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Doing the circuit, again
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The BBCM responds to a negative report on gay party behaviour
by Matthew Hays
I believe I'm beginning to bore Robert Vézina. The ringmaster for all of the Bad Boy Club Montreal's circuit events is a well-mannered, fairly sweet fellow on the surface. But I'm asking him the same old questions about his parties again, and it seems he's been through this a few too many times before.
Vézina wants to talk about Twist, the series of parties the BBCM holds around the Divers/Cité festival. Why not promote the slew of DJs they've brought into town, or the fact that on Saturday they're holding a tea dance at the Old Port, a first?
There, I just did. Now I want to talk about the Atlanta-based U.S. government Center for Disease Control (CDC) report, released in late June, which casts a very bad light on circuit party behaviour. The study was printed in the American Journal of Public Health and was based on interviews with 295 gay or bisexual men from the San Francisco area who attended circuit parties.
Disturbing non-surprises
The findings were as disturbing as they were unsurprising, pointing up old stereotypes of circuit queens. "We found extremely high rates of drug use and relatively high rates of risky sexual behaviour," Gordon Mansergh, a researcher who co-authored the report, told the queer Web site Planet Out. More than a quarter of those men surveyed admitted to having unprotected anal sex during the weekend of their most recent party.
As well, 84 per cent of those surveyed also reported using illegal drugs during or before the events. Predictably enough, those who used drugs were cited as being far more likely to engage in unsafe sexual practices. The report essentially supports the worst suspicions of circuit detractors, who've long argued the parties are a hotbed of dangerous HIV transmission. Though it may not sound like a breaking story, the report is newsworthy in that it's believed to be the first scientific study on the circuit phenomenon, a relatively new aspect of gay life.
"This is no big news," insists Vézina. "We've known this for years. You must remember that this study was done in the U.S. The drugs the authors were referring to included crystal meth, a drug not readily available in Montreal."
And that drug, contends Vézina, "turns people into sex maniacs. It's the worst drug in terms of sexual behaviour. People who are on it can come and then want to have sex again immediately. That's a drug that's going to inspire people to take a lot of risks."
Partyers at BBCM events, insists Vézina, are most likely to do Ecstasy, which is more of a "lovee-dovee, let's-cuddle kind of drug," he says.
The report does indicate that 36 per cent of the men interviewed used crystal meth (or "Tina" as it's called), but it also suggests that 58 per cent used ketamine ("Special K"), 25 per cent used GHB and another 12 per cent used Viagra.
As far as the report's recommendations go, Vézina says the BBCM also has its ass covered, so to speak. The report urges "more distribution of safe-sex materials at circuit parties," reported Planet Out, as well as recommendations for "cracking down on public sex dance events."
"That's precisely what we've always done," says Vézina. "The BBCM has had one of the most aggressive safe-sex information campaigns of any circuit party anywhere."
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