Bugchasing

Bugchasing (alternatively bug chasing[1]) is the rare practice of intentionally seeking human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection through sexual activity.

[3] By 2003, the concept had entered the public consciousness after Rolling Stone published "Bug Chasers: The men who long to be HIV+", an article—since widely disputed for its statistical methods—describing the practice.

The Rolling Stone article, "Bug Chasers: The men who long to be HIV+", written by Gregory Freeman, was the first to bring widespread concern and attention to the practice.

[19] And fourth, bugchasing has been described as a political device and action against social norms (such as those tied to heteronormativity) through transgression of—or rebellion against—popular sentiments about gay life.

[26] The widespread availability of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), capable of preventing HIV infection in otherwise unprotected sexual encounters, has not resulted in the disappearance of bugchasing.

[29] In the view of ethnologist Jamie García-Iglesias and researcher Tim Dean, bugchasers circulate several metaphors that distinguish their identity from other MSM communities: insemination, pregnancy, and paternity.

[32] Whether giftgivers continue to exist is uncertain, given what García-Iglesias calls their "statistically rare" population and "biological implausib[ility] (on the basis of widespread successful treatment)".

[35] Three years later, Ricky Dyer, an HIV-positive man, released a documentary through BBC3 entitled "I love being HIV+", suggesting that most bugchasing activity is simply fantasy.

[39] In 2012, Canadian Steven Boone was tried and convicted of three counts each of attempted murder and aggravated sexual assault after having unprotected sex with four men after previously contracting HIV.

Small green orbs of HIV around a pink and blue cell
A scanning electron microscope image of human immunodeficiency virus (green) in and around a cultured lymphocyte