Bugchasing

Bugchasing is a slang term for the practice of pursuing sexual activity with HIV-positive individuals in order to contract HIV. This is often in the context of bareback sex. Individuals engaged in this activity are referred to as bugchasers. It is a form of self-harm.

Bugchasers seek sexual partners who are HIV positive for the purpose of having unprotected sex and becoming HIV positive; giftgivers are HIV positive individuals who comply with the bugchaser's efforts to become infected with HIV.

HIV-budding-Color

Bugchasing is a fetish and a subculture among a specific niche of homosexual men, and anecdotally, there is a small subculture of heterosexual men who also engage in these practices and rituals.

Motivations

Some bugchasers engage in the activity for the excitement and intimacy inherent in pursuing such a dangerous activity, but do not implicitly desire to contract HIV. Some researchers suggest that the behavior may stem from a "resistance to dominant heterosexual norms and mores" due to a defensive response by gay men to repudiate stigmatization and rejection by society.

Some people consider bugchasing "intensely erotic" and the act of being infected through the "fuck of death" as the "ultimate taboo, the most extreme sex act left."

HIV-1 Transmission electron micrograph

Criticism

Many people find bugchasing deeply problematic and irresponsible. Some people argue that bugchasers are in denial about the serious health risks involved. Others argue that bugchasers are trying to rationalize risky behavior, and that they need mental health support.

See also

• Bareback (sex)
• HIV/AIDS
• Self-harm
• Fetish subculture