Are ‘Sex roulette’ parties really taking place?

PICTURE this scenario: you walk into a room filled with a bunch of naked people. You’re all about to voluntarily have sex.

But one of them has an incurable sexually-transmitted infection. You don’t know who that person is.
And you’re strictly not allowed to use a condom.
Makes for a crazy story, right?
Over the past week, reports have emerged of this supposed rising new trend called ‘Sex Roulette’ parties.
The story has been making the rounds since it first appeared on the Spanish news site El Periodico, entitled: “Swingers in Barcelona have a secret AIDS patient as a guest in the orgy”.
The Daily Mail’s lengthy headline reads: “Sex roulette parties where one person is secretly HIV+ and nobody is allowed to use condoms are on the rise, warn doctors.”
The Mirror reports: “The risky orgies offer the ‘thrill’ of not knowing whether or not you will be infected - which medics say shows people have ‘lost respect’ for HIV.”

Reports are suggesting unprotected “Sex Roulette” parties are a rising trend.Source:ThinkStock

But the problem with these reports is a lack of evidence. In fact, despite their using the plural ‘doctors’, all the outlets quote just one source – Dr Josep Mallolas from Hospital Clinic Barcelona – who specialises in HIV prevention.
He told el Periodico that this trend is a sign that people have “lost respect” for the severity of HIV, because it can now be treated.
Subsequent reporting has been contradictory. The Daily Mail claims these “thrilling” parties are conducted exclusively by gay men. Others, like the Parent Herald, have reported it’s the latest trend among teenagers.
Sole source Dr Mallolas was asked to clarify his comments and provide evidence to news.com.au of the parties he described taking place.
“In the last two or three years, and in several large western cities like London, Paris and now Barcelona, there is a clear evidence of such ‘parties’ called Chemsex,” he told news.com.au in response.
“Chemsex is a concept where several people, mainly men who have sex with men, are in a place and they used a lot of drugs like mephedrone and methamphetamine for a long sexual party.
“It is in this kind of party where the people lose their control and they do things otherwise they never would do.”
But the ‘Chemsex’ trend, while it does exist, is a separate issue with nothing to do with these reports.
Chemsex parties are basically orgies fuelled by hook-up apps, in which participants take illegal drugs such as crystal meth and GHB before having sex for lengthy periods of time.
While dangerous and disturbing in their own right, their existence is hardly a revelation. The term ‘Chemsex’ gained prominence in the mainstream media last year, after Vice released an unflinching documentary on the lives of various ongoing and former participants.

Chemsex, or sex involving illegal drugs, is not the same as the ‘Sex Roulette’ parties being reported on.Source:Supplied

This is an ongoing issue, which has been described as the ‘biggest crisis in the gay community’ since the AIDS epidemic 30 years ago.
But ‘Chemsex’ parties are in no way the same as the ‘Sex Roulette’ parties reported in the media now. In fact, by conflating the two, Dr Mallolas may as well be admitting the latter is not really a thing.
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