Look to the HIV Epimic of Gay Communy wh a Soc-Cultural Perspective: A Qualative Study Cha, 2015-2016 | PLOS ONE

Contents:

• HIV AMONG GAY AND BISEXUAL MEN THE U.S.
• HIV AND ALL GAY AND BISEXUAL MEN
• GAY, BISEXUAL MEN CREASGLY AGREE: HIV “UNTECTABLE EQUALS UNTRANSMTABLE”
• THE TOP LGBTQ+ DATG S AND APPS: 14 BT GAY DATG S
• GAY DATG APP USERS SUPPORT AND UTILIZE SEXUAL HEALTH FEATUR ON APPS
• THE CHALLENGE OF BEG GAY AND AUTISTIC
• TO SURVIVE, CHA’S BIGGT GAY DATG APP BEME A PHARMACY
• LOOK TO THE HIV EPIMIC OF GAY COMMUNY WH A SOC-CULTURAL PERSPECTIVE: A QUALATIVE STUDY CHA, 2015-2016
• IS KENYA ABOUT TO FOLLOW UGANDA WH STRICT ANTI-GAY LEGISLATN?
• WISNS MIDDLE SCHOOL FEATUR 'THIS BOOK IS GAY' LIBRARY, STIRRG ONLE OUTRAGE
• THE IMPACT OF STIGMA ON HIV TTG CISNS FOR GAY, BISEXUAL, QUEER AND OTHER MEN WHO HAVE SEX WH MEN: A QUALATIVE STUDY
• HIV AND AIN AMERIN GAY AND BISEXUAL MEN
• DATG GAY HIV MANLY WT ATRALIA

HIV AMONG GAY AND BISEXUAL MEN THE U.S.

Factors that fluence health out—cludg HIV-related stigma, homophobia, racism, discrimatn, poverty, limed accs to high-qualy health re, and other longstandg barriers—have ntributed to the unequal reach of HIV preventn and treatment; higher levels of HIV some muni; and ntued equi. Wh effective preventn and treatment tools at our disposal, the natn has a s--the-makg opportuny to end the domtic HIV epimic and elimate dispari HIV preventn and re among gay and bisexual men and other populatns disproportnately affected by HIV.

"The trial, EHVA PO1, is beg n by specialists London at the St Stephen's Centre and Wtmster Hospal as well as wh partner s source, Dan HarryImage ptn, Dan Harry marched wh Terrence Higgs tst at London pri this year to raise awarens of their work to end HIVMr Harry said that due to the lack of tn school he was left anx about HIV and left him sred to e out as gay. The center says the novative approach is workg: Sce s lnch 2016, the program has attracted more than 300 clients to the of the clients are black and Hispanic gay men and trans women, groups that are disproportnately affected by HIV.

HIV AND ALL GAY AND BISEXUAL MEN

2017, and of those gay and bisexual men diagnosed wh HIV, 37 percent were black and 29 percent were Hispanic, acrdg to the Centers for Disease Control and program’s lnchThe program was started by Antón Castellanos-Usigli, who had jt fished his master’s gree public health at Columbia Universy when 2015 he was reced by Wyckoff Heights Medil Center.

‘We have to treat the whole person’Through Grdr and other gay datg apps, the center brgs clients to s Stat Ntral program, which aims to keep HIV-posive patients at an untransmtable viral load and protect HIV-negative patients agast fectn through ndoms, regular ttg and PrEP or preexposure s lnch, the center has standardized the practice and tracked s rults.

Look, 's not our job to teach you the reali of morn medice, and a smart, self-rpectg gay man should do the work on his own to te himself on what his optns are if he gets HIV, and what optns are available to prevent we know you might not do that.

GAY, BISEXUAL MEN CREASGLY AGREE: HIV “UNTECTABLE EQUALS UNTRANSMTABLE”

Dpe this beg the realy -- the fact that HIV-posive gay men are everywhere, particularly if you're the slightt b volved your queer muny everywhere your life -- you might not grasp how many of there are until you start lookg. There's this narrative of the "predatory HIV-posive guy" that floats through right-wg media outlets and ocsnally plants self to the mds of gay men -- gay men who may be cluels about the reali of HIV today and who are likely cluels about their own HIV believg this lie. †Unr 50%Only 27% of Black/Ain Amerin, 31% of Hispanic/Lato, and 42% of Whe gay and bisexual men who uld have benefted om medice to prevent HIV (PrEP) ed 50%Only 27% of Black/Ain Amerin, 31% of Hispanic/Lato, and 42% of Whe gay and bisexual men who uld have benefted om medice to prevent HIV (PrEP) ed 2017.

Addrsg HIV service equi by race, sexual orientatn, and socenomic stat and tailorg strategi to meet the needs of lol muni and reach the most affected groups, pecially Black/Ain Amerin and Hispanic/Lato gay and bisexual men, n help end the HIV epimic.

THE TOP LGBTQ+ DATG S AND APPS: 14 BT GAY DATG S

Dpe overall progrs rcg new fectns among gay and bisexual men, the HIV epimic ntued and was more severe among Black or Ain Amerin (hereafter referred to as Black) and Hispanic/Lato gay and bisexual men the leadg up to the feral Endg the HIV Epimic the U. From 2010–2019, the number of new HIV fectns remaed relatively stable among Black (om 9, 000 to 8, 900) and Hispanic/Lato (om 6, 800 to 7, 900) gay and bisexual men and cled among Whe gay and bisexual men (om 7, 500 to 5, 100). The new Val Signs report, which marks World AIDS Day tomorrow, December 1, shows Black and Hispanic/Lato gay and bisexual men were ls likely to receive an HIV diagnosis, be virally supprsed, or e pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) to prevent HIV, pared wh Whe gay and bisexual men.

GAY DATG APP USERS SUPPORT AND UTILIZE SEXUAL HEALTH FEATUR ON APPS

In an analysis of data om the Medil Monorg Project—a natnally reprentative survey of people diagnosed wh HIV—Black and Hispanic/Lato gay and bisexual men were more likely to report experiencg HIV-related stigma than Whe gay and bisexual men. Table showg the percentag of Whe, Black/Ain Amerin, and Hispanic/Lato gay and bisexual men who knew their HIV stat, discsed PreP wh a healthre provir the past 12 months, ed PrEP the past 12 months, took HIV medice as prcribed, and were virally supprsed. Social rearch related to HIV preventn will sometim differentiate between gay and bisexual men, particularly wh rpect to whether or not bisexual men engage wh safe-sex msagg or whether there are differenc between gay and bisexual men safe-sex behavurs [4].

THE CHALLENGE OF BEG GAY AND AUTISTIC

Even where bisexual men are acknowledged and named as part of the group, the small number of bisexual-intified men relative to the number of gay men means that the experienc of bisexual men are often margalised or hidn rearch or not readily visible current data llectn. While this may not be problematic populatn-level studi of HIV transmissn, n be problematic smaller sle studi which seek to unrstand human behavur, safe sex cisn makg, sexual cultur or the experienc of are many reasons why the experienc of bisexual men livg wh HIV may be different to that of gay men.

Alongsi this, epimlogil rearch ncerned wh the risk of HIV transmissn to heterosexual muni [10, 11, 12] often implicly rerced the notn that bisexual men were problematic due to beg a transmissn ‘lk’ between gay men and heterosexual women.

TO SURVIVE, CHA’S BIGGT GAY DATG APP BEME A PHARMACY

Peer support programs, and nnectn wh other PLHIV, may also help to rce the burn of stigma through creatg social teractns where HIV is acknowledged and normalised [18, 19] which turn may rce negative self-perceptn associated wh HIV [20] paper explor the experienc of bisexual men a sample of Atralian PLHIV and par gay and bisexual men on a range of measur cludg perceived stigma, social nnectedns and mental health. The survey was advertised wily on social media (namely Facebook), datg apps targetg gay and bisexual men, through HIV anisatns, gay muny media, HIV-related media, HIV and sexual health clics, and relevant muny events.

LOOK TO THE HIV EPIMIC OF GAY COMMUNY WH A SOC-CULTURAL PERSPECTIVE: A QUALATIVE STUDY CHA, 2015-2016

We only examed rpons om bisexual men rather than parg gay and bisexual men bee short text rpons provi jt a small amount of rmatn and sight to the issu of ncern, hence pacy for a nuanced qualative parison between two groups is limed.

There were eight people who intified as gay and transgenr or genr diverse (grouped wh gay men for the purpos of this analysis given the foc is on sexual inty), while no bisexual men intified as transgenr or genr 1 shows few differenc between the sampl of gay men and bisexual men mographic characteristics. Of those a regular relatnship, bisexual men were more likely than gay men to report that their primary partner was female (although due to small sample siz partner genr tegori we nnot report on a statistil parison) (Table 1) 1 Sample characteristics by sexual intyFull size tableQuantative FdgsHealth StatThere were no differenc between gay men and bisexual men wh rpect to: years livg wh diagnosed HIV (t = 0. Given muny nnectedns and peer support is known to be a buffer agast the negative impact of stigma on mental health [35, 36], the fdgs suggt that HIV-posive bisexual men may be more vulnerable than gay men to poorer mental health and emotnal wellbeg as a rult of HIV-related stigma.

IS KENYA ABOUT TO FOLLOW UGANDA WH STRICT ANTI-GAY LEGISLATN?

Bisexual men may not experience the same benefs om social support programs that broadly target gay and bisexual men as a fdg that bisexual men report poorer emotnal wellbeg and greater social isolatn than gay men is nsistent wh prev rearch on bisexualy Atralia and ternatnally [37, 38, 39, 40]. While is likely that many gay men may have also experienced a sense of disnnectn or rejectn om people their liv as a rult of their HIV diagnosis [43], the fdgs of this study suggt that gay men may be more likely than bisexual men to have accs to works of support and muny among other PLHIV or LGBTQ muni. “We n see the impact of preventn strategi like creasg HIV ttg, treatment as preventn, and pre-exposure prophylaxis particularly among gay and bisexual men, for whom new diagnos have been droppg signifintly sce 2014.

WISNS MIDDLE SCHOOL FEATUR 'THIS BOOK IS GAY' LIBRARY, STIRRG ONLE OUTRAGE

"We n see the impact of preventn strategi like creasg HIV ttg, treatment as preventn, and pre-exposure prophylaxis particularly among gay and bisexual men, for whom new diagnos have been droppg signifintly sce 2014.

THE IMPACT OF STIGMA ON HIV TTG CISNS FOR GAY, BISEXUAL, QUEER AND OTHER MEN WHO HAVE SEX WH MEN: A QUALATIVE STUDY

Don't matter your genr, race, or stat, if you have a plump bubble butt, I will (most likely) want to sleep wh my of datg people, I've been wh folks om all walks of life: gay and bi men, bears, straight women, trans and genr nonnformg folks, twks, and the list go on.

In fact, there's been enough rearch that on Natnal Gay Men's HIV/AIDS Awarens Day 2017, the CDC clared, "When [antiretroviral treatment] rults viral supprsn, fed as ls than 200 pi/ml or untectable levels, prevents sexual HIV transmissn.

HIV AND AIN AMERIN GAY AND BISEXUAL MEN

Whether you’re gay, pan/bi or straight, cis; nonbary, or trans; BIPOC, whe, Indigeno, East or South Asian, datg apps make all too easy to get so granular and specific what you’re lookg for, you miss out on a lot of other potential partners. Whether they know their stat or not, there are hundreds of thoands of gay men livg wh HIV, hookg up and fallg HIV-negative men I know live and love a seemgly blissful nial, pretendg HIV isn't already enmhed their datg and sex liv. To get there, we need to do more to enurage HIV-posive and HIV-negative gay men to openly discs their stat and risk onle and to create a dialogue that supports both HIV-posive and HIV-negative people who are workg through the difficult challenge of beg relatnships wh each other.

DATG GAY HIV MANLY WT ATRALIA

In the gay world, we n be sensive to straight people cricizg or judgg , but there is an amazg amount of hypocrisy and elism our own backyard, much of a rult of fear and 't Be a Douche BagWe need to let our HIV-posive iends know we are available to discs stat and safe sex openly. Adm Your FearsUntil HIV-negative guys start admtg we're aaid of beg HIV-posive, until we adm our vtment beg HIV-negative, and until we adm the judgments that often get attached to HIV-posive stat, we're never gog to get rid of the shamg power of HIV and the negative impact has on , on HIV-posive men, and on future generatns of gay men.

If you are HIV-negative, I urge you to to face your fears, acknowledge your prejudic, and stop the cycle of discrimatn wh the gay, this ongog age of HIV, requir clary, rponsibily, and matury our acquatanc and iendships, our romanc, and, most importantly, the heat of the. Much like gay bars and sex clubs have served as partners for behavral and stctural HIV tn and preventn efforts sce the earlit days of the epimic [41, 42], datg apps for MSM n play a cril role the efforts, pecially the ntext of a cle physil venu which MSM socialize [43] 67% of MSM reportg app e wh the past year to meet a partner, nearly 2. Gay, bisexual and other men who have sex wh men (MSM) of all rac and ethnici rema the populatn most severely affected by HIV, wh whe MSM acuntg for the largt number of new HIV, ntrary to the early eighti when beg HIV posive was emed to be a ath sentence, beg HIV posive now is nsired a "manageable chronic disease, " thanks to the advent of anti-retroviral dgs.

""There are challeng to [HIV posive] datg; but the thg I like to emphasize is that we really have a public health tn issue on our hands, " says Ken Howard, a therapist based Los Angel wh a clientele that foc on HIV posive issu and on gay men. I often wonr what would have happened if we had unrstood each other, but havg tism spectm disorr I have missed a lot of relatnship opportuni bee of my abily to rrectly terpret nonverbal social n be a problem for anybody who has tism, but ’s pecially tough when to those of who are gay, bi, lbian and trans.

Compound this wh the stigma beg gay has our culture, and you have a suatn where beg gay and tistic n feel very lonely — like a pilatn of missed opportuni to fd a tried so hard he even mooned me once ont of other guys, but at that time was hopels. “Blued, even today, n still n a bs Cha bee maly posns self as a health promotn platform, rather than a gay platform, ” said Lik Sam Chan, a munitns profsor at The Che Universy of Hong Kong and the thor of The Polics of Datg Apps: Genr, Sexualy, and Emergent Publics Urban Cha. “There are still some anxieti, but I thk this software provis a channel for people to relax and stay nnected to the LGBTQ muny, ” said one Che gay rights activist who asked to rema anonymo to protect their safety.

Our study revealed that: 1) fluenced by Che tradnal culture, gay men have nflicts on self-inty, which led to low self-acceptance and negative attu on sex, and huge soc-psychologil strs; 2) a generatnal differenc wh gay muny was observed, reflected varied sexual attus and practic as well as way for approachg new iends, both of which have implitns and challeng on HIV ntrol and preventn; 3) soc-cultural barriers, cludg open mds towards sual sex and nonmonogamo relatnship, and low prry of health mands were wily observed and led to negative pg wh AIDS among gay muny. Soc-cultural barriers for HIV ntrol and preventn found this study ll for ser and imperative nsiratn on tegrated measur, cludg targeted efforts towards effective sex tn and further cln of soc-cultural perspectiv HIV/AIDS terventns for gay men. Further scholarship was unrtaken om g a soc-cultural perspectiv, to look to how gay men’s behavrs were fluenced by the tradnal Che culture, the impact of social-norm and stigma had on their social work, and the ntradictn they faced when balance between fay and self-inty[22, 30–35].

For example, Liu’s study [37] explored the associatn between the rponse to stigma and HIV preventn Shanghai, and Fung’s study [33] foced on the impact of soc-cultural factors on HIV transmissn among ral gay men Cha. Neverthels, Cha is now unr more plited suatn than ever before: on one hand, Confucianism, the tradnal Che philosophy[33], has strong emphasis on duty, filial piety and moral valu that brought homosexual people enormo fay and society strs to get married to ntue the fay le.

In-pth semi-stctured terviews were nducted to explore them related to participants’ self-inty, perceptns of homosexualy and sexual behavrs, unrstandg of gay muny culture, as well as utilizatn of lol HIV related health servic. Informants were asked to discs life experienc focg on: 1) perceptns and attus about homosexualy among fay, iends, and other social relatnships; 2) personal feelgs about their sexualy and cisns about disclosure to fai and iends; 3) perceptns on sual sex and partner relatnship; 4) personal unrstandg of lol gay muny and s ntemporary culture and 5) personal practic and thoughts on health re servic seekg, pecially on AIDS related servic such as HIV unselg/ttg or health promotn activi.

It is not unmon that gay men Cha prent themselv as bisexual, or marry women to manage strs put on them by fay and society as a whole:”Self proclaimed bisexual men jt want people to acknowledge their ‘normalcy’, to show they have sex wh women, that havg sex wh men is a mere game to them. ”(35 years old, Nanchang, unmarried) “The people who e to [MSM servg NGO] do get ttg here, but they more often approach about issu relatg wily to navigatg the landspe of beg gay: marriage issu, how to munite wh their fai, self-acceptance, and datg.

More than techniqu for preventn of HIV/AIDS or other sexually transmted fectns, their answers reflected a sire for ways to exist wh digny and support, ways to negotiate their gay self inty a society and world that currently discrimat agast them celly. Many fear such attacks may crease after neighbourg Uganda recently passed one of the world’s strictt anti-gay laws, and some policians Kenya now want to do the the party, therefore, atten only changed to lourful stum once they joed the baret si, but some guts and dignari clearly still wanted to distance themselv om the proceedgs. ” the 24-year-old were ed moured to be armed police and telligence officers the crowd: tough-lookg men civilian cloth, perhaps gatherg rmatn, but also ready to protect the crowd if while gay sex remas illegal the East Ain natn unr laws datg back to the lonial era, the gatherg had the tac acceptance of the ernment and police.

It will be an act of gross cency to take part a gay para or public same-sex displays of amoro backg such legislatn across the regn ame as cultural battle to save Ain valu and sovereignty, which they say are unr asslt by Wtern prsure to pulate on gay rights.

‘A hateful piece of legislatn’Peter Kaluma, a parliamentarian the natnal assembly behd the bill, told the Telegraph the LGBT muny was engrossed a “filthy perversn” fuelled by Wtern Kaluma, a legal scholar, said his proposal aimed to “prohib homosexualy and same sex marriage and related activi” and proscribe “activi that seek to advance, promote or fund homosexualy and unnatural sexual acts” bill was part of a “global ph back agast the LGBTQ movement even the USA and most Wtern European untri, ” he bill has provoked ep unease among the untry’s gay and lbian muny. “It is a hateful piece of legislatn that will tly make the liv of queer Kenyans unbearable if passed, ” Ante Atieno of the Natnal Gay and Lbian Human Rights Commissn mpaign group said last is also at odds wh a supreme urt lg earlier this year that the ernment was wrong to block a gay rights anisatn om registerg as an NGO. Partly the engagement was pragmatic, as the ernment reached out as part of efforts to tackle at the party, cludg Mike, were ls said the Ugandan legislatn had st a cloud over gay life Kenya, as had the high-profile murr January of Edw Chiloba, a gay rights activist who was killed by a former boyiend.

Furthermore, this labelg of tters as posive uld be long lastg, “…if you say somethg, jt sticks… they don’t hear, ‘I’m gonna get tted for HIV…’ They hear, ‘HIV’… (FG3-1, Black/Lato, Gay, 53, PLWH, 22-31 years sce diagnosis) Participants felt that others might assume they were livg wh HIV, eher if they disclosed ttg behavr, or if they were seen at an HIV ttg lotn, pecially wh smaller muni “I’m nstantly nng to people I know. “I had a fay practice nurse practner, unfortunately, ny me STI ttg and prcribg PrEP and actually told me to go to Planned Parenthood… There still is a lot of stigma and that was probably the most slap the face I had ever had…” (FG8-1, Gay, Whe, 32, HIV-negative).

Addnally, posive self-teem was lked to lack of ternalized homophobia, wh one man claimg that people who do not tt regularly and proactively are those who, “…won’t readily accept that they’re gay that have some self-loathg” (FG9-5, Whe, Gay, 53, HIV-negative) some men, this moral prsure was lked to sharg ttg behavr as a form of self-prentatn as a “rponsible person, ” eher dialogue wh other GBQMSM or onle, “I thk some people will put on their profile, negative as of this recent data, look at me beg so rponsible. It’s rponsible and you should feel like crap if you don’t…However, there is a whole ms of baggage that wh that, that you actually need to weigh the pros and ns of that very refully…” (FG2-4, Black, Gay, 37, PLWH, 11-21.