Chemsex

By: Amos Lassen

"Chemsex"

A Documentary

Amos Lassen

Filmmakers Max Gogarty and William Fairman of "Vice" show how are deeply affecting a certain part of the urban LGBT community. The topic is known as '"slamming" which I understand to be a sociably acceptable term now used for injecting and shooting up, and all for the purposes of having some very extreme sex. While this might sound quite easy to understand, it is actually more complicated than just wanting to have the best-uninhibited sex that is possible. The men interviewed here have taken a hefty combination of 'recreational' hard-core such as meth, meph and G on a regular basis.

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The film was made with the cooperation of 56 Dean Street, London's first Sexual Health Clinic. The addicts we meet here tell their stories and there are no judgments of any kind. We see some very disturbing graphic images of naked men intravenous taking copious and then immediately getting sexually aroused and participating in completely inhibited and wild sex as we watch. The men gleefully boast that the are an enabler and result in a sexual highs that they can never hope to even come close too when they ever try to have sex when they are sober.

Those who indulge have their own preferred hook-up websites and an on-line language that indicates to each other their own particular -fuelled practices, and a network which obviously leads them to the sex parties and the themselves. For those who are not involved what we see is completely foreign to us. The film does not hide that these disturbing and dangerous practices are very obviously a realty to a growing population. I was very surprised to see that those interviewed are extremely clever and articulate men and very much aware of the self-destructiveness of their chosen behavior.

The men do not have protected sex even if they are HIV positive and some actually seem to be quite proud that because of the their viral load is undetectable. We are told here that five gay men are still being diagnosed with HIV in London every single day.

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David Stuart an ex-addict who now is a Counselor at the Dean Street Clinic and he is one of the people who attempts to explain the possible circumstances of why this scenario is prevailing now. He says that most gay men in the past considered and sex as two separate entities but now many see them as one, and in fact dress it all up to make it seem more respectable and socially acceptable. Further, he says, that not every gay man wants to assimilate into society, especially as a community where we have never fitted into the heterosexual norm. We have always been outsiders in many ways marginalized and we have written our own rules and even policed ourselves to a certain point. Another factor is the internalized homophobia that each gay man has to address when he comes out of the closet and deal with the issue of shame.

Whether or not we agree with this reasoning, we see, that by the end of the 83 minutes of watching this all unfold on the screen, it is extremely difficult not to be totally shocked and amazed by what we see here. As the final credits roll, the update of a few of the men interviewed who are doing their best to stay sober, at least gives you hope.