It's all about BEHAVIOR. HIV is a preventable disease. We seem to forget that.
If you go to a bathhouse and do NOT engage in unsafe sex, do NOT compromise your own standards... there's probably very, very little concern regarding your choice of cruising venue.
Problem is... the atmosphere of security (little chance of being busted) and the abundance of possible partners sometimes elicits alternate behavior in some of the weaker-willed men out there.
It's much easier to get fucked in a bathhouse than it is in a public park. Hell, there's even shower stalls where you can rinse off the lube...
It makes sense to figure that men who SEEK OUT and UTILIZE this atmosphere might possibly be higher risk partners. But if we REFUSE to engage in unsafe sex when offered -- it's very likely there's little to worry about, at least as far as getting HIV is concerned. Our risk for OTHER STDs certainly goes up, since HIV positive men are more likely to be infected with something else, too.
The thing is... men who go to bathhouses also cruise the parks, the streets, the bars, the internet... No matter WHERE you are, there's no telling who has what. It could be a mistake to instill a false sense of security that one place is safer than another. What's safer and what is not is STILL the sexual act in question.
I've seen a lot of scary shit in my day... most notably scenes involving lines of men ready to fuck a willing bottom, gang-bang style (sling optional). While we can easily (or even with some effort) walk away from such reckless behavior, how do we know for sure that the guy we meet a week from now hasn't gleefully taken up residence in that sling for hours on end at some point? We don't... We might meet this guy in a public place, maybe online, maybe in a bar. He may not want to tell us of his occasional romps in the sling. We may express safer sex concerns to him and he could easily pretend to agree, if he wants to get us in bed badly enough.
So it's still up to each of us to play it safe and do the right thing, no matter where we are and no matter who we are with.
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