Adam4Adam - The Big HIV Lie!

Anyone who is gay in the United States, Canada, Europe and South America has heard of or has a profile on some sort of online dating site.It is a sign of the times. You can essentially be whoever you want to be in a matter of minutes by clkicing on any one of the myriad dating websites out there and sex nowadays is just a click away. The most popular gay online dating websites are Adam4adam, Men4now, Manhunt, Gaydar, Black Gay Chat (Bgc) and countless others.

There is, however, an uncomfortable truth that the management of some of these sites would do well to address in order to throw a vestige of honesty into their members activities, in as much as it is possible to talk about adult sex sites and honesty in the same breath.

Take the case of Adam4adam (A4a), one of the most popular sites among black gay men. Men post pictures, say who they are, what they look like, what their stats are and who they would like to meet. So far so good. But Adam4adam is different from many other sites of the same ilk in that it allows its members to comment on their HIV status, perhaps to encourage disclosure and/or honesty. And therein lies the problem with this particular online dating site and others that allow members open discretion to tell or not to tell.

First the crude numbers: Based on A4a’s own website, Washington DC/Maryland (8,000), New York (10,000) and Georgia (5,000) have a combined total of more than 23,000 gay men almost all of them in the major cities of those states. Even when you factor in multiple profiles (different profiles set up by the same individual), sleeper profiles (profiles located in places that the user is not actually located) and fake ones (used for mischief), you are looking at a conservative figure of 20,000 gay men with profiles based in just those four states alone.

The crude numbers highlight a jarring statistical aberration. According to ChattaBox, NYC has 3 times the rate of new HIV infection rates in the whole of the USA, with 117 infections for every 100,000 New Yorkers. According to the 2006 report from the Center for Disease Control (CDC), the percentage of HIV/Aids infections among black, Hispanics and whites in NYC was 38.4%, 22.9% and 36.8%. In contrast, the number of profiles on A4a admitting to HIV+ status on December 28 2008 was 25%, 17% and 26% respectively among those ethnic groups.

Yet we know that, with better medication and diminishing stigma around HIV in the West, the number of diagnoses has risen since 2006 especially in the 30-46 age group. In NYC alone, more than 50% of new diagnoses are of black males. The statistics quoted are by no means conclusive but they reflect a clear dissonance between the official statistics and what those looking for sex on online dating websites admit to.

It is a well known fact that so many gay men pad their profiles when relating their body shape, waist and penis sizes. But it is an all together more serious matter when they are given such an easy avenue to lie about their HIV/Aids status. It is thus worth asking whether there is any point in online dating websites keeping the HIV status checkbox since, with or without it, the relevant message is “safe sex at all times.” Other sites such as Men4now and Gaydar don’t have the HIV checkbox but Manhunt does, and like A4a it allows members the option to check “positive”, “negative”, “don’t know” or “no answer” on the HIV question.

The significance of the combined crude statistics and the big lie they reveal is staggering. In December 2008, only 13% of DC A4a members’ profiles admitted to being HIV+. But when you factor in those who checked “Don’t know” and “No answer” the figure jumps to 53% - well in line with official HIV+ statistics from the District of Columbia. In NYC, only 15% of profiles checked HIV+ (against 62% if you factor in the “Don’t Know” and “No Answer”). In Georgia (And the focus here is on the Atlanta Metro area which is where the gay numbers are significant) the HIV+ profiles were 17% (59%) and in Maryland 8% (52%). In these four jurisdictions, A4a has only 13% of members who admitted to being HIV+.

That leaves the obvious and pertinent question: if official projections relating to HIV/Aids infection among men having sex with men in NYC, Washington DC, Atlanta and Maryland are closer to 50% of all gay men, and A4a has only 13% of them, on which online dating sites are the other 37%?