Barebacking first appeared in American gay circles around 1995. Initially, barebacking was used by seropositive and seronegative homosexual men who planned dates on the net with the intention of having sexual intercourses without any protection. The story, related in this article, shows the human drama underlying the search for sexual partners who accept to place their health, and even their life, at risk. That phenomenon would come from a protest movement against the discriminatory effects of public health preventive interventions on the target population. Some solutions are brought about. Coercive ones are rejected in favour of a humanist individualized approach.