Party Lines: The Hookup Spot?
It's a warm summer night a young man sits on the corner of Broadway and 12th Street in downtown Oakland sipping from a bottle of Hennessey he got from a liquor store. Bored and looking for a sexual fling with no strings attached, the young man dials up the biosphere, a very popular social networking tool anyone with access to a phone can use to meet people in their local area. It's a basically a party line people call for random hookup, usually one time sexual encounters.
As soon as he gets through, he hears the message that the biosphere is not responsible for any actions or consequences that may result from meeting someone on line. An hour later the young man finds himself in the company of a complete stranger, names don't matter since they're probably all made up to protect ones identity. Besides, the odds are against the two making a love connection, names aren't what they’re focused on, it’s the act of hooking up that matters.
Ten minutes later, they're engaged in some extremely risky behavior. The young man is only seventeen, a senior in high school, from a good home, and a little curious about exploring his sexuality. The young man a bit eager to figure things sexually, throws caution to the wind and gets with a stranger twice his age.
The stranger, an older gentleman with a major sex addiction is HIV positive and currently on a methamphetamine binge. He hasn't slept for days, yet the two find a mutual connection and within minutes they are both engaging in unprotected sex. This particular evening, about three guys have been to the stranger’s house, making the seventeen year-old the fourth guy that night. At the older man's suggestion, condoms are not used and conveniently he fails to disclose to the young man that he is HIV positive.
A year down the road, that night of hooking up, no matter how fun it may have seemed at the time will come back to bother the young man when he tests positive for HIV. The years of risky behavior finally catch up with life altering consequences. He has nobody to blame but himself for the lack of common sense, it wasn’t the Hennessey or the weed; it was the lack of responsibility by using substances that alter a person's judgment, meaning you're high or drunk, you're less likely to protect yourself.
Even though the norm is for everyone to be a player nowadays and “blame it on the alcohol,” a lot of us hook up with people we don't know. There’s nothing wrong with getting your “mack on” and exploring ones sexuality, but when drugs, alcohol or any other mind altering substances are added to the mix things are not always what they seem.
According to the National Library of Medicine (NLM) Gateway Service of the U.S. National Institute of Health:
Consumption of drugs and alcohol is a widespread phenomenon among adolescents. The link between HIV which causes AIDS, and intravenous drug use is well known. Connection between non-injectable substances, such as alcohol and marijuana, and unsafe sexual activity that can result in the spread of HIV, also has become glaringly evident. Random cluster sample consisted of 2,582 boys and 2,557 girls aged 11, 13 and 15. Survey was conducted applying World Health Organization research protocol for a cross-national survey “Health Behavior in School-Aged Children”. According to Children NLM children begin with alcohol use very early, 11 years old, 13 years old and 15 years old. Great numbers of children are consuming “two or more drinks in row” usually at weekends. Participating in high risk behaviors could pose deadly consequences for young people in the era of AIDS.
Growing up fast in this heartless world can be a very though thing for many youth nowadays.
No one can say for sure if the young man would have ended up at the older man’s house if he had been drinking or not, but the truth of the matter is that when he showed up to the place he was “feeling the alcohol” and thought to himself as soon as the man opened the door “he looks nothing like he mentioned in his recorded message on the biosphere”. A quick second later he thought to himself should I leave or not but by not being in the right state of mind he decided to stay and finish what was left of the bottle of Hennessey. “Go with the flow just stay cool,” he says to himself and just goes with the program unknowingly taking the sexual gamble that would eventually change his life forever.
So there we go. One swig led to another one and before you know it the young man was engaged in unprotected sex with another male who happened to be HIV positive. They ended up spending no more than 30 minutes and later the young man contracted the virus.
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