I had a very interesting conversation today with a man called Adam Crosier, who is author of a new report from the British Health Education Authority called Life On The Scene . It s a survey of sexual practices among gay men on the scene, interviewed in bars and clubs over ten years from 1986 1996. It s emphatically not a survey of gay men in general.
He estimates that two-thirds of all gay man are not on the scene. They may be celibate, or in monogamous relationships, or they may be men who have sex in places like parks or cottages or saunas, or via telephone lines or small ads, or when they get pissed with their mates. It s impossible to know. However, with all those caveats, it still makes fascinating reading. Like it or not, I am on the scene in London. It shouldn t be a surprise to you, dear reader, if you ve been paying attention, to learn that I don t like it. So this is a statistical analysis of the world I inhabit, often resentfully, for want of a man to take me away from it all. If a year isn t mentioned, the figures are for 1996. As our friend says, pay attention, here comes the science part.
Let s start with the good news. The number of gay men on the scene who say that they always use a condom when having anal sex with a new partner stands at 68%, a figure which has increased over the previous five years. For those having sex with regular partners, the percentage, although lower, has doubled in five years, from 22% to 45%. When asked about the most recent sexual act prior to being interviewed, only 6% of those questioned admitted to having had unprotected anal sex.
Adam urged me to look at another statistic: over the year, none of those interviewed said that they had unprotected anal sex on a one-night stand. However, given the fact that a mere 18% had sex with only one man in the previous year, (if they had sex at all), this is not quite as rosy as it seems. Regular partnerships do not last long on the scene only 10% of the sample were in a monogamous relationship of longer than 12 months duration.
The vast majority of men on the scene, 64%, have sex with less than 10 different partners every year. (For a good 43% of them, this figure is less than 5 per year.) Those who are heavily involved on the scene are, not surprisingly, more likely to have more sexual partners over a year. A small group, 8% of those questioned, have sex with at least one different person every week, on average. The sexual activity of this group accounts for half of all the sexual encounters recorded in the survey. They have sex with so many people that it greatly distorts the average. This small group, including some who report over 100 partners in a year, are the ones who are most likely to have had high-risk sex in the previous year, with 36% of them admitting to having fucked someone without a condom.
And there s more bad news. When questioned about their last sexual encounter, the majority of all respondents had taken alcohol and/or drugs during it. It s not really surprising, since everyone was interviewed in licensed premises, but what is surprising is that over 60% of respondents say that they use drugs. This figure rises to 92% of those who are highly involved on the scene. The majority of those who have sex while they are on drugs have anal sex, and a good 40% come more than once each time. Condoms, in such circumstances, are hardly likely to be properly used.
As the percentage of gay men who engage in anal sex is rising every year, this must be cause for the deepest concern. Even more alarming is that the number of people who admit to having unsafe anal sex in the previous 12 months is rising. In 1991, 19% admitted to fucking without a condom; in 1996, the figure is 28%. That s more than one person in four. Adam urged caution in interpreting this figure; he said that there was no information about the quality of the encounter. For example, this may have been with a partner in a regular relationship, or it may have been two HIV positive men believing that condoms were redundant. Of those interviewed, at least one in ten are HIV positive. Over two-thirds know someone who is HIV positive, and 59% know someone who has died from AIDS.
Although the epidemic hasn t taken off among the general population, according to the predictions of ten years ago says Adam, the epidemic among gay men remains fierce.
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It is reported that 1,500-2,000 new infections are reported each year in the UK, and clinics are reporting that a lot of young men are seroconverting. It s very difficult to make sense of, says Adam all we can do is offer the information, let them know the risks, and let people make their own choices. The survey shows that 92 of those questioned were aware that condom use can considerably reduce the risk of infection.
End of science part. Resumption of the subjective personal interpretation part.
It is my conclusion that more and more gay men on the scene are making an informed decision to subject themselves and others to a disease which most of them know, through first-hand experience, is fatal. They do this by fucking without a condom. Of those who do use a condom, most do so while under the influence of alcohol or drugs or both, and the proportion of gay men on the scene taking drugs is at least 60%, and rising every year.
Have I stupefied you with too much information? I m not sorry. Too often I have the feeling that I write from a narcissistic perspective, that my world appears crazy because I am crazy. There is some truth in that, I won t deny it; indeed the writer in me would claim that I am crazy because the world is crazy.
But I digress. I am a creature of extremes. Having not had sex for four months recently, in the past few weeks I ve attempted to make up for it, with a plethora of unprintable shenanigans occurring between me and a number of nice men of my acquaintance. I went from preaching from the pulpit on the virtues of celibacy to a gleeful surrender to my rampant libido in one fell swoop, relishing each experience with a sensuous, heady intensity. It was good while it lasted, but now I m calmer, the storm has blown over.
For all my excesses, I have not fucked or been fucked without a condom in over six years, and then it was only once, and before that it was another four years. Ten years using condoms, in spite of the repeated offers I have had from men who want to have bareback sex with me. Ten years with only one burst condom that I know of.
Perhaps I am unusual. Perhaps I am fixated on only one aspect of safe sex, the most obvious one of fucking, and I shrug off the risk of any other activity. Perhaps I am in error to do so. But so far, I am lucky enough, or sensible enough, to remain negative. I may want to explore the mysterious far reaches of sexual pleasure at times, but at heart I want to survive.
I have some experience of how sex can be obsessive, of how it can take you over, especially when you are feeling hurt inside. I ve certainly gone on sex binges when I ve discovered that yet another man is a lying shit, when I ve taken a risk to go out and meet someone only to discover that he s got a boyfriend at home. I may act out the hurt through a good dose of mutual objectification; the jury is out as to whether this represents a triumphant exercise in the eroticisation of humiliation or an escape from real relationship. Or it could simply be a jolly good adventure. All three are possible.
Until reading this report, however, I had an idea that this struggle with my sexual nature was peculiar to me; or that it was a classically Irish Catholic activity, to play with myself and confess my shame to you via this column. However, this report shows just how crazy the gay scene is, how at its core there appears to be something akin to a deathwish, or at least an addiction to Russian roulette. I hope that it s acknowledged.
Adam said to me that the question of why people deliberately take such risks is not known, and he genuinely seems concerned and puzzled. I believe the answer is psychological. I believe the answer lies within each one of us. It s that part of us that craves danger in order to experience the thrill of being alive; the part of us that values immediate gratification over longevity; that part that perhaps doesn t like ourselves very much, and wants to shuffle off this mortal coil. That part is the part that hurts. You know it. n
Life on the Scene
Health Education Authority
30 Gt Peter St, London SW1P 2HW
ISBN 0 7521 0912 X