Bugchasing (or Bug chasing) is a term, invented in the 1990s, for the fetish of a small minority of gay men for becoming infected with HIV. Whilst doubts have been raised about the existence of the phenomenon, various gay websites (such as Gaydar) have chat rooms devoted to bugchasers (sometimes known as seekers, looking for "gift" givers), who are looking specifically to have unprotected sex with HIV-positive men.

It is thought that some men wish to become infected with HIV because they feel guilty (or even left out) because many of their friends are HIV-positive or because they feel fatalistic about becoming HIV-positive and want to stop worrying about when they might become infected ordinarily.

Many gay men, particularly seropositive gay men, look down on bugchasers with disdain, as being delusional or simply not understanding that modern antiviral therapy can still have painful and unpleasant side-effects. Some gay men are also concerned that bugchasers might "give the gay community a bad name".

Writer/director Daniel Bort made a 2003 short film called Bugchaser, which premièred at the 16th Annual Austin Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, on the subject, shot mainly in New York 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 The Gift by Louise Hogarth .

Also in 2003, Rolling Stone magazine printed an article by a freelance journalist Gregory Freeman entitled "Bug Chasers: The men who long to be HIV+", which provoked a storm of controversy, mainly for the statistics given in the article, which suggested that the practice might be relatively common. There seems to be little evidence, however, that bugchasing is the practice of anything but a very small minority.

The issue is, more recently, being taken seriously by medical health promotion bodies, such as the Centers for Disease Control, which hosted a workshop by Dr Michael Graydon of Carleton University, Ottawa, on the topic at the 2004 National STD Prevention Conference.

External links

• 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
• Bug Chasers: The men who long to be HIV+ — the Rolling Stone article
• 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
• AIDS Health.org interview with the creator of the documentary The Gift
• Poll and commentary on The Advocate's website
• Abstracts for the 2004 National STD Prevention Conference, including Dr Graydon's workshop
• The Bug Chaser — a short story about a bugchasing gay man
• Bug Chaser — another short story. Warning: contains explicit sex scenes and strong language