by Cheryl Hawkes

About the author: Cheryl Hawkes is a contributor to Maclean’s.

A member of the so-called safe-sex generation, Richard is a gay man in his 30s who became sexually active during the early part of the AIDS epidemic. From the start, he says, he always insisted on condoms, always approached sex ‘with latex and a level of caution that seemed ill-matched with the excitement of the event.’ But occasionally Richard (not his real name) took a chance and had unprotected sex. And with every blood test that came back HIV-negative, he felt bolder. ‘Every year, the number of episodes would be more than the year before,’ he admits. ‘I guess I was rolling the dice.’ Three months ago, Richard’s...