ABSTRACT
The feelings associated with barebacking may range from eager and thrilled to dread-filled. Motivations range from sexual desire to emotional drives and even to desire for self-harm. Each and every case has to be assessed individually. We simply cannot work with preconceived ideas about what drives men to risk either transmitting or contracting HIV when we treat men having condomless sex. One of the most succinct ways to put it, as Yep, Lovaas, and Pagonis (2002) write, is that “Barebacking may be viewed as reinforcement of sexual identity, resistance to imposed behavioral norms, creation of a new sexual and political identity, or a continuation of practices unaffected by organized messages aimed at stopping such practices” (p. 1). Any one of these dimensions makes it a daunting challenge to try to reduce the incidence of sexual risk-taking by gay men.
