As the song goes, “Good lookin’ guys are a dime a dozen.” Mama told us to shop around, but she didn’t take the most recent safer sex survey. Urban gays like you did, and they’re giving it up raw more often for hotties.
You already know that ridiculously hot guy takes it rough (NSFW) from you and your friends. Well, you’re all more likely to take it rough and raw from him too, according to a new study. The numbers on the ins and outs of unprotected anal are being vetted by sexperts and advocates like gay Atlanta’s own Mark King.
In a survey of gay men in London, 94 percent said they were more likely to have unprotected sex “with a good looking guy.” The research was published in Britain’s Pink News.
We congratulate anyone for hooking up with a hottie, but the stakes are a little high to celebrate our good fortune by throwing caution (and condoms) to the wind. Gay men continue to lead the way in new HIV infections in the United States, and condoms are still one the most accessible lines of defense.
According to the study: 70 percent of respondents believe that sex without condoms “is more pleasurable and exciting” (fair enough), and 80 percent have had unprotected sex with a stranger. The lifestyle of drive-by sex made possible by mobile apps, drug use, and the popularity of bareback porn might contribute to the trend, according to study researchers, based at the University of Westminster.
No wonder HIV advocates everywhere are scrambling for more safe sex options for gay men.
That jibes with recent studies in the U.S. that show gay men are still the leading risk group for HIV here, especially in the South. A full two-thirds of us bareback at least part of the time. The next era of AIDS among gay men is here, and it brings its own angles to the conversation about gay sex and HIV.
None of this is news to King. He has led conversations about barebacking and HIV for years, asking tough questions and taking the answers like a man: Are you laissez faire about safer sex? Is PrEP a ticket to ride? Is ‘condomless sex’ the new barebacking? Are the oldies getting you down? Now add to the list an apparent penchant for letting go common sense when that trick is extra hot.
