Canadian Gay Research Articles

Gay Dads to Be: Reflections on Gender, Sexuality, Family, and Race in Adoption and Surrogacy

Prospective gay fathers must carefully prepare, plan, and think about parenting—often for years—before they become parents. This article explores how different paths to parenthood provide opportunities for Canadian gay men to reflect upon their preferences for surrogacy or adoption, the meaning of fatherhood in the absence of a woman as a primary caregiver, and the opportunities and potential shortcomings of gay fatherhood. Based on analysis of 23 in-depth, semi-structured interviews with Canadian prospective gay fathers, I show that adoption and surrogacy foster different degrees of reflection along the journey to fatherhood. I argue that gay men who pursue surrogacy express masculine competence and draw upon scripts of conventional fatherhood, while gay men who pursue adoption experience a disruption in their masculine competence and must reflect on their potential inadequacies as male parents. Further, I include a brief discussion of some counterevidence: these pressures on the journey to gay fatherhood can be resisted through a queer, anti-racist, and feminist consciousness.

Unsung Heroes: Gay Physicians’ Lived Journeys during the HIV/AIDS Pandemic - Addendum

The HIV/AIDS pandemic was a major crisis at the end of the 20th century. A defining moment in the history of health-related infections. It led to the transformation of its proponents, as well as their medical practice. This paper is an addendum to a research paper previously published in SAGE Open in 2019. The previously published paper used data from a study conducted by Jacob, in 2012. The data was gathered using semi-structured interviews with six Canadian gay physicians from different Canadian HIV/AIDS treatment centres. The study aimed to answer the following research question: What are the lived journeys of gay physicians while attempting to treat, care for, and cure/heal their HIV/AIDS patients during the pandemic, from 1981 to 2009? The results deduced from a qualitative and interpretive data analysis, as well as a literature review for the published research paper, suggest that through reflection on their experiences during the HIV/AIDS pandemic, they transformed their personal and professional identities, and rethought their relationship with their patients, as well as their professional, pharmaceutical, and community networks. The addendum, using unpublished information from the study and additional information from a literature review of material published by other proponents after the publication of the paper, aims to substantiate the testimonies of six Canadian gay physicians who fought against the HIV/AIDS pandemic and who advocated for their HIV/AIDS patients. In fact, these results are evidence of an untold and valuable period in medical history. For some, it will serve as a reminder. For others, it will be novel and even foreign. It was a time marked by a major crisis that mobilized gay physicians who were personally and professionally affected by their HIV/AIDS patients, and who were forever transformed by their response to the pandemic.

At the intersection of homophobia and racism: Sociocultural context and the sexual health of South Asian Canadian gay and bisexual men.

At the intersection of homophobia and racism: Sociocultural context and the sexual health of South Asian Canadian gay and bisexual men.

Unpacking racism during COVID-19: narratives from racialized Canadian gay, bisexual, and queer men

ObjectiveEpidemics impact individuals unevenly across race, gender, and sexuality. In addition to being more vulnerable to COVID-19 infection, evidence suggests racialized gender and sexual minorities experienced disproportionate levels of discrimination and stigma during the COVID-19 epidemic. Drawing on Critical Race Theory (CRT), we examined the experiences of gay, bisexual, queer, and other men who have sex with men (GBQM) of colour facing discrimination during COVID-19.DesignEngage-COVID-19 is a mixed methods study examining the impact of COVID-19 on GBQM living in Vancouver, Toronto, and Montréal, Canada. We conducted two rounds of qualitative interviews (November 2020 to February 2021, and June to October 2021) with 93 GBQM to explore the evolving impact of COVID-19 on their lives. Transcripts were coded using inductive thematic analysis. Data analysis was conducted using Nvivo software.ResultsFifty-nine participants identified as Black, Indigenous, and/or a Person of Colour (BIPOC). These GBQM of colour described multiple experiences of discrimination during COVID-19. Although participants did not report experiences of discrimination based on their sexual identity during COVID-19, we found that experiences of racism affected how they were treated within their sexual networks. Experiences of racism were most often reported by East Asian and Black GBQM. These participants faced racism in public and online spaces, primarily in the form of verbal harassment. Several participants were also harassed because they wore face masks. Verbal abuse against GBQM of colour was largely prompted by racist discourses related to COVID-19.ConclusionRacism remains a pernicious threat to the well-being of GBQM of colour. CRT highlights the importance of assessing how sexualized and gendered discourses about race shape the experiences of GBQM of colour navigating multiple epidemics like COVID-19 and HIV. These pervasive discourses unevenly affect racial and sexual minorities across multiple epidemics, and negatively impact health outcomes for these populations.

“It’s different for heterosexuals”: exploring cis-heteronormativity in COVID-19 public health directives and its impacts on Canadian gay, bisexual, and queer men

ABSTRACT Critical scholarship has illustrated how COVID-19 public health policies can enact racism, classism, and cis-heteronormativity, perpetuating harms among vulnerable communities. We sought to examine the accounts of gay, bisexual, and queer men (GBQM) in Canada on how normative ideologies played out in COVID-19 directives and what impacts these orders had on their lives. Two rounds of semi-structured interviews with GBQM in Montreal (n = 30), Toronto (n = 33), and Vancouver (n = 30) were conducted between November 2020-February 2021 and June-October 2021 (N = 93). Our reflexive thematic analysis drew on the frameworks of cis-heteronormativity and intersectionality to examine how normative assumptions about kinship, sociality, and privilege in COVID-19 public health directives were understood and experienced by GBQM. Our participants explicated how cis-heteronormativity was pervasive in COVID-19 public health messaging, noting that stay-at-home orders and limits on social gatherings reinforced heterosexual forms of kinship. The privileging of cis-heteronormative sociality had detrimental effects on the sense of belonging and identity formation of many participants due to restricted access to queer spaces during the pandemic. Others indicated that stay-at-home orders failed to account for the heterogeneity of queer people’s experiences of homelessness and structural racism. These findings provide valuable insights into how public health efforts to control COVID-19 infections have overlooked the complex forms of kinship among GBQM, the importance of queer spaces and community organizations, and the varying vulnerabilities of diverse lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, and queer (LGBTQ+) groups.

'It's not as good as the face-to-face contact': A sociomaterialist analysis of the use of virtual care among Canadian gay, bisexual and queer men during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic led to the widespread adoption of virtual care-the use of communication technologies to receive health care at home. We explored the differential impacts of the rapid transition to virtual care during the COVID-19 pandemic on health-care access and delivery for gay, bisexual and queer men (GBQM), a population that disproportionately experiences sexual and mental health disparities in Canada. Adopting a sociomaterial theoretical perspective, we analysed 93 semi-structured interviews with GBQM (n=93) in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver, Canada, conducted between November 2020 and February 2021 (n=42) and June-October 2021 (n=51). We focused on explicating how the dynamic relations of humans and non-humans in everyday virtual care practices have opened or foreclosed different care capacities for GBQM. Our analysis revealed that the rapid expansion and implementation of virtual care during the COVID-19 pandemic enacted disruptions and challenges while providing benefits to health-care access among some GBQM. Further, virtual care required participants to change their sociomaterial practices to receive health care effectively, including learning new ways of communicating with providers. Our sociomaterial analysis provides a framework that helps identify what works and what needs to be improved when delivering virtual care to meet the health needs of GBQM and other diverse populations.

Systemic Activism: Uneasy Coalitions During the Canadian AIDS Pandemic of the 1980s and 1990s

The AIDS pandemic disproportionately affects Canadian gay men, women, racialized communities, people who inject drugs, and people who have been or are incarcerated, leading these groups to engage in coalitional activism to advance HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment. This paper examines how the effects of AIDS necessitated a response across these marginalized groups. Oral history interviews conducted in Toronto by the Canadian AIDS Activist History Project were examined to discuss the coalitions that were formed amongst marginalized groups in Toronto during the height of the Canadian AIDS crisis of the 1980s and 1990s. Oral history interviews are incredibly valuable to marginalized communities; yet, once they are collected, they are often left unanalyzed. This paper analyzes existing oral history interviews to provide an overview of some of the tensions and successes between activists who belonged to different social groups. The paper ends with a discussion of intersectionality and the role of systemic activism in Canadian AIDS activist history.

Examining Associations Between Resilience and PrEP Use Among HIV-negative GBM in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver.

This study evaluated the association between resilience and PrEP use among a population-based sample of Canadian gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men (GBM). Sexually active GBM aged ≥ 16 years old were recruited via respondent-driven sampling (RDS) in Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver from 02/2017 to 07/2019. We conducted a pooled cross-sectional analysis of HIV-negative/unknown GBM who met clinical eligibility for PrEP. We performed multivariable RDS-II-weighted logistic regression to assess the association between scores on the Connor-Davidson Resilience-2 Scale and PrEP. Mediation analyses with weighted logistic and linear regression were used to assess whether the relationship between minority stressors and PrEP use was mediated by resilience. Of 1167 PrEP-eligible GBM, 317 (27%) indicated they took PrEP in the past six months. Our multivariable model found higher resilience scores were associated with greater odds of PrEP use in the past six months (aOR = 1.13, 95%CI = 1.00, 1.28). We found that resilience reduced the effect of the association between heterosexist discrimination and PrEP use. Resilience also mediated the relationship between internalized homonegativity and PrEP use and mediated the effect of the association between LGBI acceptance concern and PrEP use. Overall,PrEP-eligible GBM with higher resilience scores had a greater odds of PrEP use in the past six months. We also found mixed results for the mediating role of resilience between minority stress and PrEP use. These findings underline the continued importance of strength-based factors in HIV prevention.

Is Gay Tourism More Than Tourism? A Case Study of Puerto Vallarta, MX

The reasons gay men seek out gay travel destinations has been well established in the literature. However, less research has been published on the consequences of that travel on the destinations themselves and the effect of gay tourism on the LGBTQ+ community as a whole. I use ethnographic research in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, a popular international gay tourist destinations for American and Canadian gay men. I focus on how gay destinations are constructed as sites where members of the gay community can experience acceptance and inclusion and I ask the following questions, is this acceptance and inclusion dependent upon consumption? Are the tourist site and expectations for behavior in those sites oppressively normal? That is, does the site create a normative standard of behavior for gay tourists? Furthermore, while gay tourists may experience inclusion and a level of acceptance, how does gay tourism affect the destination site itself? Is this acceptance and inclusion problematized by larger systems of inequality such as class, gender, and race? Lastly, as members of a historically oppressed group, does and should gay tourism rise above its commodification to produce just, equitable relationships within and beyond the LGBTQ+ community including the environment?

Use of HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis among urban Canadian gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men: a cross-sectional analysis of the Engage cohort study.

Background:In Canada, gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men (GBM) are disproportionately affected by HIV. Our objective was to describe access to HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and identify factors associated with not using PrEP among self-reported HIV-negative or HIV-unknown GBM.Methods:This was a cross-sectional analysis of the Engage study cohort. Between 2017 and 2019, sexually active GBM aged 16 years or more in Montréal, Toronto and Vancouver were recruited via respondent-driven sampling (RDS). Participation included testing for HIV and sexually transmitted and blood-borne infections, and completion of a questionnaire. We examined PrEP access using a health care services model and fit RDS-adjusted logistic regressions to determine correlates of not using PrEP among those for whom PrEP was clinically recommended and who were aware of the intervention.Results:A total of 2449 GBM were recruited, of whom 2008 were HIV-negative or HIV-unknown; 1159 (511 in Montréal, 247 in Toronto and 401 in Vancouver) met clinical recommendations for PrEP. Of the 1159, 1100 were aware of PrEP (RDS-adjusted proportion: Montréal 84.6%, Toronto 94.2%, Vancouver 92.7%), 678 had felt the need for PrEP in the previous 6 months (RDS-adjusted proportion: Montréal 39.2%, Toronto 56.1%, Vancouver 49.0%), 406 had tried to access PrEP in the previous 6 months (RDS-adjusted proportion: Montréal 20.6%, Toronto 33.2%, Vancouver 29.6%) and 319 had used PrEP in the previous 6 months (RDS-adjusted proportion: Montréal 14.5%, Toronto 21.6%, Vancouver 21.8%). Not using PrEP was associated with several factors, including not feeling at high enough risk, viewing PrEP as not completely effective, not having a primary care provider and lacking medication insurance.Interpretation:Although half of GBM met clinical recommendations for PrEP, less than a quarter of them reported use. Despite high levels of awareness, a programmatic response that addresses PrEP-related perceptions and health care system barriers is needed to scale up PrEP access among GBM in Canada.

Liberation on the Dance Floor: Collective Dance and Queer Politics in Canada

In this article, I consider Black Lives Matter—Toronto’s (BLM-TO) protest at the 2016 Toronto Pride Parade and reflect on the demands—the majority of which relate to the (re-)establishment and support of spaces for collective music participation. Following BLM-TO’s lead, I contend that music participation is vital for forging a sense of community and collective agency for queer individuals in Canada. I read BLM-TO’s protest alongside two specific examples of community organizing in Canadian lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, Two-Spirited + history that privilege the dance floor as an integral space of politics: the Gay Alliance for Equality (GAE) in Halifax and the Gay Community Dance Committee (GCDC) in Toronto. I claim that the dance spaces of the GAE and the GCDC were transformative for Canadian gay and lesbian liberation politics in the 1970s and 1980s. Ultimately, by reading the historical efforts of the GAE and the GCDC alongside the contemporary demands of BLM-TO, I argue that music and dance spaces in which queer individuals can come together—spaces animated by the musical and collective dance traditions of communities of colour—have long been integral to queer formation in this country.

It's in Me to Give: Canadian Gay, Bisexual, and Queer Men's Willingness to Donate Blood If Eligible Despite Feelings of Policy Discrimination.

Blood donation policies governing men who have sex with men have shifted significantly over time in Canada—from an initial lifetime ban in the wake of the AIDS crisis to successive phases of time-based deferment requiring periods of sexual abstinence (5 years to 1 year to 3 months). We interviewed 39 HIV-negative gay, bisexual, queer, and other sexual minority men (GBM) in Vancouver, Toronto, and Montreal to understand their willingness to donate blood if eligible. Transcripts were coded following inductive thematic analysis. We found interrelated and competing expressions of biological and sexual citizenship. Most participants said they were “safe”/“low risk” and “willing” donors and would gain satisfaction and civic pride from donation. Conversely, a smaller group neither prioritized the collectivizing biological citizenship goals associated with expanding blood donation access nor saw this as part of sexual citizenship priorities. Considerable repair work is required by Canada’s blood operators to build trust with diverse GBM communities.

Catholic Family Ties: Sustaining and Supporting HIV-Positive Canadian Gay Men’s Faith, Mental Health, and Wellbeing

Research has documented that sexual minorities and people living with HIV/AIDS have successfully used religious coping to help them overcome life challenges related to their sexual orientation and HIV status, including religious struggles surrounding their faith brought about by stigma and discrimination that have historically been promoted by organized religion. Research has also documented how sexual minorities and people living with HIV/AIDS have utilized family support as a vital resource for effectively coping with life challenges associated with homophobia, heterosexism, and HIV stigma, which have historically been perpetuated in certain family and faith dynamics. The aim of the community-engaged, qualitative study described in this article was to examine the synergistic effects of religious coping and family support, particularly in the context of Catholic family ties, as a unified mechanism for supporting HIV-positive gay men in the face of religious struggles and other life challenges. Confidential, semi-structured interviews were conducted with nine HIV-positive, gay men from the Greater Toronto Area of Ontario, Canada, to obtain their perspectives on how and why their Catholic family ties have helped support them through their religious struggles and other life challenges. Utilizing a modified Grounded Theory approach, interview data were collected and analyzed until data saturation was achieved. The findings and lessons learned from the study’s analysis are discussed in this article, which elaborates on the unique synergy of religious coping and family support as interconnected mechanisms that could be of significant value for supporting HIV-positive gay men experiencing religious struggles and other life challenges.

Contested Images: Debates on Nudity, Sexism, and Porn in The Body Politic, 1971–1987

This article examines debates on nudity, sexism, and pornography in the Canadian gay and lesbian newspaper The Body Politic, tracing its use of images and people’s responses to them over time. In the 1970s, concerns about sexism and the objectification of the body shaped discussions over sexual and erotic imagery. In the 1980s concerns about pornography were more current, since they mirrored the then-contemporary debates over pornography and censorship. Drawing upon archival sources and oral histories, the article argues that TBP’s visual culture—particularly its sexual and erotic imagery—played a key role in the paper’s community-building project. The article also shows how responses to images reflect a deep ambivalence, and the conflicting perspectives shaping the paper’s production and reception. While liberationist politics, feminist theory, and ideas of a “gay community” influenced the paper throughout the 1970s and 1980s, the meanings that people ascribed to such concepts were diverse and sometimes incompatible.

Cyberbullying and health: A preliminary investigation of the experiences of Canadian gay and bisexual adult men

The majority of cyberbullying studies are within the school environment. This quantitative study investigates cyberbullying among Canadian gay and bisexual men outside of the educational setting through a cross-sectional survey. Of the 7,430 respondents, 4.6% reported cyberbullying in the past year, with younger, Aboriginal, lower-educated, lower-income respondents reporting higher odds of experiencing cyberbullying. Victimization from cyberbullying was significantly associated with experiences of antigay discrimination as well as worry about antigay prejudice. A variety of negative health outcomes were also associated with cyberbullying, including intimate partner violence and suicidality. Implications for social service providers and future research are discussed.

Unsung Heroes: Gay Physicians' Lived Journeys During the HIV/AIDS Pandemic.

The HIV/AIDS pandemic was a major crisis at the end of the 20th and beginning of the 21st century. Such a defining moment in the history of health-related infections led to transformations in its proponents, as well as their medical practice. This research article, using a study consisting of semi-structured interviews with six Canadian gay physicians from different Canadian HIV/AIDS treatment centers, aims to offer insights into their lived journeys, from 1981 to 2009, while they attempted to treat, care for, and cure/heal their gay HIV/AIDS patients. The results of the study, deduced from a qualitative and interpretative data analysis, suggest that through reflection on their experiences during the HIV/AIDS pandemic, they transformed their personal and professional identities, and rethought their relationship with their patients, as well as their professional, pharmaceutical, and community networks. These results are testimonies from Canadian gay physicians who fought against the HIV/AIDS pandemic and who advocated for their gay HIV/AIDS patients. In fact, these results are evidence of an untold and valuable period in medical history. For some, it will serve as a reminder. For others, it will be foreign. It was a time marked by a major crisis that mobilized gay militant physicians who were personally and professionally affected, and who were forever transformed by their response to the HIV/AIDS pandemic. This is their hereto untold lived journeys.

Sexuality and integration: a case of gay Iranian refugees’ collective memories and integration practices in Canada

ABSTRACT During the past two decades, Canada has accepted hundreds of LGBT asylum seekers, including gay Iranian men. Sociologists of sexualities and migration have yet to study this group as immigrants whose sexualities play a central role in their social interactions, immigration, and integration practices. Taking integration as a category of practice and relying on Halbwachs’s theory of collective memory, I provide an empirical study of integration practices of gay Iranian refugees in Canada. I draw on 32 interviews with gay Iranian refugees to analyse their interactions with Canadian society at large, the Canadian gay community, and Iranian Diaspora. My findings indicate that memories play the role of proxies that inform gay Iranian refugees’ interactions in Canada at the intersection of race-ethnicity, gender and sexuality, and nationality.

‘Straightening’ space and time? Peripheral moral panics in print media representations of Canadian LGBTQ2S suburbanites, 1985–2005

ABSTRACT This paper adopts a spatial-temporal lens to examine mainstream print media representations of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, Queer and Two-Spirit (LGBTQ2S) suburbanites in Canada’s largest metropolitan areas in the 1990s. Due to major changes in Canadian gay rights legislation, the 1990s were a decade when the spatial and temporal reproduction of heteronormativity was contested, including in suburban areas. Through a focus on the metropolitan periphery, this paper argues that LGBTQ2S people and their politics were discursively positioned in print media coverage as spatially unexpected and temporally disruptive of heteronormativity. Drawing upon a suburban LGBTQ2S print-media database from 1985 to 2005 (n = 1300), an analysis of aggregate patterns is provided and three exemplary case studies of suburban ‘moral panics’ detailed from within case-study metropolitan areas of Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. The paper concludes that the greatest public debate in the print media was generated when queers intruded upon institutions that were central to the reproduction of heteronormative futures, that is, the institutions that are the very foundation of suburbia such as recreational spaces, religious institutions and schools.

Awareness of, interest in, and willingness to pay for HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis among Canadian gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men.

Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is a highly effective, HIV prevention strategy increasingly being accessed by gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men (GBMSM). GBMSM face structural and individual-level barriers accessing PrEP, including awareness and cost. This paper assesses socio-demographic factors associated with awareness, interest, and willingness to pay for PrEP in a sample of Canadian GBMSM. Data were derived from the 2015 Sex Now survey, a cross-sectional, online survey of GBMSM. Respondents were recruited through social media, sex-seeking "apps," and by word of mouth. We used univariable and multivariable logistic regression models to estimate associations between socio-demographic factors and three primary outcomes. Our sample consisted of 7176 HIV-negative Canadian GBMSM. Of respondents, 54.7% were aware of PrEP, 47.4% were interested in PrEP, and 27.9% of PrEP-interested respondents reported they would pay for PrEP out-of-pocket. Awareness and interest varied between provinces, while GBMSM outside urban areas were less likely to be PrEP aware. Bisexual-identified men, and men over 50, were less likely to be aware and interested in PrEP in multivariable models. Only annual income and educational attainment were associated with willingness to pay for PrEP. This study identifies important disparities in awareness, interest, and willingness to pay for PrEP. Future interventions and educational efforts should target non-gay-identified and older GBMSM, as well as GBMSM outside urban areas. PrEP implementation may risk further perpetuating existing health inequities based on socio-economic status if PrEP continues to be accessed primarily through private insurance or paid for out-of-pocket.

“A remarkably dense historical and political juncture”: Anita Bryant, The Body Politic, and the Canadian Gay and Lesbian Community in January 1978

In 1977, Anita Bryant — the American Southern Baptist, singer, and spokesperson for the Florida Citrus Commission — founded the right-wing Christian Save Our Children campaign in order to overturn a Florida county ordinance that legislated the protection of civil rights for Dade County gays. Six months later, Bryant was invited to visit Toronto, Canada, by Christian minister Ken Campbell of Renaissance International — the homegrown Canadian version of the Christian Evangelical movement. Bryant's visit took place at a complicated historical and political juncture for the Canadian gay and lesbian community: the gay liberation paper of record, The Body Politic, had published an article about adult-child sexual relationships and was subsequently raided by the police; a young boy had been killed in a reported “homosexual orgy”; and the Ontario Human Rights Commission had recently recommended that “sexual orientation” be included in the Human Rights Code — but whether the recommendation would be included remained to be seen. This essay will analyze how Bryant's defeat of the Dade county ordinance and visits to Canada, the controversial article in The Body Politic, and the subsequent police raid on the newspaper provoked mass organizing, protests, and laid the basis for future anti-right organizing in the Canadian gay and lesbian liberation movement — but also exposed the limits of solidarity between gays and lesbians. The tumultuous context that shaped the Canadian gays' and lesbians' responses, analyses, and engagements as well as conflicts with each other will bring to light the unities, dis-unities, and differences within.