Massachusetts: Nate Longtin, 24, Is Warning Other Gay Young Men About the Dangers of Unsafe Sex and HIV

Despite twenty years of warnings about unsafe sex, gay men ages 18-24 do not seem to be getting the message. Now that the drug cocktail can keep opportunistic infections and AIDS at bay for years, a new generation of gay men seems to be getting the message that HIV is just another STD like syphilis -- treatable, not life-threatening.

This is resulting in an increase in risky behavior. Data from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health show that 13- to 24-year-olds made up 8.7 percent of new HIV cases in Massachusetts in 2002, compared to 6.1 percent in 1999 -- an increase of more than 40 percent. In a two-year vaccine trial in Boston, doctors found the rate of infection among young males more than double what they had expected.

After testing positive, Nate Longtin, who is gay, quit his job in radio and became a client advocate for a nonprofit health care agency, where he works with HIV-positive and at-risk youth. He is on a mission to spread the word that gay men need to disclose their health status to sexual partners. Longtin credits his boss at the time, Radiocraft President John Garabedian, who is also gay, with helping him adjust to his diagnosis. "I told him the good news was that it was not 1983, when people had no hope," said Garabedian, who also reminded Longtin that he was responsible for his own actions.

Longtin feels so strongly about disclosure that he has become one of five Boston spokesmodels to participate in a national media campaign, "HIV Stops With Me." Longtin's poster, displayed in gay bars and in gay publications, says, "Rejection is better than infection." Some gay men do not disclose their HIV status because they fear rejection. That fear keeps many young gay men from even getting tested, according to Troix Bettencourt, director of HIV support services at JRI Health, Longtin's employer.

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