glantern954
Dec 3, 2006, 9:05 PM
This article is from a New Zealand website, they don't site the exact source of their data but I would imagine they are similiar in most parts of the world. I found it interesting the article acknowledges "a gradual erosion of a strong community identifying as gay."
Men admit unprotected gay sex
Source: Stuff Online
Published: December 03, 2006
Author: GREG MEYLAN
One in four men who regularly use gay dating websites say they have unprotected sex.
The figures appear in new Aids Foundation Research and confirm concerns about risks taken by those setting up sex online.
Only one in 10 men surveyed from Auckland's gay bars and bath-houses took similar risks.
A total of 89 new cases of HIV were recorded in New Zealand last year, more than any previous year.
An estimated 1800 people live with HIV in New Zealand but the foundation said up to another 600 people probably had the disease and did not know it.
Aids Foundation senior researcher Peter Saxton said the internet had enabled sexual encounters between gay and bisexual men to flourish.
"Internet dating helps people become more efficient `shoppers' in the sexual marketplace, but whether they're also more informed shoppers is now questionable," Saxton said.
The survey found the more often a person used websites for sexual liaisons, the more likely they were to be careless about condoms and the less likely they were to know about the risks of HIV.
A quarter of men who used a dating website daily said they would sometimes not use a condom, compared to 10% of those who only occasionally visited.
One dating website user, who did not wish to be named, told the Sunday Star-Times he had met men who did not want to use a condom and on the odd occasion he had agreed.
"It is like when everyone is saying `smoking is bad for you', so when you smoke, you feel like a rebel. You are doing something really, really naughty, and not even thinking `will I catch something or not?'."
Most people did not ask each other if they had recently had an HIV test, he said.
Saxton said the reasons dating website users took more risks were complicated. Users tended to be younger and were more likely to identify as bisexual.
As society moved from persecution to tolerance of homosexuality, there had been a gradual erosion of a strong community identifying as gay.
This meant public health advertisements in gay bars and clubs were being seen by fewer young people, because they no longer considered their sexuality as the defining aspect of their personality. They tended to increasingly socialise in mainstream bars and clubs, while using the internet to hook up.
Bisexual men, a large proportion of whom were married and never went into gay bars, use the internet for convenient, and discreet, sexual encounters.
To read the rest of the article:
Link: http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3887031a11,00.html
Men admit unprotected gay sex
Source: Stuff Online
Published: December 03, 2006
Author: GREG MEYLAN
One in four men who regularly use gay dating websites say they have unprotected sex.
The figures appear in new Aids Foundation Research and confirm concerns about risks taken by those setting up sex online.
Only one in 10 men surveyed from Auckland's gay bars and bath-houses took similar risks.
A total of 89 new cases of HIV were recorded in New Zealand last year, more than any previous year.
An estimated 1800 people live with HIV in New Zealand but the foundation said up to another 600 people probably had the disease and did not know it.
Aids Foundation senior researcher Peter Saxton said the internet had enabled sexual encounters between gay and bisexual men to flourish.
"Internet dating helps people become more efficient `shoppers' in the sexual marketplace, but whether they're also more informed shoppers is now questionable," Saxton said.
The survey found the more often a person used websites for sexual liaisons, the more likely they were to be careless about condoms and the less likely they were to know about the risks of HIV.
A quarter of men who used a dating website daily said they would sometimes not use a condom, compared to 10% of those who only occasionally visited.
One dating website user, who did not wish to be named, told the Sunday Star-Times he had met men who did not want to use a condom and on the odd occasion he had agreed.
"It is like when everyone is saying `smoking is bad for you', so when you smoke, you feel like a rebel. You are doing something really, really naughty, and not even thinking `will I catch something or not?'."
Most people did not ask each other if they had recently had an HIV test, he said.
Saxton said the reasons dating website users took more risks were complicated. Users tended to be younger and were more likely to identify as bisexual.
As society moved from persecution to tolerance of homosexuality, there had been a gradual erosion of a strong community identifying as gay.
This meant public health advertisements in gay bars and clubs were being seen by fewer young people, because they no longer considered their sexuality as the defining aspect of their personality. They tended to increasingly socialise in mainstream bars and clubs, while using the internet to hook up.
Bisexual men, a large proportion of whom were married and never went into gay bars, use the internet for convenient, and discreet, sexual encounters.
To read the rest of the article:
Link: http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3887031a11,00.html