>Sullivan may be hit for advocating monogamy while still being a playboy, but I'm not sure the barebacking angle adds much.
--Virally speaking, yes, sort of. Since barebacking does increase the odds of infection even for the top, and since any P/w HIV can contract multiple strains of the virus, it does make it marginally more dangerous and destructive.
Culturally speaking, the barebacking angle adds to his perceived deviance--like it's somekind of deathwish. (That's not what it is--it's actually another kind of fetish. But of that, more anon . . .) It could easily turn into handwringing about the leather/pigsex/rauch subculture tout court--although the mainstream gay press has pretty much done this already, and I don't think the mainstream straight press is ready for that yet. But should it come to pass, look for Sullivan to be its whipping boy, then its poster boy--two roles which he appears to like to reprise anyway.
Christian