Ita€™s probably one of the most prolific acronyms on gay dating apps. a€?DDF,a€? occasionally with a€?u b 2.a€? they signifies a€?drug and illness freea€? and ita€™s both typical and odious. If followed by a€?you be as well,a€? it is quite overtly stigmatizing towards HIV-positive guys. However, actually alone, ita€™s very challenging so leta€™s break [a€¦]

Fitness Sex Wellness Kevin Moroso

This information was actually printed on November eighteenth, 2015

Ita€™s one of the most respected acronyms on gay relationships applications. a€?DDF,a€? sometimes followed closely by a€?u b 2.a€? they stands for a€?drug and disorder freea€? and ita€™s both common and odious. If followed by a€?you end up being too,a€? it can be overtly stigmatizing towards HIV-positive guys. But actually alone, ita€™s most difficult so leta€™s break up precisely why that’s.

Firstly, ita€™s obscure. Exactly what conditions may be the individual writing on? Really does the guy merely suggest HIV? Does the guy imply all STIs? Or perhaps is he also referring to non-communicable diseases?

Today presuming it relates to STIs, ita€™s a relatively pointless little bit of suggestions. For some of slight problems, like gonorrhea, they’re therefore conveniently sent that no person can in fact be sure they dona€™t have one. When was actually the last examination people attacks? What number of partners do you bring before that test and the number of have you ever got since? Are you DDF on Monday but not on Tuesday when you see the discharge coming out of your penis?

Since these small bacterial infections can be carried through both dental and rectal intercourse and some, like syphilis, can still be effortlessly transmitted when making use of condoms, your entire recent sexual intercourse counts. For many of this various other problems, such as HPV or herpes, public health authorities usually do not recommend evaluating of these. Very ita€™s unlikely this person knows whether they have herpes or HPV. Put another way, few men is specific theya€™re without an STI at any moment in time.

If the guy is usually dedicated to HIV, what counts are transmissibility, not whether you’re HIV-positive or perhaps not. Guys exactly who discover they truly are HIV-positive and are on medication commonly the people who happen to be transmitting HIV. In fact, the people whom thought they’re HIV-negative but I have recently seroconverted make up the vast majority of transmissions. So the irony are ita€™s the people exactly who state theya€™re a€?DDFa€? being dispersing HIV, maybe not the people just who discover they usually have this a€?disease.a€? Very unless the chap making use of DDF visibility is which means that hea€™s harmful for your health, ita€™s maybe not a wise method of sexual wellness. Actually, it reveals the guya€™s lack of knowledge about sexual health insurance and precisely how harmful this person can be. Extra problematic is the fact that DDF perpetuates the idea that HIV-positive dudes exactly who know their own standing become transferring HIV a€“ it is a thought which untrue, stigmatizing, as opposed to science, and is also helping to spread the epidemic.

Another problem is the point that this acronym sets with each other medicine need in what is a persistent health condition. People think drug addiction are bad which term helps make a link between HIV-positive dudes and drug habits. It integrates understanding a behavioral concern with a health situation. It makes an atmosphere in gay relationship world that not creating HIV is right therefore the standard.

Which leads to the way it reinforces HIV stigma. It targets their own malware, not them in general people, and assists to draw them aside as undesirable. It’s a deeply adverse influence on the psychological state of poz dudes, especially whoever has been recently recognized or include younger. This business tend to be in a fragile emotional county, believe that a disease has had over their health as well as their life, and also this hammers home the idea that they’re perhaps not pleasant inside the typical homosexual matchmaking community any longer. These negative mental burdens could carry on for a life times. The acronym helps strengthen the sections within our neighborhood between poz and neg, a division whose time it up.

Thus fall it men. Say youa€™re perhaps not into undertaking medication with intercourse. Bring your own final assessment date and this testa€™s listings. But stop using the acronym DDF: they reveals your own lack of knowledge around intimate health insurance and will act as an attack on several of the most vulnerable people in all of our community.