Let's Talk About Chemsex the Gay Communy, and Here Are 6 Ways to Do It

Contents:

• PARTY DG ED TO RAPE, FILM ATOSE GAY MEN: UK DOCUMENTARY
• LET'S TALK ABOUT CHEMSEX THE GAY COMMUNY, AND HERE ARE 6 WAYS TO DO IT
• PARTY DG ED TO RAPE, FILM ATOSE GAY MEN - UK DOCUMENTARY

PARTY DG ED TO RAPE, FILM ATOSE GAY MEN: UK DOCUMENTARY

In hidn basements, bedrooms and bars across London, 'Chemsex' is a documentary that expos ankly and timately a dark si to morn gay life.

An unflchg documentary chartg the recent rise of ‘chemsex’, a shorthand term ma popular by gay men for the e of dgs (specifilly crystal meth, GHB and mephedrone) a sexual ntext. Much more than jt a sensatnalist exposé on a small portn of London’s gay muny, this powerful and often graphic film offers a val sight to a potent and potentially stctive issue.

LET'S TALK ABOUT CHEMSEX THE GAY COMMUNY, AND HERE ARE 6 WAYS TO DO IT

A month after Terrence Crawford me out as gay 2013, he met up for the first time wh a man he met on a gay datg app. “I felt fortable my sk for the first time, and fortable havg gay sex for the first time as a newly out young man, ” Crawford said of his first experience g meth, a highly addictive stimulant. ”From 2011 to 2016, the number of dg overdos volvg methamphetam more than tripled, acrdg to the Centers for Disease Control and Preventn, and the 2015 Natnal Survey on Dg Use and Health found gay men e meth at four tim the rate of their heterosexual unterparts.

Regular ers of meth, turn, crease their chanc of ntractg HIV by 400 percent, acrdg to Rutgers Universy's Center for Health, Inty, Behavr and Preventn two years spent wrtlg his addictn — and wantg to shed light on meth’s rise age and impact on the gay muny — Crawford pched a film ia about meth e and revery among gay men New York Cy to a room of his peers at New York Universy 2015. ”Gay men pe wh "mory strs, " such as social stigma and discrimatn that make them more likely to e illic substanc, rearch has found. "In the film, Fawcett discs how the batn of stigma, shame, lonels and substance abe led crystal meth to bee ubiquo wh the gay club and sex scene.

PARTY DG ED TO RAPE, FILM ATOSE GAY MEN - UK DOCUMENTARY

"I've had a lot of clients who've never been fortable wh gay sex who felt for the first time g methamphetame they uld celebrate beg gay and havg gay sex a way they never experienced before. ""There are some timat that one out of four gay men major urban areas e meth regularly, ' he adds. "It's at epimic levels the gay muny.

”Crawford hop “Crystal Cy” n break down more barriers of stigma that surround meth addictn the gay muny by showg real stori of revery, like Copeland’s. LONDON (Thomson Rters Foundatn) - A popular party dg is beg ed to rape atose gay and bisexual men at “chemsex” parti, their asslts then streamed onle, acrdg to a Brish documentary that airs on Sunday. A jot vtigatn by BuzzFeed News and Channel 4 Dispatch found that GHB, a dg ed to heighten sexual pleasure, is regularly ed to “sexually asslt gay men” wh footage of the rape broadst live on the dark documentary was partly based on a survey of 2, 700 gay and bisexual men Bra nducted earlier this said more than one four of the men surveyed reported beg sexually asslted after takg the dg, which rose populary on the gay club scene at the turn of the century.

“The fact that [GHB] is beg weaponized by rapists and murrs should be of high alarm to the police and the ernment, ” he told the Thomson Rters Foundatn by show sh a spotlight on chemsex parti, where gay and bisexual men gather to take dgs and have by dgs, cludg GHB and crystal meth, parti n last for days, wh lsened hibns leadg to ncerns over the risk of HIV and other sexually transmted diseas.

”Stdwick said he first vtigated GHB and sexual asslt durg the trial of Stephen Port, a serial killer nvicted 2016 of the rape and murr of four gay was sentenced to a whole life orr – meang he will never be released – for the crim, as well as admisterg GHB wh the tent to m a sexual OUTOf the 2, 700 men who rpond to the documentary survey, half said they had passed out after takg GHB; 93% said they knew of someone who had done Hyyrylaen-Trett, a member of the LGBT advisory group to Bra’s Metropolan Police, said that he had bee atose “10-12 tim” after takg the said he was “pretty sure” he had been sexually asslted unr the fluence of GHB, but had no proof.

Here's the plot: "In hidn basements, bedrooms and bars across London, "Chemsex" is a documentary that expos ankly and timately a dark si to morn gay life.

A powerful and unflchg exploratn of a hidn health emergency London’s gay muny.

In hidn basements, bedrooms and bars across London, a part of the gay muny is sufferg s biggt crisis sce the AIDS/HIV epimic.

Chemsex is a term ed by activist David Stuart scribg gay men and men who have sex wh men (MSM) havg sex unr the fluence of psychoactive dgs.

You may thk of Chemsex parti as a place of total "chill out" and never-endg sexual fun, but the gay men my nsultg room tell me much darker stori. The statistics are worryg: Chemsex behavurs are so prevalent amongst gay men that clicians ll an epimic. Here the UK, spe the legal rights that the LGBTQ+ muni now have, homophobia persists, mostly vertly.

Beg born a gay boy n easily feel like beg different om other boys at a very young age. I often hear gay men say:.

"Gay men only want sex. "Gay men are not terted love.

"All gay men cheat. Gay men who take Chemsex dgs report:. Chemsex is an epimic bee durg that perd of "beg high" giv the illn to heal the chronic pa of beg gay a heterosexual world, and feels so good.

Many gay men report fettg to drk water and eat food for the entire Chemsex weekend. A sexual health st: The illn of nnectedns enurag unprotected sex: It n be a te abandon of all the l that the heterosexual world imposed on gay men, cludg "you mt e a ndom. Over time, gay men distance themselv om the iends who don’t take dgs and the only ntacts wh gay people are those who engage Chemsex, which rerc the re belief: "All gays are the same.

The gay scene is populated by gay men who don’t know how to love themselv. As a gay person, is so easy to grow up to hate ourselv bee of fai who don’t unrstand , relign, or our current society saturated wh overt and vert homophobia matag the re belief: "I'm wrong, " “I’m unlovable.

The chronic vigilance of snng for homophobic threats is the unavoidable strs of the LGBTQ+ muni livg a heteronormative world. The heart of the Chemsex epimic is not the gay men who sperately try to fd their way through love; is our society’s homophobia.

In my nsultg room, I help gay men learn to face their emotns and love themselv. Beg ee om the chas of negative re beliefs holdg gay men back is not easy but is possible therapy.

The key for gay men to feel better their own sk and havg great nnected sex wh other men lie wh.

I believe our gay muni n do more to help. My hope for our gay muni is that we n learn new ways of celebratg genr, sex, and relatnship diversi, build muni where we foster self-love, self-re, and total acceptance for each other, and create pockets of safe rabow bubbl across the heteronormative world. Mobeen Azhar meets ers of Mephedrone, GHB/GBL and Crystal Meth, and explor the dg-fuelled sex party scene gay muni across the world.

A hedonistic party liftyle is a cliché perhaps unfairly associated wh the gay muny for s but recent years a new, extreme sub-culture of sex and dgs has bee a way of life for a growg mory of gay men. "Vulnerable gay men wh issu around sex, new dgs that tapped to that problem and changg technology. This powerful and potent film tells the stori of gay men whose liv have been affected by the crisis; om self-nfsed 'slammers' to sexual health workers, om those who ny there's a problem to those who 'got out alive'.

Offerg unprecented accs, Chemsex is a brave and unflchg journey to the dark unrworld of morn, urban gay life.