Black Gay Men Research Articles

Narrative Activism: Writing Desire For Injury-Bound Individuals

Narrative Activism: Writing Desire For Injury-Bound Individuals

“After 25 years of democracy we are still stigmatized and discriminated against…”: Health care experiences of HIV positive older black gay men in a township in South Africa

Older gay black men living with HIV and AIDS have been and continue to be an invisible part of the research landscape in South Africa, with the focus being on the younger LGBTQI+ cohort. Furthermore, aging and health care concerns of this population are ‘swept under the carpet’ due to stigmatization and homophobia. This qualitative study explored the aging and health-care experiences of older gay black men in a selected township in the Cape Metropole, with the purpose of finding strategies to deal with their real life concerns. The first author utilized in-depth interviews with 15 participants, 10 of which were a sample of self-identified gay men, aged between 43-77 and drawn from a selected township in the Cape Metropole in South Africa. Five health professionals working at the local clinic were also interviewed. Interviews were audio-recorded in the language of the participants (isiXhosa) and transcribed verbatim. They were then translated from isiXhosa to English before a thematic analysis was undertaken. One of the key findings of the study was that health-care professionals, particularly nurses at a local clinic, are stigmatizing older black men who are living with HIV and AIDS. This is exacerbated by the rejection by their families and the death of their life partners which leads to isolation, loneliness and depression. Due to comorbidities, COVID-19 has led to some participants passing away. Training of health-care professionals should be prioritized by social workers and workshops should be held in the township to educate families of older LGBTQI+ people on their aging concerns.

African American Gay Men

African American Gay Men

Trade: Sexual Identity, Ambiguity, and Literacy Normativity

This article explicates trade as a fierce literacy by critically engaging with literacy narratives of Black queer people who meet with heterosexual men for sexual encounters. I focus on the “trade” knowledges and ways of knowing of Black gay men and transwomen at Harlem Pride 2017. Informed by the literacy work of Eric Darnell Pritchard, I argue that the participants deliberately engaged in corrective literacy practices that speak back to dominant sexual pathologies about straight Black men (and men in general). It is this ability to read and share against dominant scripts that I see as a fierce literacy. Their responses and narratives complicate heteronormative understandings of sexuality based on orientation. Trade is a term used in the larger gay culture that has existed since the late 1800s (predating down low, which I touch on below) but has particular traction in the Black queer community. Building on the works of other scholars (Johnson “Snap!”; McCune; Bailey), I found that my participants’ responses were in line with a larger discussion in the Black queer community about straight Black men who engage in queer sexual acts. Specifically, the participants told stories or literacy narratives to offer a queer-counter narrative, or an on-the-spot oppositional read of heterosexual men and heterosexuality more largely. I critically engage three ideas: (1) trade as a literacy, (2) “the truth about straight men,” and (3) “sex is more than tops and bottoms.”

A pilot test of a treatment to address intersectional stigma, mental health, and HIV risk among gay and bisexual men of color.

We tested the feasibility and acceptability of a group therapy treatment that addresses the intersecting stigma-related stressors theorized to drive elevated mental health risk, sexual health risk, and their co-occurrence among Black and Latino gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men (GBM). First, we modified an existing 10-week, one-on-one, cognitive-behavioral treatment addressing co-occurring health risks among GBM to develop a group-based, intersectionally informed treatment for GBM of color. Then, an open pilot was conducted (n = 21, across two cohorts) with young Black and Latino GBM. An evaluation of feasibility metrics (e.g., eligibility-enrollment ratio, session attendance, rate of retention) supported overall treatment feasibility. Qualitative data suggest high acceptability of the treatment length, format, and content-and revealed a powerful theme: The treatment and group composition led participants to feel less alone as GBM of color. To further evaluate acceptability, baseline and 3-month posttreatment assessments and exit interviews were used to examine the treatment's impact on stigma coping, mental health, and sexual health. Expected changes were found for: (a) stigma coping, as demonstrated by decreases in perceived sexual minority stress, racial minority stress, and intersectional stress; (b) mental health, including depression, anxiety, stress, and suicidality, but not alcohol use; and (c) sexual health, including condom use efficacy, sexual compulsivity, and preexposure prophylaxis uptake; with partial support for decreased in human immunodeficiency virus; HIV-transmission risk acts. This study lays the groundwork for a group treatment to address intersectional stigma, mental health, and HIV risk among young Black and Latino GBM in the U.S. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Burden and Correlates of Mental Health Symptoms Among Young Black Gay, Bisexual, and Other Men Who Have Sex with Men Engaged in HIV Care in Atlanta.

Mental health comorbidities are prevalent among young Black gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men (YB-GBMSM) living with HIV and can adversely impact HIV-related outcomes. We conducted a cross-sectional survey study with 100 YB-GBMSM recruited from two HIV care centers in Atlanta, and constructed multivariable logistic and linear regression models to examine correlates of depression, anxiety, trauma symptoms, and general well-being. In adjusted models, full-time employment was associated with fewer depressive symptoms, while HIV stigma and substance use were associated with higher levels of depressive symptoms. Younger age and full-time employment were negatively associated with severe anxiety, while HIV stigma was positively associated with severe anxiety and trauma symptoms. Trust in physicians, lower HIV stigma, full-time employment, and lack of substance use were associated with higher average general well-being scores. In conclusion, we found high frequency of depressive, anxiety, and trauma-related symptoms among this sample of YB-GBMSM living with HIV. Unemployment, substance use, and HIV stigma emerged as particularly salient correlates of psychological morbidity, suggesting a need for structural and community-level interventions to address mental health in this population.

Psychometric Testing of the Daily Spiritual Experiences Scale (DSES) Among Black Gay, Bisexual, and Other Sexual Minority Men (SMM) and Black Transwomen in the Deep South: The MARI Study.

Spirituality is a well-established protective psychosocial determinant of health. The current study examined the psychometric properties of the Daily Spiritual Experiences Scale (DSES) among Black gay, bisexual and other sexual minority men (SMM) and Black transwomen (TW) in the Deep South. Data were collected via self-interview technology and analyzed using factor analyses and correlation coefficients. We demonstrated a single-factor structure of the DSES with high internal consistency (Cronbach's α = 0.96). DSES was positively and significantly associated with multiple dimensions of religion, resilience, optimism and social support and not significantly associated with cynicism and anger expressions. Spirituality should be included in HIV prevention, treatment and care strategies focused on Black SMM and Black TW, especially thoseresiding in the Deep South, USA.

Making Sweet Tea

Making Sweet Tea

“Stay Down”: Moonlight and Negative Affect as an Analytic

“Stay Down”: <i>Moonlight</i> and Negative Affect as an Analytic

Birds, dogs, and humankind in Olmsted’s ‘Bramble’: a story of Central Park

: This paper addresses issues of race, species, and kind through an incident that took place 25 May 2020, when a birder and a dog owner crossed path in the Ramble of New York’s Central Park. The birder, a gay Black man, was searching for scarlet tanagers and other songbirds. The dog owner, a white woman, was walking Henry, her blond cocker. The birder asked the dog owner to leash her spaniel, a bird dog, as required by park rules. The dog owner called 911, reporting that an ‘African-American man was putting her in danger’. There is a pre-history to their encounter. Our dubious guide is John James Audubon, whose Ornithological Biography presents haunting scenes of life out of doors, the ramble, or the hunt, and how humans and animals prey upon each other. But the decisive voice is that of Frederic Law Olmsted, who not only designed Central Park (with Calvert Vaux), but also provided the moral and ethical code for its police force. Once it is shown how all the actors (human and animal) and the setting are in fact ‘related,’ it is the presence of the police in the park that must be explained.

Seroadaptive Strategy Patterns of Young Black Gay, Bisexual, and Other Men Who Have Sex With Men in Atlanta, Georgia.

Young Black gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men (YBMSM) are disproportionally affected by HIV. Seroadaptive strategies-modification of sexual behavior based on an individual's perceived serostatus, the perceived status of the partner, and/or HIV transmission risk by the type of sex act-are often used to reduce the risk of HIV transmission or acquisition. We used demographic, behavioral, and clinical data from Ele[MEN]t, a prospective cohort study of YBMSM aged 18-29 years in Atlanta, GA, conducted during 2015-2019. The prevalence of seroadaptive strategies at baseline was reported, and latent class analysis was used to identify the latent classes of strategies for both YBMSM known and not known to be living with HIV. Latent classes were compared by key behavioral and clinical characteristics to validate our findings. In a 4-class model, the most common latent class of YBMSM not known to be living with HIV (32.4%) was characterized by all individuals reporting only having sex with men not perceived to be living with HIV. The most common latent class of YBMSM known to be living with HIV (48.2%) was characterized by a combination of serosorting strategies, including using condoms for anal sex with partners not known to be living with HIV and avoiding sex with men not known to be living with HIV. YBMSM use various patterns of strategies to reduce their HIV transmission or acquisition risk. Our study highlights the need for targeted HIV prevention recommendations based on individual behaviors.

"If it didn't hurt so bad, I'd kill myself, but I'll let Ed Buck do it for now": #Justice4Gemmel and Black Queer Narratives in the Age and Afterlife of #MeToo

Abstract: Gemmel Moore, a gay Black man, was found dead in the West Hollywood home of Edward Buck, a gay white LGBT rights activist. Gemmel's death was originally classified as an accident until his family published his journal, which was used to ignite both a criminal investigation and a set of Twitter campaigns, #Justice4Gemmel and #StopEdBuck, that have intersected with the #MeToo movement. In this essay, I analyze how Black queer men narrate their experiences of sexual trauma in relation to Black women, and subsequently how Black women have carved space for Black queer survivors by providing a new language for conceptualizing the racialized gendering of sexual violence. In doing so, I examine how Black queer men's autobiographical narratives function not only as evidence of their sexual injury but also as modes of networked connectivity that position Black queer subjects as integral to anti-sexual violence work and #MeToo activism.

Sex Stereotyping towards Black Gay Man in Moonlight Movie: A Queer Study

This study seeks to find sex stereotypical act towards black gay men from Berry Jenkins' Moonlight (2016) using the Queer perspective. Sex stereotyping is an act when someone has a preconceived conception of how someone should be, act, or behave based on that person’s sex. Moonlight discusses Chiron's struggles with sexuality and personality, including his increasing physical and emotional violence. By adapting queer theory perform by Judith Butler's book Bodies That Matter: In the Discursive Limit of “Sex” it answered the aim of the study. In their book, Butler explains and breaks down the performativity of sex and body and how culture shapes them. In doing this study, both textual and film visual analysis will be applied to the following discussion: 1) determine forms of sex stereotyping in Moonlight; 2) reveal sex stereotyping towards black gay men exist in society in Moonlight. Throughout the analysis, sex stereotyping that happened toward Chiron struggling to cope with his culture as a black gay man formed Chiron’s alienation, heteronormativity, and homophobia. This act of stereotypical sex based on their skin color represent a backlash against their people.

Media representation, perception and stigmatisation of race, sexuality and HIV among young black gay and bisexual men

Young Black gay and bisexual men who have sex with men experience stigma related to race, gender expression, sexuality and HIV status. Stigma impacts access to HIV care and prevention as well as interactions with healthcare providers. The amplification of stigma through popular media is under-researched in the health sciences. HealthMpowerment is a mobile phone optimised intervention to reduce sexual risk and support community-building for young Black gay and bisexual men (age 18–30). We analysed Forum conversations from 48 participants, 45.8% living with HIV. Of 322 stigma-relevant conversations, 18.9% referenced the media (e.g. television, news, social media) as a source of stigma. Forum conversations covered media representations of Black gay and bisexual men, media’s influence on identity, and the creation of stigma by association with media representations. Cultural messages embedded in the media may accentuate stereotypes that influence perceptions of Black gay and bisexual men and disregard intersectional identities. HealthMpowerment provided a space to challenge stigmatising representations. Participants used HealthMpowerment to garner social support and celebrate positive media representations. Interventions for young Black gay and bisexual men should consider the influential role of media and include spaces for participants to process and address stigma.

Toward Greater Pre-exposure Prophylaxis Equity: Increasing Provision and Uptake for Black and Hispanic/Latino Individuals in the U.S.

Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is highly effective at preventing HIV acquisition and is a critical tool in the Ending the HIV Epidemic in the U.S. initiative. However, major racial and ethnic disparities across the pre-exposure prophylaxis continuum, secondary to structural inequities and systemic racism, threaten progress. Many barriers, operating at the individual, network, healthcare, and structural levels, impede PrEP access and uptake within Black and Hispanic/Latino communities. This review provides an overview of those barriers and the innovative and collaborative solutions that health departments, healthcare organizations, and community partners have implemented to increase PrEP provision and uptake among disproportionately affected communities. Promising strategies at the individual and network levels focus on increasing patient support throughout the PrEP continuum, positioning and training community members to expand knowledge of and interest in PrEP, and leveraging mobile technologies to support PrEP uptake. Healthcare-level solutions include expanding the venues and types of healthcare professionals that can provide PrEP, and structural- and policy-level options focus on financial assistance programs and health insurance expansion. Key research gaps include demonstrating that pilot studies and interventions remain effective at scale and across varied contexts. Although the last 2 decades have provided effective tools to end the HIV epidemic, realizing this vision for the U.S. will require addressing persistent and pervasive HIV-related disparities in Black and Hispanic/Latino communities. Federal, state, and local partners should expand efforts to address longstanding health and structural inequities and partner with disproportionately affected communities to rapidly expand PrEP scale-up.

Teaching Social Justice Through Critical Reflection: Using Immersive Theatre to Address HIV Among Black Gay Men

ABSTRACT Critical reflection helps social work students gain a better understanding of their role and how to address social justice issues through empowerment and awareness. One way to encourage critical reflection is through the use of innovative methods such as immersive theatre. This qualitative study examined critical reflection to increase students’ skills in HIV-related intervention. Results found two main themes: (1) Responding and acting: The role of Social Workers in addressing HIV in the Black Community and (2) A greater understanding of HIV as a social justice issue. Implications for social work educators include utilizing critical reflection with innovative teaching to help students better understand issues related to social justice and health disparities.

Sexual Risk Profiles Among Black Sexual Minority Men: Implications for Targeted PrEP Messaging.

Black gay, bisexual, and other Black sexual minority men (BSMM) continue to experience some of the largest sexual health disparities in the U.S. Engaging BSMM in PrEP is crucial to improving sexual health outcomes and reducing disparities. However, knowledge of the profiles of sexual risk and PrEP initiation among this group is limited.This study used latent class analysis to identify HIV risk and PrEP initiation patterns among BSMM in the HPTN 073 Study (n = 226). Guided by current Centers for Disease Control screening guidelines, latent class indicators included relationship status, condom use, number of sexual partners, substance use, sexually transmitted infection (STI) history, and partner HIV status. Age and PrEP initiation were used in a multinomial regression to identify correlates of class membership. Three latent classes were identified: Single, Condomless Partners, Single, Multiple Partners, and Serodiscordant Partners. Single, Condomless Partners had the highest conditional probabilities of having greater than three male partners, substance use before sex, and receiving an STI diagnosis. Serodiscordant Partners had a 100% conditional probability of condomless sex and having a male partner living with HIV. BSMM who initiated PrEP were less likely to be classified as Single, Condomless Partners than Serodiscordant Partners (AOR = 0.07, 95% CI = 0.02, 0.66). Findings support the need forculturally relevanttailored and targeted messaging for BSMM with multiple sexual risk indicators.

A Queer Homiletic Futurity: The Radical Sexuality of James Baldwin

ABSTRACT Examining the afterlife of slavery, mainly interrogating the futurity of black sexuality and contemptuous Black queer bodies as possible identities of radical futurism in a queer homiletic. I position this essay within the framework of a futuristic queer homiletic, such that, Black queer identity reimagines itself within the plane of Afrofuturism disrupting the continuum of heterosexuality, and Black respectability. The futurity of Black queerness re-turns itself into a living bound subject. I make use of James Baldwin and his gender sexual politics as a Black gay man. Drawing upon his semi-autobiographical essay, “Here Be Dragons,” Baldwin illustrates how he was eliminated from his family, primarily by his step-father, who was disgusted by Baldwin's ugliness and dark skin, and moreover, his effeminate and queer mannerisms. Baldwin, feeling “dumped” by his family, was also displaced, or, “removed” from his black community of Harlem because of his sexuality. He seeks refuge in Greenwich Village, a white community which houses many gay clubs and bars. It is here that Baldwin faces a similar reality of being isolated, neglected, and eliminated for not only his queer identity, but his Black skin and Black identity. Baldwin, in public view, renders as a site of failure in that he is unacknowledged because of his Black queer identity and is rendered, or read as disgust, an 'other.' Thus, he is bounded “out” of society, “out” of sight, and ultimately left searching for a place, a home to call his own. Baldwin reimagines himself, a living subject, bound for life. As such, a futuristic queer homiletic enables Black queerness to the center of Black sexuality and Black identity.

Emotions and emotion work before, during and after HIV disclosure among Black gay and bisexual men living with HIV.

In the United States, Black gay and bisexual men account for a quarter of HIV infections and face intersecting social and structural stigmas along the axes of race, sexuality and class. For those diagnosed with HIV, these inequities shape their lived experiences which include HIV disclosure. Public health has privileged HIV status disclosure as the appropriate moral and responsible choice to protect sex partners, reduce stigma and obtain social support. Though little is known about the emotional aspects of HIV disclosure for Black gay and bisexual men, or how they are shaped by social and structural contexts. Using the frameworks of healthism and emotion work, I explore HIV disclosure among a sample of 30 Black gay and bisexual men living with HIV in the Deep South. Drawing on in-depth, qualitative interviews, I identify the emotion work that men engaged in to manage their own emotions and protect the emotions of others before, during and after disclosure or nondisclosure. These findings challenge public health research that has explored disclosure as discrete measurable events by illustrating how HIV disclosure is embedded in ongoing social and structural relations and provide insights that can guide new approaches focused on structural inequities that constitute HIV disclosure.

Understanding social capital among young black gay and bisexual men living with HIV: a qualitative exploration

Social capital, defined as the sum of an individual’s resource-containing, reciprocal and trustworthy social network connections, has been associated with improved engagement in care among people living with HIV globally. We conducted a qualitative interview study of social capital among 28 young Black gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men ages 18–29 living with HIV in Atlanta, Georgia. We asked participants about bonding capital (relationships between individuals with similar demographic characteristics), bridging capital (relationships with individuals of different backgrounds), collective efficacy (involvement with community organisations) and satisfaction with their social networks. We found that participants described bonding capital from friends and family in depth, while more gaps were noted in bridging capital and collective efficacy. Bonding capital derived from families was especially critical to participants’ satisfaction with their social capital. Findings suggest that interventions targeting young Black gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men should build upon strong bonds with family and friends, and/or fill gaps in bridging capital and collective efficacy by connecting young men to mentors and organisations.