Chipotle confessional

This was the point where I should say the same thing back, but I couldn’t do it. A knot began to twist in my stomach. I began my own confession, ‘But you can’t trust me.’

Searching for the wrong soul mate

Physical attraction is usually one of the first things that smacks us across the face. But much like any advertisement, the visual component can be appealing, but the quality, taste, smell, consistency, availability, and satisfaction of that product will dictate if a person will keep coming back for more.

A rapid moment

When the tester announced that it was time to reveal the test, my stomach turned. Lifting up the plastic cover, he stopped. He didn’t look up with a smile like he had the last time. I suddenly felt suffocated.

Online socializing with intent to meet

Dear Brent,

I used to love online socializing, but I’m concerned now that it has become the new norm in the gay scene.

I worry that we are all so disconnected and have lost the ability to connect on any organic level. I also worry for bars, clubs, and other gay establishments because people aren’t going out as much. Is human contact going to be reduced to one hour of chatting online, 15 minutes of sex, and then back to solitude?

HIV testing at the bathhouse

When I stumbled upon a remote STD testing center set up in the bathhouse, I thought it was a match made in heaven: bawdy, sexy heaven. That would be my new guilt-free reason to go to the bathhouse. Any hot and heavy action there would be a reward for my good safety measures.

Life On The Margins: The gay subculture and the recession generation

In this culture, evidently it’s the idea of the career or life that would be risked by this sort of expressive freedom – not the digital record that would put it at risk – that feels like ‘baggage.’

The Poodle and the Paula

Mr. Poodle explained to an Atlanta gay magazine that he was infected by an ex-boyfriend who hadn’t disclosed his status. Poodle said he pressed charges and the ex is now serving a five-year prison sentence. He said turning his ex in ‘was the right thing to do.’

HeinzeSight: Top 10 subversive gay behaviors

Try to keep score this week and see how many of these you can identify from yourself and others around you.

Our sorted lives

I had just been serosorted; that term is for the act of sorting out guys by their HIV status. It had happened to me often online, but never to my face.