Life is better than ever for London's gay muny. So why are some men dulgg dg-fuelled parti of weekend-long, often unsafe, sex wh HIV rat on the rise? The wrer Matt Ca believ the roots of the dark 'chemsex' scene touch all
Contents:
- THE RISE OF GAY 'CHEMSEX' PARTI VOLVG LIBIDO-ENHANCG DGS
- GAY LIFTYLE IS FUELLED BY DGS, REARCH REVEALS
- TA: THE DG VASTATG THE GAY MUNY
- GAY MEN LONDON, OM PERSECUTN TO PRI
- COE ADDICTN AND THE GAY MUNY
- KEV SPACEY DEFENDS COMG OUT AS GAY AFTER BEG ACCED OF SEXUAL MISNDUCT: ‘I WAS UNR A LOT OF PRSURE’
THE RISE OF GAY 'CHEMSEX' PARTI VOLVG LIBIDO-ENHANCG DGS
* gay drugs london *
Stay ahead of the trend fashn and beyond wh our ee weekly Liftyle Ed newsletterStay ahead of the trend fashn and beyond wh our ee weekly Liftyle Ed newsletter It's Friday night and a group of gay men is gatherg London for a party one of their hom.
GAY LIFTYLE IS FUELLED BY DGS, REARCH REVEALS
<p>Young gay men are much more likely than straight men to take dgs, cludg ecstasy, e and marijuana, acrdg to two studi Bra and Ameri. </p> * gay drugs london *
More and more gay men are gog to parti like this to dulge “chemsex”, or sex unr the fluence of dgs. But if we the gay muny thk this is a problem that n be obscured om the world at large, pretendg that affects only a rogue subset among , we are wrong; chemsex is merely the most extreme ditn of a hidn burn many of still rry, spe the rapid velopment of gay rights over the past and a half.
TA: THE DG VASTATG THE GAY MUNY
Somethg is ravagg through the gay muny, leavg ath and misery s wake, yet few are willg to talk about . If I’d wrten that sentence a generatn ago, I’d have been referrg to the Aids crisis. But this time the enemy isn’t a vis, but a substance lled ‘ta’ or ‘ice’. It is * gay drugs london *
However, the staff at 56 Dean Street, London's pneerg sexual-health clic, timate that 3, 000 gay men who e recreatnal dgs sexual ntexts e through their doors each month.
It's also difficult to obta reliable evince for the lk between chemsex and risg rat of HIV, but a study missned by three south London boroughs, published 2014, found that three out of four gay men who had attend chemsex parti had engaged unprotected sex, wh a potentially high risk of passg on the vis. ”The film's portrayal of the chemsex phenomenon will no doubt shock straight viewers who've been sced by the visn of a newly emancipated muny of proud and happy gay men that many of have been so willg to project.
What I learnt durg that time was that my experience of homophobic bullyg as an effemate and obvly gay child had left part of me believg I was jt as disgtg as everyone had said – and was this self-loathg which was motivatg my urge to urse, there n be all kds of reasons why people, both gay and straight, try to stroy themselv – and this is somethg I like to explore my fictn. ) But I'm particularly terted the shared experienc that n drive gay men to self-stct through practic such as chemsex. However happy we like to thk we are as adults and however much progrs has been ma the field of equal rights, the realy is that most gay men over a certa age have grown up experiencg homophobia.
GAY MEN LONDON, OM PERSECUTN TO PRI
Even those who haven't will have seen happeng to others and sublimally absorbed the msage that beg gay is wrong. Perhaps most tragilly, many younger men who have grown up an apparently much ls homophobic society now seem to be fallg to the scene almost accintally; anyone loggg on to Grdr need ntact only a few ers before beg offered “chems”.
And although younger gay men general might rry around ls shame attached to their sexualy, they may have had other personal experienc that motivate them to self-stct – or may simply be stgglg to unrstand their masculy or sexual inty. There are a handful of support works for men affected, such as the Facebook groups A Change of Scene and Let's Talk About Gay Sex and Dgs.
And next year Matthew Todd, the edor of Attu magaze, will publish a book that exam the damage homophobia has done to gay men, wh a signifint foc on the issu around if we are beg more open about all aspects of the gay experience, I hope people om outsi our muny won't react agast . And I hope people won't start dividg to two distct tegori: “good” gays, who assiate and have relatnships and children, and “bad” gays, who go to chemsex parti and ntract HIV.
COE ADDICTN AND THE GAY MUNY
Bee on the surface I'm a “good” gay but at tim I've behaved like a “bad” gay. Young gay men are much more likely than straight men to take dgs, cludg ecstasy, e and marijuana, acrdg to two studi Bra and one-third of men surveyed the Uned Stat who had sex wh other men said they ed dgs at least once a week, and lifetime e of e was nearly twice as high as that of the general age-group. 'New rearch by the mental health chary Md showed that the trend is replited Bra wh dg e nsistently higher among gay men and lbian women.
'The gay scene is bar and club orientated, ' said Monty Moncrieff, project -ordator at Antidote, a dgs service for gay, lbian, bisexual and transgenr people. 'That is where people go to meet other gay people and there is a lot of e, ecstasy, ketame and GHB around. 'Jason, 23, is a gay man livg London who spends most of his weekends partyg.
'It is still a haner om the ecstasy hoe mic boom which did to some extent start the gay clubs of London, ' says David Smh, a senr health promotn officer for gay men.
KEV SPACEY DEFENDS COMG OUT AS GAY AFTER BEG ACCED OF SEXUAL MISNDUCT: ‘I WAS UNR A LOT OF PRSURE’
Gay men also ntue to take dgs for much longer than heterosexuals, long after others have chosen to settle down wh a fay.
'But while much of the dg e is club-related, wh recreatnal dgs beg taken as a liftyle choice, there are ncerns that dg e among gay men n be a form of pism om difficult liv.