Date: Friday, April 23, 2004
By: CARLA THOMPSON, BlackAmericaWeb.com
For black MSMs — men seeking sex with men — "bug chasing," a practice of engaging in unprotected sex with high-risk groups in order to contract HIV/AIDS, seemed like a behavior strictly associated with white males.
The behavior was the subject of the 2003 documentary, "The Gift" which made its television debut on the Sundance Channel in February.
"For whites, 'bug chasing' is about "being a part of the greater inner sanctum of the white gay community, Borris Powell, Director of Programming, Gay Men of African Descent (GMAD), told BlackAmericaWeb.com.
For many including those in the black gay/bisexual community, black MSMs engaging in "bug chasing" not only seemed unlikely but unbelievable.
"I don’t believe it," said Tokes Osubu, executive director of GMAD, a New York City-based nonprofit. "No one is aware or believes that’s going on … It was never an issue in the black community."
That two staffers in the same organization have conflicting views on the phenomenon speaks to its sensitivity.
Powell, too, believed "bug chasing" among black gay/bisexual males was an urban myth; that was until a participant in an HIV/AIDS support group spoke of actively seeking to contract the virus, not to become a part of an elite group, but in order to receive benefits.
According to Powell, the 30ish man had been homeless and living in a shelter for 12 years. He saw another man who also lived in the shelter contract HIV and, as a result of contracting the virus, receive housing, food and other benefits. The homeless man then decided to contract the virus as a way out of homelessness.
The man now has housing and for the first time in years is actively looking for work." He had considered finding a job in the past but couldn’t restart his life because he didn’t have a home to go to," said Powell.
Antonio Rivera, educational director of the Minority Task Force on AIDS, tells a similar story. Eight months ago, a client of the organization, which provides housing for people with HIV/AIDS, told Rivera about people who are homeless and seeking out the virus in order to receive housing.
Housing for HIV/AIDS patients is funded federally but administered locally through the Ryan White Care Act Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS (HOPA).
The Minority Task Force on AIDS provides free housing for six months for persons with HIV/AIDS. At the end of this period, clients pay a part of the rent with the rest being paid for by HOPA.
"Affordable housing is really hard to come by," said Rivera, whose organization does outreach to inmates with HIV/AIDS prior to their release. "There is a great deal of animosity that the only way to access services is that you need to be in that condition. It’s unfair to everyone that needs housing."
According to Rivera, for inmates who don’t have AIDS, often the only housing option available upon their release is a city shelter.
hhalid kamu, men’s program coordinator of the Los Angeles-based Black AIDS Institute, is aware of bug chasing but said it’s "not just about homelessness, but the idea that there is a community support system" available to men that would not be had they not been infected.
Mark McLaurin, associate director for prevention policy for the Gay Men’s Health Crisis (GMHC) takes issue with the use of the term "bug chasing" being applied to the behavior.
"The problem is 'bug chasing' manifests itself in communities of color differently," said McLaurin, who says that part of his job is being in touch with what service providers are seeing in the field. "They are cousins of each other but are so very different.
"I am hesitant to place them side by side. Among whites it’s a fascination with being the 'other,' being edgy. For young black bug chasers so much of it is about fatalism. The community is disproportionably affected by the virus, so they don’t see themselves remaining HIV negative to 35-to-45 years old as a viable option. [They say to themselves], 'If it’s something that’s inevitable, I can take control by deciding where and when it happens and get certain benefits that I couldn’t as a HIV negative person.'"
"They are doing it for much more practical and disturbing reasons. It becomes less of a tradeoff if they see (contracting the virus) as a foregone conclusion."
Unlike whites, who have Web sites designated to such activities, there is no comparable infrastructure in the black gay community. According to McLaurin, among black MSMs it is "willful disregard." These young black MSMs go about engaging in unprotected sex with a variety of persons in high-risk groups. Because of the high infection rates in the black community, there is significant chance of becoming positive.
But whatever you call it, said McLaurin, "The results in the end are the same."
No one knows how many people, blacks or white, engage in "bug chasing."
In a statement, Karlie Stanton, a spokeswoman for the Centers for Disease Control said, "(The) CDC does not have the data that demonstrates the size and scope of the number of men who have had sex with men … While [the] CDC has not initiated studies specifically on men seeking HIV infection, [the] CDC is making prevention for gay and bisexual men an even higher priority than ever before."
"We are dealing information anecdotally. It’s hard to quantify," said McLaurin. "Part of the scandal of this administration is that most behavioral research is conducted on the federal level and there has been a cut in behavioral social science research. They don’t want to study blacks, especially black men having sex with other black men. If there is any money it goes to study white gay men."
kamu agreed.
"As the epidemic becomes more black and heterosexual, a lot of the funding has dried up," said kamu. "The tragedy is that people who do this to get access don’t realize the financial challenges it brings, and that each state provides different resources and the availability for those resources may vary from state to state."
And Rivera cautions that that bug chasers may not even get what they bargained for.
"Just having HIV does not assure that you will receive benefits," said Rivera. Because people are living longer and more productive lives with HIV/AIDS, said "Most people are looking to get rid of benefits and join the work force."
"It’s frustrating. I am grateful for the help clients get and will fight to the death so they can receive them," said McLaurin. "But it’s a frustration that you have to prove certain level of destitution before anyone steps in."
McLaurin and other service providers don’t want these men to be portrayed as welfare queens, adding further to the demonization of black MSMs. In fact McLaurin sees parallels between young black MSMs and their black, urban, drug-dealing male counterparts.
Said McLaurin, both groups "prioritize their creature comforts differently," seeking to derive whatever benefits life has to offer regardless of any potential risk associated with obtaining them. "In many cases both are disenfranchised. If you tell someone long enough that they are ‘no good’ they will start acting like it," said McLaurin. "To the extent that [bug chasing] exists in the African-American community, it’s a phenomenon of low self-esteem, racism and homophobia. We need to be about the business that everyone in the community feels valued."
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