"You okay, buddy?"

"Well last night I went down to that bath house. A hottie was topping me and the condom broke. Now I'm worried."

While in other countries people visit bath houses simply to relax, in the US these are often places for gay men to meet sexual partners.

A hottie is a sexy person.The man who tops is the dominant sexual partner: he puts his penis into the anus of the other man. This word is also used to talk about heterosexual relations, but it that case, it only describes who is on top during intercourse, not who is penetrating. It can therefore be a man or a woman.

This word appeared frequently in a 2001 educational campaign by The San Francisco AIDS Foundation. The posters were directed at men who believe that "tops" are less likely to carry HIV than "bottoms"and therefore take fewer precautions with these partners. One read:

"Tops who bareback must be negative. How do you know what you know?"

To bareback is to have sex without a condom. This term may also be used for heterosexuals. Negative refers to his HIV status.

In the P'townweekly (Provincetown, MA), July 30, 2003.

go back to GLBT page
go back to Real English main page