By Poon Chian Hui
OVER 70 per cent of gay and bisexual Asian men use the Internet
to find sexual partners. About 60 per cent said they travelled, and
of these, 12 per cent attended private sex parties while overseas,
according to an online survey by gay lifestyle portal
Fridae.com.
Such private sex parties were the 'epicentre' of sexual
infections like HIV, overriding other common meeting places like
public saunas, said Dr Stuart Koe, founder of the portal which is
based in Singapore. Eight per cent of those who travelled also had
unprotected sex while abroad, he added.
The findings were released yesterday at the first-ever Asian
regional conference to tackle HIV among gay men and transgender
people.
Dr Koe, who presented the findings at the Developed Asia
Regional Consultation on HIV in MSM (men who have sex with men) and
transgender people, called for a regional response to counter the
problem that private sex parties posed towards the spread of
HIV.
'This is where the highest-risk sex is happening - where the
rates of condom use are the lowest, the prevalence of HIV the
highest, and drug use is also the highest,' he said.
That people can hook up with sex partners by a simple click of
the mouse has also resulted in the trend going regional.
