Page 104 - Push Back

He's the focus of the documentary "The Gift": a study of a subculture of gay men who actively
seek out getting infected with HIV-AIDS.

Some of them like Doug are now distraught and dying: HIV cocktails haven't worked for him.

Others interviewed in the documentary are unashamed and proud of what they did.

"Happy," said another young man interviewed in the documentary about purposely getting
infected with HIV. "Relieved. I can breath again."

"They call themselves bug-chasers and they look for an HIV positive man who's a gift-giver to
give them the gift of HIV," said documentary filmmaker Louise Hogarth.

Hogarth's documentary, screened this weekend at the Seattle International Film Festival,
attempts to show why this phenomenon exists. She says some gay men believe they're going to get
HIV eventually anyway and seek out this "conversion" so they won't have to worry about it
anymore. That, the documentary shows, allows them to participate in forms of sex that they
otherwise could not participate in for fear of getting the virus...

"The Gift" shows how "bug-chasers" and "gift-givers" can be found on the internet: a
phenomenon world-wide...

Hogarth hopes her documentary... will help change the way people, gay and straight, think about
HIV: that despite a reduction in annual AIDS deaths that drug treatments don't work for
everyone and that there is still NO cure.

"Partially the fault of the gay community or the drug community not showing what getting HIV
means..."

A report earlier this year claimed that 25% of new gay male HIV infections could be blamed on
this trend.
[Source: http://www.komonews.com/news/archive/4093766.html]

In 1995 The New York Times reported that AIDS had become the leading cause of death among
all Americans ages 25 to 44. By 2002 AIDS had become the leading cause of death worldwide
among people aged 15-59.
[Data Source: http://www.amfar.org/thirty-years-of-hiv/aids-snapshots-of-an-epidemic/]

Death is the “gift” that homosexual behavior has given to the world. Despite this truth, people in
positions of influence and power, such as U.S. President Barack Obama, defend homosexuality
as a normal and wholesome lifestyle, while lauding the great contributions homosexuals have
made to society. Satan is a liar, and so too are the men and women who serve him.

A young homosexual male posted the following comment to a discussion forum.