Gay culture is well known for its rich diversity of sexual practices and proclivities. Often, a part of gay male identity is centered on sexual preferences. Some men identify as “bears”— referring to their abundant body hair and/or weight. They frequent bear bars and belong to online chat groups for bears. Others identify as “tops,” referring to their preference to be the penetrating partner in anal intercourse, and advertise in personals ads that they are looking for bottoms.
Research conducted by Halkitis (2003) and Wolitski, Parsons, and Gomez (2004) indicates that in recent years there has been an increase in the number of men identifying as “barebackers.” Like bears and tops, they claim this identity as a badge of pride, proclaiming their membership in a subset of the gay community. But not all barebackers do this. Some men who admit to engaging in the behavior of having anal sex without condoms do not claim the identity (Halkitis, 2003; Halkitis et al., 2005c). One of the primary differences between the two groups is that self-identifying barebackers actively seek out condomless sex, while men in the other group do not, but are nonetheless willing to participate in it. Should we differentiate between these two subsets of barebackers?
Two studies of HIV-positive gay men in San Francisco and New York City6 found that about one quarter of the participants laid claim to the barebacker identity. Those who did so were at considerable risk of transmitting HIV to their sexual partners,7 for the men who identified as barebackers reported both a higher incidence of UAI, as well as high rates of being both the insertive as well as the receptive partner (Wolitski et al., 2004).
