CARNAL NATION

The first case of AIDS appeared in 1981 and it took a while to discover that the disease was sexually transmitted. The first campaigns promoting condom use and "safer sex" did not appear until 1983 or 1984. The earliest cases of HIV transmission may have occurred in the 1970's but the disease was rare and no one knew the method of transmission.

Choosing to name my newest website "Vintage Bareback" may be considered controversial. "Bareback" is the colloquial term for anal sex without a condom, which is the most common form of HIV transmission in gay men. Is naming the site this way exploiting the term "bareback"? Possibly. But I feel it's simply a contemporary word to describe a pre-historic version of sex play that was commonly practiced in a bygone era. Naming the site VintageUnprotectedAnalSexThatIDontCondoneBecauseOfRiskOfInfection.com would be cumbersome and not very sexy.

I don't blame the producers and models of hardcore 1970's sex films for contributing to the spread of the disease; they had no prior knowledge of HIV transmission. I do, however, have ethical problems with producers and models who continue to engage in risky behavior on film today despite all the warnings. I also have a problem with producers who flaunt unsafe sex acts on film as a fetish unto itself.

Presenting these "controversial" films and images on VintageBareback.com is not intended to encourage risky behavior by gay men today; we have overwhelming amounts of information available to prevent the spread of AIDS. The bareback aspect of these movies will be treated as a fact of life during the time they were created.