Bug Chasing- Then and Now
Intentionally contracting HIV in 1991… and today
Bug chasing… Charging… Gift giving…
Do those words mean anything to you? They refer to a practice I once assumed had died out by the end of the last millenium. I believed they referred to a desperate act induced by despair.
I’m talking about intentionally becoming infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Back in the bad old days, right up until the late 1990s, HIV was almost always a death sentence.
Bug chasing is real —
I have a story to tell you about a young friend of mine who couldn’t take it, who just wanted it to be over. Please understand this story is outdated. It needs to be an anachronism.
Let me explain.
Before effective treatment for HIV, gay and bisexual men and transgender women (the groups hardest hit by the epidemic) experienced terrifying loss and lived in daily fear. Like most of my friends, I had an address book half filled with lined-out entries— people who’d died of AIDS. I got tested regularly, but some of us didn’t see the point. Knowing couldn’t prolong our lives.
