Chemsex happens in specific subcultures like circuit parties and queer spaces, not just casual couples. Many harm-reduction providers lack knowledge about it, and training needs to explicitly address chemsex to better serve queer and trans clients.
Like, do you even know about chemsex and what it is? I don't fault people for saying this, but I do think it's problematic framing when you say, oh, straight couples, right? Cis-het people, we do chemsex. We, you know, we go out and have a couple drinks and we go home and we have sex and whatever. Right. That's a very, very different context than what is going on, right? Than circuit parties, right? Like things that are happening in communities, right? Sex work, whatever is going on. So I think harm reduction plays a really integral role also in advocating for contingency management, for groups, for really these models that have been emulated within harm reduction and making sure to incorporate it as part of kind of just the practicum, kind of the continuum of harm reduction. Because it really startled me, I think, just how many providers weren't comfortable, didn't know. And you can't just assume that because someone's a harm reductionist that they're automatically on board with chemsex. And even further with queer and trans people in general.
