What are market forces doing to LGBT international solidarity?
I asked myself this question when I read a recent UK Gay Times article on Czech “bareback” gay erotic DVDs. According to German gay journalist Marek Urban, Prague has a dark side to its transition to a democratic society and open market society. Unfortunately, this market-driven orthodoxy has its casualties. Urban reports that many participants in bareback erotic DVDs are hard-up straight university students who don’t mind unprotected anal sex as long as they get paid handsomely. According to the article, production companies insist on HIV/AIDS tests regularly, and there’s a visual “rule of thumb” that operates within the bareback erotic DVD market, meaning that “wasted” looking “cheap” guys aren’t hired, at least not in the prestigious studios. HIV/AIDS is distanced as being either a “gay” or “African” dilemma, which makes any adoption of safe sex difficult, despite regular engagement in high-risk unprotected sex and fetishisation of transmission of body fluids in bareback DVDs. Distr
