HIV-Only Sex Parties

Are HIV-Only Sex Parties Safe or Dangerous?
By: Eric Sabo - (September 2005)

The ad for the party only asks men who are HIV-positive to check their inhibitions at the door, promising a "mild to wild" time with other gay men who are also infected with the virus. There is no concern about becoming unknowingly infected. Everyone already is, or certainly knows of it because of the ad that calls for "sexy, willing" guys who are HIV-positive.

As the rate of HIV infections in gay men start to rise again, organizers of these so-called "POZ parties" say they offer a type of compromise: a venue to engage in risky behavior for those who have less to lose. The parties, which first emerged in New York during the mid-1990's, have now spread to other major cities, with one party promoter boasting an invite list of 5,000.

Health officials, who are just beginning to study the issue, warn that such parties can spread other sexually transmitted diseases, as well as more dangerous strains of HIV. At the same time, they say these parties may offer a more realistic, if not exactly ideal, way to contain the spread of AIDS.

"This is not a black and white issue," says Dr. Michael Clatts of the National Development and Research Institutes. Clatts recently began visiting POZ parties that were close to his office in New York City. At 10 separate events, he and his colleagues asked 115 gay men a series of questions. The findings were published today in the Journal of Sexually Transmitted Infections.

Although the men who agreed to the interviews were at the parties to engage in unsafe sex, the researchers found that the guys were quite concerned about spreading the virus to those who weren't infected.
"They were not irresponsible," Clatts says.

The most popular reason the men cited for going to the parties was to avoid the need to have to tell others of their HIV status, followed by those who simply preferred "uninhibited or unrestricted" sex. About one in eight of the men said the main reason for going to the party was so that they didn't have to worry about infecting others.

The average age of the men in the study was 42, but Clatts says that the highest infection rate is in younger gay men, who may still be dealing with identity issues when they find out they have HIV. Few want to discuss their infection with others, and the parties offer one way to escape, he says.

Clatt's team also found a low rate of drug use at the parties, which have long been assumed to cause risky sexual behavior. Indeed, many of the guys said they had used plenty of drugs in the past, but few reported using crystal meth or other drugs at the sex parties. "I was there," says Clatts. "There were no drugs."

Dr. Jeffery Parsons, a psychologist at Hunter College in New York who studies risk taking in gay men, says that lack of drug use may be one unintended consequence of not having to worry about getting HIV.
"A lot of drug use is numbing yourself because you are taking risks," he says.

Still, both Clatts and Parsons say that the parties have their own concerns, especially in spreading sexually transmitted diseases. Many of the men can be expected to have sex outside of the parties, and having diseases like herpes makes it easier to spread HIV. More ominously, there is the chance that these parties might act as a catalyst for HIV superinfections, which may happen after repeated exposures.

So far, these possibly treatment-resistant superinfections are rare, and the parties are not the only way that they can be spread. In fact, compared to the internet-arranged liaisons and not knowing whether someone is HIV-positive, Parsons says that such parties may keep sex a little safer, if not completely safe. "As long as everything is out in the open, these parties can minimize the risk of transmitting HIV," Parsons says.