The best identifiable gay comment(at)or on identifiable gay Web sites, Sydney Rugby Jock (on RealJock [q.v.]), provides reliably trenchant observations. (Edited. Links elided. Emphasis added.)
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Gay culture has greatest influence on the most vulnerable, which is primarily gay men who have little to no supportive family or lack a strong platonic gay friends circle….
[I]t is a symptom of a malaise which is caused by a culture which, broadly speaking, strongly reinforces being promiscuous (to be a “real gay man”), which results in only those who have supportive friends and family, are financially secure, and are strong-minded enough to resist the pressure that many gay men are exposed to when coming out, which often sticks with them into later life.
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On the topic of an intentional HIV infection, or at least a passively permitted such infection:
[It] makes me wonder why we now have developed a mental immunity to issues around sexual health…. [T]he major consideration should be about the willingness of gay men to not pay the level of attention to sexual health that used to be commonplace when I was of the same age. Scotland has a well funded sexual-health-information program for GBLT [sic] persons, so these young people theoretically should have been knowledgeable about what to do when a condom is damaged, namely get on PEP. The fact that these victims were diagnosed means they do know about testing. So what is going on with AIDS councils and their unwillingness to engage in education about stealthing and their advocacy of blind trust?
[The Undetectable = Untransmittable (U = U) campaign] has increased suspicion of those who are undetectable[. N]o health agency, nor media coverage of the issue, mentions that the science is clear but that trusting someone based on their word that they are of any status, including claims of undetectable, is dangerous – just because they perceive it will cause stigma. […]
I am talking about gay communities’ continuing culture of peer pressure for young people to be highly sexually engaged in as many sexual encounters as they can get. Yes, some want that, but many feel pressured and empty while doing that and [they] only do so because they are wanting to belong…. [G]ay men [need to] receive positive messages for choosing not to do random hookups[;] those who choose to define their own sexual morality [must not] get shouted down as self-hating and [be] given the same support for their choices as the messages [promoting] more promiscuity.
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We must accept that there are limits on what can be done to counter homophobic rumour-mongering, but of what we can do calling out homophobia isn’t the most effective one…. [W]hy don’t we look at our attitudes, which, in the spirit of mocking old negative stereotypes, can actually reinforce them? Daddy/son relationships is a prime example.
I am not judging people who are adults having sexual relationships with an age gap, but why do we feel the need to have so much historical amnesia as to not recognize that the label could be anything else – perhaps even being bold enough to be something unambigiously clear that it is about relations between an older and young adult.