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AIDS at 25

Bug chasers: Wanting to contract AIDS

Some speak of gay men who actively seek to contract the HIV virus. Others say there's no such thing. CARYN ROUSSEAU untangles the troublesome web.

Doug Hitzel in "The Gift." (AP Photo/HO/Dream Out Loud Productions/Julia Brandreth)

Friday, 9 June, 2006, 15:31 EDT, US

(AP Illustration/Shazna Nessa)

Nushawn Williams, who is in prison for knowingly infecting at least 13 women with HIV. (AP Photo)

Watch the trailer for "The Gift" documentary.

The mindset: Graydon explains.

Graydon on guilt and belonging.

Filmmaker Louise Hogarth talks about poor prevention.

They call them bug chasers.

In this age of ubiquitous AIDS information and education, it's a sentiment that seems almost unfathomable -- that someone would WANT to contract HIV. Some researchers say the idea is unlikely. But that hasn't stopped talk of an underground subculture of gay men who attend sex parties or meet partners online trying to catch the virus that causes AIDS.

Stories about the phenomenon started surfacing in the mid-1990s, shortly after the developments of the AIDS cocktail treatment was announced, says Michael Graydon, a researcher at Carleton University in Ottawa.

Graydon studied the bug chasers and "gift givers" -- those who passed on the disease -- via online newsgroups for his master's thesis. He presented his research to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2004.

"Sometimes it was described as the gift of death," he said. "Other times, it was described as the gift of the positive brotherhood."

Others dismiss the idea of bug chasers as urban legend. Seth Kalichman, a psychology professor at the University of Connecticut who specializes in AIDS behavioral research, is skeptical.

"I'm not aware of any shred of actual evidence," he said. "There are mentally ill people all around the world. They want to kill presidents and want to give and get AIDS. I'm not even aware of a truly documented case."

Nevertheless, some are convinced that bug chasing is real, and that it's a symptom of a bigger problem.

THE 'GIFT'

Filmmaker Louise Hogarth released a documentary in 2003 called "The Gift," in which she interviews several gay men who all say they want to contract HIV. Hogarth's film has screened at dozens of film festivals and ignited discussions about the topic.

Hogarth says the men she followed didn't perceive HIV as a bad disease. And she says that sort of misconception is linked to the failure of AIDS prevention efforts.

"The bug chaser/gift giver is just a symbol of how badly it has failed," she said. "Behavior like that, it starts on the fringe and it works its way into the network, and that's what's happening now."

She refers to one man who "wasn't terrified of HIV. Why? Because it's presented in such a glamorous, beautiful way."

She also found that the men she interviewed wanted to belong to a community.

"It's a very strange phenomenon, but if you're positive you get so much support," Hogarth said. "It's almost like a dysfunctional family where one child is ill and that child gets all the attention."

THE RESEARCH

Kalichman, the Connecticut professor, cites a questionnaire that asked about bug chasing, which he compiled for a study of more than 600 gay men at the Atlanta gay pride fest in 2002. No evidence of the practice was found.

Graydon found similar results in his research. While gay men would talk about bug chasing online, Graydon thinks few actually act it out in real life.

"Are there men out there for all kinds of reasons deciding they want to be HIV positive? Possibly. Probably," he said. "Are they actually acting on that? Maybe. I would think this is quite a small minority of people."

Graydon explains how a gay man would come to this decision:

"One of them wrote -- and this is the most difficult one -- he said he wanted 'to get his death fuck over with so he could feel more like a gay man.' Which to me kind of summed up everything. These are guys that are the products of a virulently homophobic culture, who've been viciously stigmatized because of HIV for 25 years. They believe being gay means death. Being gay means getting AIDS. Being gay means dying early. This is what's supposed to happen.

"They would even say they want to get it over with. Gift givers would offer to end the waiting."

DeAnn Kalich, an associate professor of sociology at the University of Louisiana-Lafayette who's studied bug chasing, said she's come across a lot of ignorance -- gay men who thought new drug treatments made AIDS more like diabetes, chronic but treatable. She calls it a real problem, but not a widespread one.

"Most people in the gay community are horrified at the idea," she said. "They want to separate themselves from people who make the entire community look like suicidal maniacs."

But for those drawn to the disease, the danger itself can be erotic.

"People do things that are risky because it turns them on," she said. "It heightens the sensory experience. This was just another way of jumping out of the plane."

And it's not just gay men at risk. Kalich said she's talked recently with heterosexual women who claim to be bug chasers.

But the way Graydon sees it, bug chasing is one more psychological problem suffered by men with many other issues.

"I think it speaks of a much bigger tragedy that we haven't communicated to people that they have value and they have something to offer."

THE LAW

There are also law-enforcement implications, since knowingly transmitting the disease to an HIV-negative person can earn you a prison sentence.

Carolyn McAllaster is director of the Duke Law School's AIDS Legal Project. She's been following AIDS transmission prosecutions for 20 years and says the cases started popping up in the late 1980s and early 1990s when hysteria and ignorance surrounding the disease were more common.

Prosecutions run from lenient to strict. McAllaster said people have been prosecuted for transmitting the virus, others just for putting people at risk.

"There were fairly harsh sentences in some states for acts that are not actually that risky," like biting and spitting, she said.

One of the most infamous cases involved Nushawn Williams, an HIV-positive man who admitted trading drugs for sex with young girls. He knowingly infected at least 13 women with HIV and is serving a sentence in a New York state prison.

Statutes differ from state to state and prosecutor to prosecutor. About half of all states have passed HIV-specific criminal laws, she said. Where there is no HIV law, prosecutors have pursued assault, battery and attempted murder charges, McAllaster said. Prosecution can also take place through public health laws.

Bug chasing, she noted, could provide a possible defense in cases like these.

"In some states the consent of the person would be a defense, so it wouldn't be a crime," she said.