However my first reaction is this…how frakin ironic that an organization/event that has been founded on a “fetish” and thrives on the interest and involvement of various fetish communities; would come out and “ban”, or shake its finger at a fetish/behaviour.

Comes across to me as very “holier than thou”.

Where does the line get drawn?

Ban leather gear because animals are slaughtered?

Ban rubber/latex gear to save the rubber trees?

Ban temporary piercing because diabetics need the syringes?

Need I go on?

There is something someone or really anyone can find at fault with any behaviour and start pointing fingers and stand up on their moral soap box….

I agree with comments made above and in this article, don’t spread your legs until you know what is going in you.
If someone blind folded you and said, “here eat this!” Would you?

Hey IML – Get off the frakin cross, someone needs the wood!

While I appreciate the consciousness raising aspects of the IML ban, I would ask sexually active gay/bi/trans me[n] to keep a few things in mind. First, not all “bareback” sex, or anal intercourse without a condom, is a risk for HIV transmission. For instance, two men may make a mindful, informed decision to have intercourse without a condom and not worry about transmitting or acquiring HIV if they each have the same HIV status. You make this point quite well.

Secondly, most of the behavioral research shows that around 50% of gay men engage in anal intercourse without a condom. We need to step up our efforts around NEW ways to protect ourselves and our partners from HIV, beyond latex. Ongoing promotion of condoms is important, for sure, but we also need new tools, like rectal microbicides, vaccines and oral prevention, to add to the safer sex “buffet.”

Many people don’t like using condoms all the time, or at all, and demanding they use a condom every time they have intercourse won’t make it so.

We also need more research into risk-reduction behaviors like sero-sorting and sero-adaption – where men make decisions about the kinds of sex they will have depending on their own serostatus and that of their partners. We don’t know enough about things like “strategic positioning” and “dipping” and the withdrawal method – and it’s high time we started finding out how well these strategies work for reducing HIV risk.

Finally, if gay porn was so powerful, most of us would be using condoms all the time. Most porn, after all, involves men using condoms with each other. This is not to minimize the possible effects of bareback porn, but to put it into context.

@Jim ~ I normally delete links to commercial sites but I’ve made an exception here because it is very relevant and informative.

While education would clearly help with the malice, we can’t reach these goals (and others) as long as we allow such a negative atmosphere of blame and fingerpointing to dictate our actions. I’ve yet to see any real outreach from anyone on bridging the divide.

But what it really comes down to it personal responsibility doesn’t it? We are ultimately responsible for our own health.

This is a total fabrication in Tony and my imaginations – but then again, who knows?