Bug Chasers

In the long line of faggot hipsterism trends that includes mocha soy lattes, Mac computers, and Vespa motor scooters, Bug Chasing has inserted itself like a diseased penis into the Internet’s popular conscience once again. Through websites, forums, articles and old media outlets, this truly retarded practice has gained popularity for two main reasons; the fact that it is so nasty, fucked up, ungodly, and bicycle-helmet-Obama-voter level retarded and also because it is practiced by faggots…and everybody likes to find new reasons to pick on faggots.

What Is Bug Chasing?

Popular characterization of Bug Chasers. GET IT?

Poz and Proud!

U R doin it wrong.

For some audio context, please click this link.

Bug Chasing, in its most simple terms, is the combined efforts of a gay man to have himself made infectious by a Gift Giver who has some sort of sexually transmitted disease. While this desire can manifest itself in the yearning for more than one disease, HIV is the most desired, and receiving more than one strain of HIV is the crown jewel. What is stumping scientists, psychologists, and pretty much everybody else is why they wish to do this.

Apollo: the God of the Beautiful Male Image, and the Destroyer of the Beautiful Male Image

When a man's self-image is destroyed, he tends to want to destroy his male body, in order to make it conform to the destroyed self-image. There are many ways to destroy one's body -- see stimmung -- but deliberately getting the AIDS virus is certainly one of them.

Self-Esteem

“I’m such a piece of shit for being a fudge-packing candy assed faggot, hopefully if I catch a load of semen that is full of Aids, I can look cool to my gay friends.”

The most popular answer to this odd question is that most faggots have really low self esteem and are self-loathing creeps who only wish to punish themselves for the twisted sexual practices that they engage in. The ultimate goal of the Bug Chaser in this scenario is to indulge in self-damage while at the same time he is also gaining acceptance within the community of his peers.

Fetish

“Holy shit that queen is hot as fuck! What? He isn’t POZ? Ugh, fuck that.”

This reasoning focuses on the gay individuals desire to satisfy a fixation. Contrary to the idea that being infected by another individual is an ass-delivered punishment from God, Bug Chasing fetishists openly desire contamination because it turns them on. Fetishism is often described as a sexual fixation upon anything that is not inherently sexual in nature. Given the fact that billions of people fixate upon invisible gods in many forms, it is not to far of a stretch to understand that gay men might wish to fixate upon an invisible virus or bacteria.

Body Modification

“Gee, having Hep C isn’t enough, if I can catch HIV too…well, then I can stop.”

As with people who are preoccupied with piercing, flesh pulling, and body modification, some Bug Chasers could be considered individuals who wish to fundamentally change their physiology through what many might consider a dangerous activity. Since HIV/Aids contamination is no longer an instant death sentence, Bug Chasers of this ilk may think of infection as an adornment similar how body modification fans react to a pierced scrotum. What they didnt bargain for is lipodystrophy, avascular necrosis, neuropathy, herpes, tuberculosis, early retirement, and so on.

Mental Illness

“Once I catch HIV…I’LL MAKE THEM ALL PAY!”

The desire to become infected so that the individual, in turn, can go forth and infect other people. Within the gay community, there is a minority of people who wish to infect straight, married men. This group, while small, is rather vocal about becoming HIV positive and many of them can be found expressing a desire to meet with men who are already HIV positive so that they may share the virus. These men will then go out and attempt to find people who they describe as “wholesome, heterosexuals” with express desire of infecting them in any way possible. This form of Bug Chaser thus embodies every fear some people have about gays.

Preventative Medicine

“I got royally fucked last weekend by sixteen guys who I don’t know…now I am having a crisis of conscience and I’m not going to let this happen anymore…I SWEAR!”

Homosexuals that feel they will eventually become HIV positive due to their sexual practices. They use Bug Chasing as a way to “become infected under their own terms, rather than waking up one day and finding that they have Aids…but don’t know who they got it from.”

Bug Chasing Online

In 2004, Rolling Stone magazine alerted the world of this phenomena with an article dedicated to describing the slut culture of these sickening assholes. Since then, fans and detractors of the practice have streamed online to voice their opinions, some to the extent of being quite violent and graphic.

• 
  The government steps in
• 
  Skinheads speak out
• 
  Skinheads offer an alternative
• 
  Another uncreative skinhead post
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  Desperate faggot looking for AIDS seed
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  Tips on how to POZ IT UP
• 
  Sick fuck spreading the AIDS
• 
  More aids
• 
  Another sick fuck
• 
  Apparently all men want AIDS
• 
  Shooting up AIDS blood
• 
  "Take as many loads as are offered up your butt"

Common Practices and Terminology

Everything you wanted to know but were afraid to ask.

After centuries of abuse, gays have a weapon to fight back with!

Cut, Bleed, Breed: Injuring the rectal passage to ensure infection.

As with most subcultures, the Bug Chasing community has a group of activities all their own and a slang term to describe it rather intricately.

• Russian Roulette

	“	In private sex clubs across the U.S. men gather for a chance to participate in what is called Russian Roulette. Ten men are invited, nine are HIV-, one is HIV+. The men have agreed to not speak of AIDS, nor HIV. They participate in as many unsafe sexual encounters with each other as possible, thus increasing their chances to receive “the bug.”	„
	—From Pozlife.

• The Gift

A popular term for the HIV virus, used especially when it is given to a Bug Chaser.

• Gift Giver

	“	It's Friday night and Ray Otani is meeting his date at the Moby Dick after weeks of exchanging e-mails and chatting online. They enjoy their drinks, touching each other's arms and whispering flirtatious words. Otani thinks he's finally met someone who is able to overlook his HIV-positive status. After spending several hours at a crowded bar, Otani's date takes him to his place. They spend the rest of their evening kissing and fondling on the couch, their shirts in disarray on the floor while their pants are pooled at their ankles. As their sexual excitement peaks, Otani's date asks him to penetrate him and he halts his movements. Are you crazy? he asks in disbelief, but his date urges him on. I'm allergic to condoms, but it's okay. But Otani doesn’t believe him and he realizes that he has been asked by a bug chaser to be a gift giver.	„
	—X Press article HIV – A gift NOT worth giving.

• Cut, Bleed, and Breed

	“	My buddy and I showed up 90 minutes earlier then the others, so that I could clean out and most importantly he could attach a vac pump to my hole and for my rose bud to be extracted from my hole. It's a deeper cut to assure conversion.	„
	—Holy God, as if it could get worse.

Cut, Bleed, and Breed is a method applied by Bug Chasers to up their chances of becoming infected. Prior to going to a Conversion party (usually the night before) a Bug Chaser will "prep" their asshole by scrubbing the insides of their anal cavity with steel wool or a stiff tooth brush. This will cause rectal and anal abrasions that will make contact and infection by the HIV virus more probable.

• Bug Parties/Conversion Parties

	“	I got the "opportunity" to get HIV by reading about a "conversion party" in one of the gay chat rooms I frequent. At a council flat in south London, 14 muscular gay men in their mid-30s huddled around a flat screen TV playing porn for 6 frenzied hours of sex, drugs and alcohol. Two months later a doctor at Saint Mary's Hospital told me I was HIV-positive.	„
	—Didier, from this article.

• Barebacking

SuperAids!

Be on the look out...unless you are a Bug Chaser.

Barebacking is the deliberate practice of unsafe sex by purposely not using a condom. In the gay Bug Chasing community, it becomes a more sinister practice as Bug Chasers who “bareback” are serious about their desire to be infected.

	“	After 30 years of barebacking, I hadn't got the bug. Doctors discovered I am immune to it. I have a protein in my T cells called Delta 32CRR5 that stops the virus from infecting me. They say I'm one in a million.	„
	—Luis is sad that he cannot participate.

• SuperAids

Once parodied on Saturday Night Live as Sida Fantastico! This term is in use today and describes a Bug Chaser who is looking for a new strain of HIV to add to his already HIV infected bloodstream.

	“	Super AIDS…just one teaspoon of Super AIDS in your butt and you're dead in three years!	„
	—Southpark mentions dual infection.

• Biohazard Tattoo

Not to be confused with...

Some Gift Givers, to denote their state of HIV positiveness, will have a Biohazard tattoo placed upon their right upper arm or shoulder. Be on the look out!

• Fuck of death

Unprotected sex between an HIV- and an HIV+ man

• Pozcum

(also pozload, poison seed) The ejaculate of an HIV+ man

• Neg butt

Someone who is HIV-

• "Poz my neg hole", sometimes "charge" my neg hole

Give me HIV

• "Neg my poz hole"

Cure me of HIV - the futile plea of a man who has received the gift, but immediately regrets his actions, not realizing that there is no way to reverse infection by the HIV virus.

• Stealth fucking

Infecting unsuspecting sex partners with HIV

Bugchasing In Mainstream Media

• The bugchasing/giftgiving phenomenon gained press coverage - and notoriety - after Rolling Stone magazine printed an article in 2003 by a freelance journalist, Gregory Freeman, entitled "Bug Chasers: The men who long to be HIV+". The article provoked a storm of controversy, primarily because - based on the statistics in the article - it suggested that the practice might be relatively common. The reliability of that article has since been questioned, as it cited only two sources. One source, who claimed that as many as 25% of HIV+ men had contracted it on purpose, gave his information anonymously. The other source was a doctor who, when confronted, denied the quotations attributed to him in the article.

• Writer Daniel Hill outlined a scenario where such behavior might occur:

"In private sex clubs across the U.S. men gather for a chance to participate in what is called Russian Roulette. Ten men are invited, nine are HIV-, one is HIV+. The men have agreed to not speak of AIDS, nor HIV. They participate in as many unsafe sexual encounters with each other as possible, thus increasing their chances to receive "the bug." These are the men known as 'Bug Chasers.'" [1]

• Writer/film director Daniel Bort made a 2003 short film on the subject called Bugchaser, which opened at the 16th Annual Austin, Texas Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, and was shot mainly in New York City sex clubs. In an interview with the Austin Chronicle, he explained: "The matter-of-fact declarations of a string of articulate, apparently nonsensical people … affected me tremendously. I had to find out the reasons why such individuals will seek suicide in this almost symbolic way." At the Austin G&L Film Festival, the film was shown with an accompanying documentary film The Gift (2003 film) by Louise Hogarth.

• HIV positive man Ricky Dyer, who investigated the apparent bug chasing phenomenon for a 2006 BBC program,I love being HIV, said that an air of complacency about the realities of living with the virus may be one reason why infection rates have been rising.

Bug Chasers In Popular Culture

• Queer as Folk (US TV Series), Episode 410 includes a character that seeks to be infected with HIV. The character states that his motivation for doing so is to become "free", in other words to be rid of the constant worry of contracting AIDS; and it is even implied that the character sees this as a spiritually fulfilling decision, much to the horror of the HIV+ man he is attempting to convince to give him the disease. He is refused but adamantly states he will seek out a conversion party instead.

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See Also

• Homosexuals
• Aids
• G.R.I.D.S.
• STD
• Disease

Links of Interest

• Register and log in here to see the really fucked up stuff.
• An actual clip of bug chaser porn.
• A discussion.
• A collection of conversion stories for your enjoyment.
• Rolling Stone article.
• The Concerned Women of America weigh in on the subject in this article.
• About.com discusses Bug Parties.
• Pozlife discusses Bug Chasers and Gift Giving parties.
• Material World: Becoming HIV: disease as agency by Ellie Reynolds, University College London
• Bug Chasers and Gift Giver Parties from About.com
• Russian Roulette, an article by CBC, first broadcast on November 20, 2001
• Bugchasers — myth or reality? from Positive Nation magazine, September 10, 2003
• Times Online article: HIV sex parties 'spread disease', September 29, 2005
• MTV.com on the Rolling Stone article
• PlanetOut.com on the Rolling Stone article
• Media Life magazine on the Rolling Stone article, January 24, 2003
• Salon.com article on the Rolling Stone article, by Andrew Sullivan
• FreeRepublic.com article about the documentary The Gift
• CinematicVerses.com review of documentary The Gift
• Poll and commentary on The Advocate's website
• Abstracts for the 2004 National STD Prevention Conference, including Dr Graydon's workshop
• A dating website dedicated to people with STDs

Bug Chasers is part of a series on Sex Visit the Sex Portal for complete coverage.

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Bug Chasers is part of a series on Diseases and Disorders

Bug Chasers is part of a series on Homosexual Deviants Visit the Faggotry Portal for complete coverage.

Featured article August 9, 2009
Preceded by Cat‎	Bug Chasers	Succeeded by Ulrichthehedgehog‎