I have bare backed on most occasions, I have noticed an awful lot of the ‘Abercrombie Strain’ at these sex parties. In no time at all, the clothes (usually expensive ones at that) are flying off the well muscled and perfectly tanned torsos of little Johnny and the rest of the old football gang from school. No protection, other than pulling out and shooting their loads on each other," the officer said with an obvious amount of hyperbole, adding more about the so-called "Abercrombie strain" which is apparently as much a way of life as it is a reference to HIV.

"It’s a club. It’s a status thing, It’s fucking insanity! It starts with someone finding a poz subject, and then passing him around the group. Then, the youngsters break-off onto their own and go back to their normal humping-and-fucking-and-sucking routines."

He adds that he has also had contact with many HIV-positive men who seek "prey."

"And the curious thing I have noticed as of late is that the ‘prey’ . . . are usually bi-sexual married men. How fair is this?

"I have, on three occasions, met some real, honest-to-goodness-right-out-of-the-County kids who have told me, and this is the scary part, that they came all the way to Southern Maine in order to get ‘seeded,’ the term I hear more and more these days. These young men are going around with the belief that all will be well as long as they take their meds after becoming infected."

It’s important to remember that those are the observations of only one individual and, like crystal use and seeding sex parties, no real empirical data exists to qualify or disqualify his remarks. There are, however, similar accounts.

Another man, who identified as 45 and "highly educated" said that, as an HIV-positive man, he is often solicited on the Internet to "seed" others.

"Just tonight on [manhunt.net] someone was begging me to fuck him without a condom. I have had others who don’t know their status and don’t care to know and want unprotected sex — some guys, typically younger, just want to be infected so they can relax about it," he said, adding that he doesn’t now, nor has he ever, used street or party drugs.

"I feel that many people use drugs freely at parties. I have several friends who became infected during a ‘drug period’ in their lives and now blame that phase of their life [for their HIV status]."

Juan Mendez, 46, from Ellsworth, and who goes by the moniker POZbttmpussy on Manhunt.net, says he used crystal meth for 15 years.

"The effects of it can get you so hot and horny that you will do anything to get laid. Whether it was in a back seat of a car or in a parking lot day or night, or just hanging in the bath house where it was non-stop action. I love the stuff way too much, and that is why I moved here. I really don’t know anyone around here who is using it. And if I did know anyone who was using, I would not try to associate myself with them ’cause I really don’t want to get back into habits that caused me to lose my job and my home and personal belongings," said Mendez, who admitted to once spending three weeks at a bath house for nonstop sex during one of his highs in San Francisco in the ’80s. Even so, he says that he is actually shocked by the attitude towards unsafe sex in Maine.

"[The boys] keep hitting me up to have unsafe sex with them so they can get infected. I don’t know what is wrong with the world today. I would hate to pass it on to someone else. People that are 19 to 35 have been asking me to infect them, and I REFUSE TO!!!"

In all, fewer than 20 people agreed to email about their experiences with drugs and sex parties, but a number of people cautiously acknowledged that the parties exist, that men, generally young guys, are looking to become infected, and that crystal meth is at the heart of it all.

Putnam says that the images of people living healthy lives with HIV, and reports of the efficacy of life-extending drugs, may contribute to carelessness surrounding HIV, but that’s not all.

"Yes, it’s the images," she says, "but it’s about more than that. It’s not about these people wanting to just have more sex. Some people are tired of trying to be careful and tired of just being vigilant . . . they just want to let go. The really sad thing is that it just creates a bunch of other issues. Once they stop worrying about their safety, they stop worrying about the safety of others and it just balloons. Getting HIV is certainly not the answer to any problem."

There is no simple answer to any of this behavior, says Vincent, but he does caution that readers should not assume that the phenomenon is anything but fringe.

"It would be hard for me to say why these particular people might want to become positive, but the anecdotal evidence does seem to indicate that a very small minority of gay and bisexual men wants to become infected with HIV. It might be because they want to belong. It might be because they view this as an opportunity to get what they feel is a painful but inevitable experience over with," he says. "There is a lack of vision involved in this plan, though. HIV is a permanent, devastating illness that is likely to affect these guys for the rest of their lives."

He reiterates that, like other times throughout their history, it will be gay men who are called upon to stem the tide.

"I hope as members of the community that we can help educate these people and offer them a more optimistic view of their personal futures. It is our obligation to do this. Their health contributes to the health of the larger community, and, in turn, a healthy community promotes the health of its individual members," says Vincent. "I believe this is the future we should all be working towards and I think if we engage each other in informed, constructive and compassionate ways around the issues of HIV infection and substance abuse that we will get there."

What’s the alternative?

Tony Giampetruzzi can be reached at tony@giampetruzzi.com