HIV now fects more heterosexual people than gay or bisexual men – we need a new strategy | Ian Green | The Guardian

Contents:

• HIV AND ALL GAY AND BISEXUAL MEN
• DISCRIMATN AND HOMOPHOBIA FUEL THE HIV EPIMIC GAY AND BISEXUAL MEN
• HIV NOW FECTS MORE HETEROSEXUAL PEOPLE THAN GAY OR BISEXUAL MEN – WE NEED A NEW STRATEGY
• HIV AMONG GAY AND BISEXUAL MEN THE U.S.
• BETWEEN TWO PANMICS: OLR, GAY MEN'S EXPERIENC ACROSS HIV/AIDS AND COVID-19

HIV AND ALL GAY AND BISEXUAL MEN

SiegedSec, a self-scribed group of gay furry hackers, took s skills to state ernments late June, breachg agenci across five stat and releasg a wealth of data.The stat targeted on June 27 were Texas, Nebraska, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, and South Carola. "Uwu gay furri pwn you~ We'll be back aga soon to ntue our chaos and stctn!"Some news outlets, such as Them, raised ncerns that the group's actns uld expose random people to harm, not jt the targeted ernments. For gay and bisexual youth who are jt begng to explore their sexualy, homophobia and other forms of anti-LGBTQ bias help expla why so many young people our muny are unaware of their HIV stat.

The natn also saw tremendo progrs the fight agast HIV unr former Print Barack Obama, whose Natnal HIV & AIDS Strategy explicly lled attentn to gay and bisexual men and transgenr women for the first time. Over the last 30 years, efforts to prevent new HIV fectns among gay and bisexual men have been guid by paradigms that hold dividuals rponsible for their health behavrs.

DISCRIMATN AND HOMOPHOBIA FUEL THE HIV EPIMIC GAY AND BISEXUAL MEN

More recently, wh the game-changg breakthroughs the bmedil arena, attentn has shifted to the bmedil preventn strategi, which clu preexposure prophylaxis (PrEP) for gay, bisexual, and other MSM (Grant et al., 2010) and vagal microbicis for women (Abdool et al., 2010). In rponse to the alarmg health dispari among gay and bisexual men, there has been a ll to broan the preventn lens to exame the fluence of multiple social and ntextual factors fluencg health behavrs (Halkis & Cahill, 2011).

Dpe clear evince for the social termants of HIV transmissn and the beneficial effects of stctural terventns (Adimora & Auerbach, 2010), there have been limed efforts targetg the social equali, which place gay and bisexual men at greater risk for the acquisn of HIV disease. Of particular relevance to HIV preventn among gay and bisexual men are the social ndns that place at heightened risk for acquirg HIV as pared to our heterosexual unterparts. In this article, nsiratn is given to the manner through which discrimatn and homophobia, which may have been heightened bee of the AIDS epimic (Halkis, 1999), perpetuate HIV vulnerabili for gay and bisexual men.

Such health vulnerabili driven by homophobia are often exacerbated for gay and bisexual men of lor, who are often further burned by the social circumstanc of racism and poverty. Sce discrimatn based on sexual inty is cril to the ias beg put forth, and sce the HIV preventn needs of gay and bisexual men differ wily om those of non-gay or bisexual MSM (Halkis, 2010b), the foc of this issue of the newsletter is on gay and bisexual men, and not MSM general. In the now historic document, which recently reached s 30th anniversary, the CDC (1981) reported five s of Pnmocystis rii pnmonia young gay men who otherwise should have been healthy.

HIV NOW FECTS MORE HETEROSEXUAL PEOPLE THAN GAY OR BISEXUAL MEN – WE NEED A NEW STRATEGY

Wh bewilrment and fear, I read Robert Altman’s (1981) acunt of “doctors New York and California [who] have diagnosed among homosexual men 41 s of a rare and often rapidly fatal form of ncer.

” In the followg years, I wnsed the eptn of the disease, which s early years was given the name GRID (gayrelated immunoficiency disease) bee of s omniprence the gay populatn (Shilts, 2007; Weeks & Almo, 2010).

HIV AMONG GAY AND BISEXUAL MEN THE U.S.

However, spe the fact that the disease no longer remas nfed solely to gay and bisexual men, the realy is that this segment of the populatn is the one most affected by this epimic. Male populatn 18–44 years of age (Chandra, Mosher, Copen, & Snean, 2011), MSM, primarily gay and bisexual men, acunt for more than 50 percent of all AIDS s and all HIV fectns and 57 percent all new HIV fectns (CDC, 2011b).

BETWEEN TWO PANMICS: OLR, GAY MEN'S EXPERIENC ACROSS HIV/AIDS AND COVID-19

Dpe creased visibily, acceptance and recent socpolil advanc, gay and bisexual men ntue to live a society that privileg heterosexualy while nigratg nonheterosexual relatnships, behavrs and inti (Herek, Gillis, & Cogan, 2009). Opprsive social stctur and equali affectg gay and bisexual men have been implited perpetuatg not only the HIV epimic but also rat of anal ncer, Hepatis B, human papillomavis (HPV) and lymphogranuloma vernrm (LGV) fectns, syphilis, gonorrhea and Hepatis C (Wolski & Fenton, 2011).