April 9, 2010

Did the Bareback Time Machine Kill Chad Noel?

Little did Rebecca know that her date would quickly become gay porn actor Donny Price (why is everyone who does a porn film a STAR?). Very quickly, in fact. He was only 18 years old when he made his first video for a studio specializing in scenes of unprotected sex (known as barebacking).

And now, seven years later, the young man is dead of AIDS. How very 1985.

Certainly it couldn’t be as simple as this. There must have been co-factors, such as his refusal to get tested, perhaps, or take HIV medications. My experience with addiction makes me suspect crystal meth abuse, a raging epidemic of its own among sexually active gay men. An overdose, maybe? ( The Noel family was awaiting autopsy results when the obituary appeared last week.) Something, anything that would explain how a young man would put himself continually at risk for a lethal virus without accessing potentially life-saving treatments, and all the while flaunting his disregard in front of cameras for the carnal delight of others.

Already the online debate on barebacking and even serosorting (seeking out sexual partners who share your HIV status) has been reignited. The fingers of gay activists and public health advocates are being waved, pointed and poked over what prevention technique has failed and which gay cultural defect is to blame.

Has my gay community longed for a pre-AIDS sexual reality so desperately that treatment advances have swept us back to a time when unprotected sex was without horrific consequences? Has porn made barebacking such a fetish that “use a condom every time” can’t compete with oily close-ups of condomless sex? Have advocates like me treated risky behavior among gay men with kid gloves, too easily attributing unsafe sex to “a search for intimacy” or a “post-AIDS mentality?”

Barely legal age, Chad Noel bought into it all. He’d never known a world without HIV and yet it was invisible to him, unacknowledged by his sexual choices or perhaps mocked by them. He was screwing in a time machine and partying like it was 1989. He died like it, too.

Chad was just out of high school when his fatal sexual destiny was set into motion, so the online condolences are primarily from classmates. The messages read like yearbook autographs, some from boys but mostly girls to whom he was kind. “Lost boy goes home,” signs Morgan. Chad was adrift indeed, perhaps unknowingly, in the confusion of sexual maturity and decision making.

Nothing in his short life, and no one it seems, led him to safe ground.

Click here to read more from My Fabulous Disease (King's blog).

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Previous Comments:

Spa'd, United States, 2011-12-28 19:27:27
Chad Noel did not die of an HIV/AIDS-related illness.It is true that he was HIV+ but he was also drug addicted, was in rehab, & lost his battle with drug addiction from a meth/crack overdose. Chad did not succumb to HIV/AIDS, we don’t know if Chad actually contracted HIV from his porn. He worked mainly as an escort and advertised as being available for bareback encounters.

Ryan Billingsley, Salt Lake City, 2011-06-12 14:00:01
Chad was a mess, but a good guy with a great heart. How dare any one trash him because his path in life was different than yours.

William N., NYC, 2010-05-11 09:43:43
Gay or straight, the porn world is bad. But, one cannot deny, whatever the cause, that it is not right a 25 year old is dead. Yes, barebacking is dangerous; HIV is everywhere, and drug use, too. What's the path ahead? Certainly not criticizing & destroying each other. Some of us will succumb to baser temptations, but we're all human and WE ALL have our weaknesses. Care for & help those who want it. But, keep up the message without the hate, aware that perfection can never be the goal.

Jeton Ademaj, New York, 2010-05-06 01:52:38
Chris, 500 characters = bare-bones posts. i don't advocate forced treatment, however prevention using current methods is a failure. the activist community remains willfully blind to their own limited success, n addressing obstacles to adherence (due to lack of resources, trust, education, life stability) r worthier issues to target than self-righteously bemoaning people's sexual n social choices. the joke here is ur cynicism...adherence extends the lifespan of poz ppl n the utility of the meds.

Christopher, , 2010-04-30 17:17:32
Jeton--Put ALL poz people on meds ASAP? Will that before or after Big Brother comes into power? We're not serfs to have these decisions imposed upon us, you know. We have the right to start meds at a time of our choosing, and we're not going to inaugurate despotism just because you hate condoms. And even if it were a good idea, "ensuring" that ALL people on meds take those meds faithfully is so unrealistic it's a joke.

Frederick Wright, Tampa, 2010-04-29 11:23:32
I am not sure who Mark King is or this gentlemen called Chad, how ever it is clear that this young man died of AlDS or Acquired Love Deficiency Syndrome Yes, the community, his family and his business could not teach him the core values of life through love and his confusion with sex and money did him in, like many other stars like Michael Jackson, Elvis .... all a lack of knowing true love for themselves and their community and their bodily immune system.

h8drkaprowski, sarasota,fl, 2010-04-28 12:07:11
I agree with a previous comment, this commentary IS "finger pointing" and counter-productive. My condolences to his family. Putting us all on "chemotherapy" right away for the rest of our lives is not always the answer either. More than likely, it was a combination of viral and bacterial infections that took his life, Hep C, syphilis, gonorrhea. Unfortunately, he did not do well for himself, however, he was also forsaken.

Blaine, Dallas, 2010-04-27 02:10:08
Drugs and low self-esteem might have helped killed this boy. He probably was rebelling against a conservative upbringing as well. In any case his life was cut short because of bad decisions. Gay or not the price is the same. Gotta be smarter people.

MrX, , 2010-04-21 22:40:23
It's still possible to die of AIDS these days especially if you are having bareback sex with lots of people like bareback porn guys do both on and off screen. Then if you add in the factors that he probably had multiple strains, abused drugs and may or may not have been on meds. My condolences to this man and his family/friends. I read a blog here on poz.com that said that crystal use and barebacking are down in bisexual and gay men and that's not true.

Mark, Gainesville, FL, 2010-04-21 00:24:17
I live in a college town. I do HIV testing and pre- and post test counseling. I am HIV+ and thought whenI had to break the bad news, who better than someone who went through it, right? Testing college students, even those in the med programs and hearing the tripe they think is true. So, many think one f three things. 1 There is a cure, a few pills and it's gone! 2 It won't happen to me And 3 (the duesy) they can tell if someone is infected. THAT is why I fear for the younger generation.

Jeton Ademaj, New York, 2010-04-20 14:10:13
whatever actually killed Chad Noel, a broader solution is the "universal test and treat" idea emerging among epidemiologists. test everybody, put all POZ ppl on meds ASAP, n push condoms as an ADJUNCT to prevention, not as the main mode. education is needed to ensure all poz people take meds faithfully, bcuz certain people fear the drugs as one more government conspiracy, n their lack of adherence risks creating enuff resistant virus to make the meds useless for all. Educate, Test n Treat...All.

Mark S. King, Ft. Lauderdale, 2010-04-16 09:16:18
I love the passion of the remarks here. For the record, I believe "use a condom every time" has failed. No campaign will ever work as well as the daily funerals in the 80's. If we don't respect the power of unprotected sex (or the fact the AIDS crisis has changed in mortality for gay men), we lose credibility with younger gay men. Finally, to David from ATL, let's not forget my trip to drug rehab, as long as you're highlighting my many accomplishments! Come visit my blog sometime, y'all.

Jack, San Francisco, 2010-04-15 16:00:24
No it is exactly this "zero tolerance" closed minded and convenient redefinition of natural sex that has detached the "activist" community from the real world. "Use a condom every time" is nice rhetoric but it's not a practical long-term solution for anybody. Adding a ? to the subject line does not make it objective. All I hear from this IS finger pointing, and the autopsy isn't even back yet. That is just as childish and unproductive as pretending there isn't a problem.

David, Atlanta, 2010-04-15 11:59:32
By what stretch of the imagination is Mark King an AIDS advocate? Anyone familiar his history here in Atlanta knows that he's bounced around AIDS service organizations for years, shamelessly self-promoting himself by any means to get attention. So I don't really care what he thinks about this poor dead kid or how this could have happened to him. And anyone who knows anything about the gay porn industry knows that it chews up and spits out men on a regular basis.

matt, pittsburgh, 2010-04-13 20:31:05
I wonder also in addition to not getting tested or medicated if perhaps he was harboring multiple strains of the virus which could have acccelerated disease progression. M.