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- Zachary Quinto is an out gay actor who dared to say something about gay men’s sex lives.
Earlier this week, OUT magazine published a profile of Zachary Quinto, in which the out gay actor boldly holds forth on the state of the gay community. Of particular interest: Truvada, the pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) that effectively renders users incapable of being infected with HIV, which the World Health Organization has recommended for all men who have sex with men. (Have you read Evan J. Peterson’s Stranger feature on the subject? You must.) As for Quinto’s interview, here’s the chunk that leapt out:
“I think there’s a tremendous sense of complacency in the LGBT community,” Quinto says, citing the rising number of HIV infections in adolescents. “AIDS has lost the edge of horror it possessed when it swept through the world in the ’80s. Today’s generation sees it more as something to live with and something to be much less fearful of. And that comes with a sense of, dare I say, laziness.”
Quinto is similarly candid on prophylactic drugs, like PrEP, which many gay people have embraced as a long-awaited panacea. “We need to be really vigilant and open about the fact that these drugs are not to be taken to increase our ability to have recreational sex,” he says. “There’s an incredible underlying irresponsibility to that way of thinking…and we don’t yet know enough about this vein of medication to see where it’ll take us down the line.”
Apparently there’s been enough of a backlash to these comments to inspire Quinto to today clarify his statements via a Huffington Post essay, “On the Response to My OUT 100 Interview.” One sentence that jumped out at me:
I have heard too many stories of young people taking PrEP as an insurance policy against their tendency toward unprotected non-monogamous sex. THAT is my only outrage.
My question for you, Slog hive mind: What is the difference between young gay men using PrEP as an insurance policy against their tendency toward unprotected nonmonagamous sex and young straight women using birth control as an insurance policy against their tendency toward unprotected nonmonogamous sex?
