Michael Lucas: Gay men are not too busy enjoying bareback orgies to take PrEP
Gay porn producer Michael Lucas has called on the president of America’s AIDS Healthcare Foundation to resign for describing medication used to prevent HIV infection as a “party drug”.
Pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP, is a method of preventing HIV transmission, where someone takes an anti-HIV drug before taking part in any activity that might expose them to the virus.
At the moment in Britain PrEP is considered an experimental prevention method. But studies indicate it could be a useful prevention tool for people at high risk of HIV infection, including gay men who have unprotected sex with multiple partners, whose partners have multiple partners, or who are in a relationship with someone with HIV.
Truvada, a form of PrEP manufactured by Gilead Science, was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2004.
In 2012 Gilead won permission to market it as a drug to prevent HIV infection. It has to be taken once a daily to be effective.
Earlier this month, Michael Weinstein, president of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, warned that advocating PrEP over condoms could lead to a reduction in condom use and increase rates of HIV infection among gay and bisexual men.
“If something comes along that’s better than condoms, I’m all for it, but Truvada is not that,” he said. “Let’s be honest: It’s a party drug.”
AHF is the world’s largest non-government provider of HIV/AIDS healthcare services. It is based in Los Angeles and operates in 33 countries.
Dr Demetre Daskalakis, medical director of the ambulatory HIV programme at New York’s Mount Sinai Hospital, served on the FDA panel that recommended approving Truvada for preventive purposes.
She was dismayed by Mr Weinsteing’s remarks. “For folks who are having a significant amount of unprotected sex, [Truvada] is a slam dunk – not only giving them protective medicine, but engaging them in testing, a whole package of regular health care,” he told USA Today.
“I find some of that opposition irresponsible,” Mr Daskalakis said. “If some men don’t want to use condoms, they won’t. You have to deal with it by acknowledging that sometimes unprotected sex happens, and you can still prevent HIV infections.”
Gay porn producer Michael Lucas also reacted furiously to the comments.
Lucas wrote in Out: “In Mr Weinsteing’s eyes, PrEP isn’t about public health. It’s just a highly expensive way for those horny, irresponsible gays to go back to their barebacking-gone-wild.”
He continued: “In this man’s prurient imagination, gays are too busy enjoying their bareback orgies to be trusted with taking a once-daily pill. In his view, gay men using PrEP will stir up a frothy new drug-resistant strain of the virus. What evidence exists that this is a valid scientific concern? None.
“He has not even credited the fact that this form of prevention might and is being used by responsible gay men regardless of the sexual activity they are engaged in. Mr Weisnstein’s anti-PrEP position is an extension of his long-standing anti-promiscuity crusade and more importantly his continuation of harmful shame tactics.”
He said: “Times have changed. HIV treatments can now reduce viral loads to the point where, as far as we can tell, they pose little to no risk of transmission. Combine that with PrEP treatments for HIV negative people, and we’re talking about a much, much lower danger than was previously the case.”
Lucas added: “My position on bareback sex in porn has adapted accordingly. And not just in porn: I have changed the way I have sex in my personal life, too. I am HIV negative, but I have recently been seeing someone who is HIV positive, and we have sex without condoms. So I feel fine, now, with asking my models to do the same.”
