With this medical transition, there has been discourse about my body, and it began to feel overwhelming. However, I’ve learned as a public-facing person that my refusal to clarify can strip me of the freedom to control my own narrative. Why not let the world see what that looks like? So I kept, on Instagram, a diaristic time capsule instead-one that shows a body living in a more fluid space. But I recognize that transitioning is beautiful. And yet, for the past year, Tommy has said nothing, acknowledged no change, just continued on-until now.ĭorfman: I’ve been living in this other version of coming out where I don’t feel safe enough to talk about it, so I just do it. People began to speculate what that shift might mean in the comments and on blogs some of the speculation has been lurid, some tentatively supportive. And there’s something that both paparazzi and Tommy’s followers began to notice over the past year or so: a change in Tommy’s style and appearance. Tommy embodies a very modern type of celebrity, one that’s increasingly influential-and increasingly scrutinized.
But this work is only one part of Tommy’s public presence: with a quick glance at Instagram, it becomes clear-even if you don’t recognize all the brand names (which I don’t)-that Tommy dresses fashionably, with fashionable people, in fashionable places.
#Gay men cum public series#
Harris’ Slave Play, Tommy was tapped to star in Harris’ next project, Daddy, alongside Ronald Peet, Hari Nef and the legendary Alan Cumming.Īnd now, Tommy is set to direct an adaptation of Mason Deaver’s I Wish You All the Best, is starring this fall in the Channel 4 limited series Fracture and has a role in Lena Dunham’s upcoming film Sharp Stick. When everyone I knew was debating Jeremy O. I kept hearing about Tommy from artists I respected. Their commitment to safe sex may not necessarily be compromised by their practice of cum play, but the extent to which this could represent a risk for HIV transmission depends on the reliability of their assessment of their partners' HIV serostatus.Before then, I knew Tommy only by reputation, as the actor who rose to fame in 2017 in the role of Ryan Shaver, the conniving, scene-stealing poet on the Netflix series 13 Reasons Why.
Many feel confident in their knowledge of their partner's HIV serostatus and only use condoms with these partners at their partner's request. "Safe sex" for some gay and bisexual men does not necessarily mean consistent commitment to condom use or to avoiding semen exchange. Cum play was not uncommon and highlights the narrowness (or danger) of focusing on condom use without considering the implications of broader sexual practices and their meaning for sexual health promotion. They were also generally more optimistic about the likelihood of HIV transmission, and they often only used condoms at their partners' instigation. HIV-negative men who engaged in receptive cum play during PAIC often believed that their partner was HIV seroconcordant and tended to trust that partner. Receptive cum play (partner ejaculating or rubbing his semen over participant's anus, or participant using partner's semen as lubricant) was reported by one in six HIV-negative and one quarter of HIV-positive men on the same occasion of protected anal intercourse with a casual partner (PAIC).
We investigated the prevalence of "cum play" and its context among 1153 HIV-negative and 147 HIV-positive Australian gay men in an online survey. The exchange of semen, often referred to as "cum play," has featured in gay literature and may be a unique aspect of many gay men's sexual behavior.