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Engaging in sex without using a condom. Considered high risk for transmission of HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases.
Also referred to as "Raw."

Bareback (sex) is a slang term to describe acts of sexual penetration without the use of a condom.
The term comes from the equestrian term "bareback", which refers to the practice of riding a without a saddle.

Barebacking usually refers to a conscious and deliberate choice to forgo condoms; accidental misuse or non-use is not usually called "Barebacking."

Initially used for contraceptive purposes, condoms also came to be used to limit or prevent sexually transmitted diseases, even after other contraceptive methods were developed.
As AIDS emerged and the sexual transmission of HIV became known in the 1980s, the use of condoms to prevent infection became much more widespread, especially among homosexual men.
At the beginning of the AIDS crisis, in the context of the invention and development of safe sex, the uptake of condoms among Western gay men was so widespread and effective that condom use became established as a norm for gay sex.
From 1995, several high profile HIV-positive men declared their refusal to wear condoms with other HIV-positive men in gay publications, dubbing the practice "Barebacking".

While these early articulations of Barebacking expressed a concern for HIV prevention, in that they generally referred to dispensing with condoms in the context of sex between people of the same HIV status, the moral panic which ensued was so pronounced that Barebacking came to be framed as a rebellious and transgressive erotic practice for HIV-positive and HIV-negative people alike, irrespective of the risks of HIV transmission/s.

Barebacking is gaining popularity in the Swinging arena, where organizers frequently offer a vetting service for members to reduce the risk of STDs.

Fluid Bonding refers to unprotected sex in long-term relationships (LTR).
The relationships can be either Monogamous or Polyamorous. This is usually undertaken once medical advice and HIV/STD tests have been taken.
By anecdotal accounts, many couples who intend to become "fluid bonded" generally only do so when intending to undertake a serious exclusive relationship or even marriage; the method of choice being to undertake a pair of tests separated in time by one year, with either complete abstinence or continuing to use condoms in the intervening time (a practice known as "double-gating").

Properly used, "double-gating" will reduce the probability of either person in the couple having HIV to less than 1:10,000 if all tests turn up HIV-free.
The one drawback to the approach is that this will not detect any cheating that may have been done a month or closer prior to the second set of tests, the maximum amount of time required for HIV to become detectable in the bloodstream, so this approach is not recommended for people who routinely have frequent partners.
In Polyamorous (or, open) arrangements, there is usually an agreement to practice protected sex outside of those within the "fluid bonded" relationship/s.

In 2008–2009, as a response to then President-elect Barack Obama's choice of Rick Warren to give the invocation at Obama's inauguration – and in response to Stephen Colbert's comment that "saddleback" sounded like a sex act – Savage Love readers were encouraged to vote to define the neologism "saddlebacking" in reference to Warren's role as pastor of Saddleback Church.
Warren and the church supported the 2008 California Constitutional amendment, Proposition 8, which required the state to recognize only marriage between a man and a woman.

The winning definition for saddlebacking was, "The phenomenon of Christian teens engaging in unprotected anal sex in order to preserve their virginities".