Nik Cohn is a British writer with Hepatitis C who is best known for writing the article that was the basis for the 1977 movie Saturday Night Fever starring John Travolta. His Hepatitis status was to blame for a series of health problems in the late 1990s, but he appears to have moved on well. Today he promotes the work of hip hop groups in New Orleans and before that he was a columnist for The Guardian for several years. In 1975 he wrote an article for New York Magazine called “Tribal Rites of the New Saturday Night” that originally was published as a true story about the disco scene in New York during the early 70s, but the article was actually a complete fabrication inspired by people he knew in England. By the time he admitted the fraud it had been 20 years since the release of Saturday Night Fever made John Travolta a star.
Andrew Sullivan has been taking a Daily Dish of AIDS cocktail since 1996. The openly gay conservative columnist for The Atlantic is a self described bear is originally from England and is best known for his work with The Atlantic, but has also written for Time Magazine, has authored several books, and is a regular guest on Real Time with Bill Maher. In 2001 he was criticized by The Nation for posting an anonymous personal ad on the gay dating site BareBackCity.com describing himself as a “one stop source for *bareback sex” who was interested in “bi-scenes, one-on-ones, three-ways, groups, parties, orgies and gang bangs”. The article called Sullivan irresponsible for soliciting unprotected sex while being HIV positive, but at the same time acknowledged that he was honest about his status with potential partners and never tried to infect anyone.
Bareback is a slang term among gay men for unprotected anal sex.