Grdr and Gay Inty | Debatg Communi and Networks 11

Contents:

• GAY MEN’S CONSTCTN AND MANAGEMENT OF INTY ON GRDR
• GAY MEN'S NSTCTN AND MANAGEMENT OF INTY ON GRDR
• 1 GAY MENS NSTCTN AND MANAGEMENT OF INTY ON GRDR
• REVIEWSOCIAL PSYCHOLOGIL ASPECTS OF GAY INTY VELOPMENT
• GRDRG THE SELF: YOUNG FILIPO GAY MEN'S EXPLORATN OF SEXUAL INTY THROUGH A GEO-SOCIAL NETWORKG APPLITN
• INTY, CONNECTEDNS, AND SEXUAL HEALTH THE GAY SNA
• GRDR AND GAY INTY

GAY MEN’S CONSTCTN AND MANAGEMENT OF INTY ON GRDR

Ccially, onle inti n bee “visible” offle his small-sle terview study of gay llege men, Dodge (2014) argu that Grdr and other lotn-aware applitns enable young gay men to nstct and velop a gay inty, partly bee allows them to tablish relatns wh other gay men a “safe” space. Siarly, Castañeda’s (2015) study of Grdr e among young Filipo gay men monstrat that they utilize Grdr orr to velop and explore a gay sexual inty by sharg own personal narrativ wh other gay men.

For stance, heteronormative offle settgs assiatg and acmodatg one’s inty as a Grdr er may be challengg for self-teem if dividuals e to believe that beg gay is immoral and unnatural (Jaspal and Cnirella 2010).

Conversely, on Grdr one is likely to be exposed to more gay affirmative imagery and language and, th, feelgs of self-teem may facilate the assiatn-acmodatn of one’s gay sexualy (Birnholtz et al.

GAY MEN'S NSTCTN AND MANAGEMENT OF INTY ON GRDR

The schle began wh qutns regardg self-scriptn and inty, followed by some qutns/prob that eliced rmatn ncerng attus towards Grdr, their experienc of g the applitn, and terpersonal relatns wh other gay men. Grdr appeared to facilate the selectn of a ntextually appropriate inty, while the gay scene was perceived as reifyg the inti rultg one’s intifiabily as eher “top” (sexually sertive) or “bottom” (sexually receptive). Raj felt that his South Asian inty was stigmatized predomantly Whe gay offle spac (see Jaspal, prs), while Jam highlighted the “plans” of Whe inty which he felt obscured the diversy of people wh this tegory.

Ined, several terviewe scribed the ial challeng of attemptg to meet sexual partners while matag discretn as an impediment to their self-efficy—they felt ls empowered as “closeted” gay men.

1 GAY MENS NSTCTN AND MANAGEMENT OF INTY ON GRDR

The realy of homophobia nstuted an important factor participants’ cisn to rely on Grdr as a means of nnectg wh sexual partners—they uld seek sex addn to perceived stigma om heterosexuals, terviewe also highlighted the emergg social stigma of sual sex among gay men, monly referred to as “slut shamg” (see Blackwell and Birnholtz 2015, for more on “slut shamg”):I got to say there is a b of turng your nose up at you if you meet a guy and have sex or whatever, ’s like you e across slutty and nobody really lik even if they’re dog too, so I don’t like people knowg my bs… On Grdr you check your msage, reply, and nobody really knows how much you’re sluttg around [lghs]. In short, Grdr, as a discreet means of nnectg wh others, rtored the sense of self-efficy that was sometim challenged by the social stigma of sual sex among gay them surroundg the flexibily of inty nstctn on Grdr and creased agency over one’s sexual behavr were powerfully reflected across the participant sample.

DiscsnDrawg upon tes of Inty Procs Theory om social psychology, the prent study set out to explore the meangs that GBM append to Grdr, a leadg geospatial gay social workg mobile applitn, and the impact that their e of Grdr n have for inty procs. ’s (2016) work on partg Grdr did not nsir inty threat, the prent study provis a novel perspective on ers’ (dis)engagement wh fdgs of this study n be cltered around three overarchg them that foc on (1) how gay and bisexual ers nstct and re-nstct their inti on Grdr, (2) how Grdr n enhance the self-efficy prciple of inty, and (3) the challeng associated wh straddlg the boundari between their liv and inti onle and offle settgs.

Neverthels, many of them were secretive about their e of Grdr partly bee they believed there was social stigma append to gay sexualy— particular, the stereotype that gay men are sexually promiscuo (Kahn and Fgerhut 2011). Individuals appeared to perceive agency over their multiple inti as they uld foreground some over others and attenuate those that were stigmatized, wh posive out for self-teem and of the rearch to GBM’s e of gay lotn-aware applitns has ntend that there is a posive rrelatn between applitn age and sexual risk-takg (Lehler and Ioerger 2014; Young et al. Dpe the apparent social psychologil benefs of geospatial gay social workg applitns, the prsur of ercive norms on the applitn as well as perceived "addictn" to n rult threats to inty, thereby challengg social and psychologil wellbeg.

REVIEWSOCIAL PSYCHOLOGIL ASPECTS OF GAY INTY VELOPMENT

Dpe the apparent social psychologil benefs of geospatial gay social workg applitns, the prsur of ercive norms on the applitn as well as perceived “addictn” to n rult threats to inty, thereby challengg social and psychologil wellbeg.

GRDRG THE SELF: YOUNG FILIPO GAY MEN'S EXPLORATN OF SEXUAL INTY THROUGH A GEO-SOCIAL NETWORKG APPLITN

It is argued that, orr to velop an effective theory of gay inty velopment, empiril rearch should foc upon the levels of analysis, acknowledgg that there is a dynamic terplay between them; the multiplicy of inty self (nsistg of sometim petg elements); and the motiv that unrp the nstctn, management and protectn of inty (prcipally self-teem, self-efficy, ntuy, posive distctivens and belonggns). Inrporatg rearch techniqu om Sikolohiyang Pilipo, participants were asked to share their experienc of g Grdr, a geo-social workg applitn, and how ntributed to the way they unrstood and nceptualized what meant to be a young Filipo gay man. IntroductnGay snas (also referred to as gay bathho and steamho) are a mercial space which gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex wh men (MSM)Footnote 1 n meet for sexual enunters.

There are rerds of gay men g snas for sex the fifteenth century but was the send half of the twentieth century that gay snas beme more wispread London, New York, and other major ci (Bébé, 1996) sexual health of sna ers has been a signifint foc of both rearchers and mentators (e. Yet, gay snas have now bee an important ntext for raisg awarens of safer sex and of enhancg HIV preventn has been limed rearch to the inti, experienc, and perceptns of gay sna ers (e. In orr to addrs this lacuna rearch, this article foc on the meangs and experienc that gay men livg the English cy of Leicter attribute to the gay sna, the role of the sna their sense of inty, and how they nste their sexual behavr this Health Among Gay MenOf the 89, 400 people livg wh HIV the England 2016, 51% were gay men (PHE, 2018a), and, of the 4370 new HIV diagnos 2017, 53% (n = 2330) were among gay men (Nash et al., 2018).

INTY, CONNECTEDNS, AND SEXUAL HEALTH THE GAY SNA

This epimlogil profile among gay men n be attributed to the high equency of sex, multiple sexual partners, and high prevalence of ndomls sex this populatn (Jaspal, 2019) Risk and Preventn the Gay SnaIn their survey study of 134 gay sna ers South Wt England, Horwood et al. (2016) found high rat of HIV risk behavr – participants reported higher numbers of sual sexual partners and higher equency of unprotected anal sex than muny sampl of gay men reced non-sna settgs.

(2005) noted that gay sna attendance was a signifint risk factor for hepatis A fectn, and that the vast majory of those fected had had sex a gay of the sexual health iativ gay snas clu the dissematn of sexual health knowledge, the provisn of STI screeng and HIV ttg, and awarens-raisg regardg PrEP and post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP). In several studi, rearchers have found high acceptabily and effectivens of HIV self-ttg gay snas although they do acknowledge the need to ascerta the bt way of implementg this service wh the sna (Huebner, Bson, Pollack, & Woods, 2012; Woods, Lippman, Agnew, Carroll, & Bson, 2016).

Ccially, HIV preventn gay snas n target subgroups of gay men who might not ordarily engage wh sexual health servic and who might therefore be missed through nventnal HIV preventn rout (Debattista, 2015), effective terventns should be rmed by social psychologil rearch that ptur the views, perceptns, and behavrs of the target populatn the target ntext, that is, the diverse inti of the people whom we wish to target (Fish, Papaloas, Jaspal, & Williamson, 2016).

GRDR AND GAY INTY

When the prcipl are challenged, the dividual experienc threats to inty, which is aversive for psychologil has been some rearch that sheds light on the impact of the gay sna on the inti of ers. Drawg on semi-stctured terviews and archival data, Prr (2009) has argued that the gay sna played an important role the nstctn of a gay culture and inty Sydney, Atralia, partly bee enabled gay men to explore, velop, and exprs their sexual inti the face of the homophobic stigma they faced. The gay sna uld promote ntuy and self-teem on the basis of one’s sexual inty the face of external threats to this inty the form of social their terview study of gay sna ers Sydney, Atralia, Prr and Cack (2010, p.

93–94) found that the gay sna functned as a “relig-spirual space removed om the fluence of a domant relig stutn, ” which enabled s ers to engage pleasurable, self-thentitg acts away om the stigma of heteronormative Atralian society. 134) their study of 23 ers of a gay sna Toronto, Hbrich, Myers, Calzavara, Ryr, and Medved (2004) found that ers emphasized the ease of accs to sex the sna ( ntrast to gay bars, for stance), that they valued the anonymy of sexual enunters and, importantly, that they felt safe there. Acrdgly, the prent study draws on tes of inty procs theory to explore the meangs and experienc that gay men livg Leicter attribute to the gay sna, the role of the sna their sense of inty, and how they nste their sexual behavr this ntext.

They all believed themselv to be HIV-negative at the time of the terviews were guid by a semi-stctured terview schle that foced on the followg areas: self-scriptn, self-tegorizatn, motivatns for g the gay sna, sexual behavrs and experienc the gay sna, sexual inty, and sexual health perceptns.