Narratives Of Gay Men Research Articles

Making Sweet Tea

Making Sweet Tea

Understanding Re-partnership in Non-normative Conjugality: Narratives of Gay Men in Odisha, India

Drawing on biographical narratives of two gay men in mixed-orientation marriage who have later gone on to establish re-partnership with another gay man, this paper seeks to critique the inherent heteronormativity in the discussion around re-partnership. It examines the consequential kinship dynamics among concerned social actors such as gay men, straight women, and their biological children, and their ongoing negotiations with the social institutions of marriage and family. Further, the discussion around re-partnership between two gay men in a Western context does not necessarily consider the alternative negotiations that characterize South Asian queer experiences. Borrowing from De Villiers’ concept of queer opacity (2012) and Jingshu Zhu’s (2017) ambivalence, the paper demonstrates that the kinning process of gay men in mixed-orientation marriage forging partnership with other gay men exists in a continuum. The boundary between what needs to be undone and what needs to be redone is porous, ambiguous, and interpenetrative. In that case, this paper suggests a non-Western framework to understand re-partnership in non-normative conjugality.

The pursuit of masculinity by young gay men in neoliberal Hong Kong and Shanghai

ABSTRACT Recent debates in critical studies of men and masculinities center around the intricate relationship between neoliberalism and male identity formation. Drawing on narratives from in-depth interviews with young gay men aged 18–28 conducted in Hong Kong (n = 25) and Shanghai (n = 20) between 2017 and 2018, this article argues that young Chinese gay men negotiate neoliberal heteronormative values and accomplish masculine ideals in the spheres of education, work, and sexuality. They conform to and protest heterosexual masculinity to create a more reflexive gender and sexual script of ‘being a man’. The family and sexual communities, both embedded with neoliberal values, serve as important social institutions that enable and limit development of the entrepreneur of the self. Using Chinese young gay men's narratives, the article argues that they are embarking on a journey to create their own scripts of masculinity under neoliberal hetero/homo-normative constraints. The article contributes to understanding of the gendered nature of neoliberalism and its impact on the self-making process of the post-90s generation of gay men.

The Second Closet: A Qualitative Study of HIV Stigma Among Seropositive Gay Men in a Southern U.S. City

ABSTRACTObjectives: Stigma connected with HIV/AIDS has decreased considerably since the early epidemic yet affects those living with HIV in many ways. Little research, particularly qualitative research, concerning HIV stigma from the perspective of gay men has emerged. The present qualitative study aimed to fill this evidence gap by examining how HIV stigma is perceived and experienced by gay men who have become HIV-infected and how they respond to this stigma. Methods: Thematic analysis of 19 gay men's narratives identified six main themes. Results: Encountering HIV stigmatization was common and was linked to the physical stigmata identifying respondents as HIV-positive. Overwhelmingly, they found stigmatization to be most intensely felt within gay communities. One profound theme was internalized HIV stigma, referring to respondents’ internalized negative feelings about their HIV status. A related theme was the closeted nature of HIV. Lastly, regarding how the men dealt with the HIV diagnosis and experiences of HIV stigma, a theme of adaptation became clear. Conclusions: Although exploratory, the results can serve as a beginning framework for understanding and assisting seropositive gay men who experience HIV stigma. The findings are important because it is realistic to expect that in a climate in which HIV has become increasingly invisible and closeted and in which infections are on the rise, gay and bisexual men will be increasingly affected and infected by HIV.

Gay men's narratives of gay social norm negotiation in New York City

Gay men's narratives of gay social norm negotiation in New York City

Gay men's narratives and the pursuit of well-being in healthcare settings: A London study

Narratives can provide insight into the values through which people interpret their own lives and the meaning which they ascribe to them. Gay men, since the 1970s, have developed a pattern of narratives whereby they choose to be open and honest about their homosexuality as opposed to being secretive or dishonest about it. This paper explores the ways in which gay men develop and share narratives with one another as they pursue an improvement in their mental or emotional well-being. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 38 service users of services targeted at gay men. This study demonstrates that while being open about their sexuality is a shared element in narratives among gay men, their homosexuality alone does not inform these narratives. Gay men are able to develop and share narratives with other men who share further dimensions to their experience such as their health status or their ethnicity. Given the stressful nature of gay commercial meeting places and the mistrust often found between gay men and healthcare practitioners in relation to homosexuality, the development and sharing of narratives has the potential to promote well-being, which is not often achieved in other settings.

Response to commentaries for ‘Making sense of ‘barebacking’: Gay men's narratives, unsafe sex and ‘resistance habitus'’

Responding to the two articles criticizing my paper, Making sense of ‘barebacking’ (Crossley, 2004), there are three main important debatable issues that need to be addressed and clarified. The first relates to methodology and centres around the question of whether it is valid to use published texts (fictional, biographical, and autobiographical) as I did in my article. The second relates to issues of definition and the claim that I have used the term ‘barebacking’ too loosely. The third regards the claim that I have constructed a simplistic ‘straw model’ version of health promotion. I will address each of these in turn before turning to the alleged ‘deconstruction’ of my text presented in the first article. Finally, I will address the claim made by both critics that I engage in insufficient critical reflection and relatedly, that my paper is unethical.

Safe sex after post-exposure prophylaxis for HIV: Intentions, challenges and ambivalences in narratives of gay men

This paper draws on findings from an on-going prospective cohort study, with a quantitative and a qualitative arm, to monitor the implementation of non-occupational post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) in Australia. The aim of the qualitative arm was to explore in-depth details of exposures to HIV and participants’ understanding of ‘risk’. Of the 328 patients who were enrolled in the study from March 1999 to July 2001, 88 (27%) participated in the qualitative arm. Interviews were conducted in a semi-structured style and explored the event that precipitated the request for PEP, participants’ understanding of safe sex, their physical and psychological experience of the treatment and the impact that the availability of PEP may have on their sexual practices in the future. One theme running through the interviews was a determination to either maintain existing high levels of safe sex or to increase safe sex practices in those men who perceived PEP as ‘a wake up call’. This determination was motivated by the experience of taking combination therapies and reflection on a potentially HIV-positive future. However, there were also tensions and ambivalences in the narratives. PEP was promoted as an adjunct to safe sex, not as an alternative. This is how PEP was understood by the men in this study.

Negotiating risk and social relations in the context of post-exposure prophylaxis for HIV: Narratives of gay men

This paper draws on findings from a study to monitor the implementation of non-occupational post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) in Australia. It focuses on the study's qualitative arm, which explores in-depth details of possible exposures to HIV, participants' understanding of risk and their physical and psychosocial experience of the treatment. Results indicate that, in addition to taking antiretroviral treatment after unsafe sex, PEP requires the negotiation of a multitude of social relations in order to reduce the possibility of HIV infection. For the participants this meant: assessing the risk; engaging their social networks in the search for possible prophylaxis; negotiating with health professionals when deciding whether to take PEP; and negotiating disclosure of PEP and the sexual risk which necessitated it, to people in their social networks. For the participants in this study, PEP did not undermine safe sex messages. It was used as an additional line of defence when condoms and other risk reduction strategies had failed. Participants presented themselves in their narratives in accordance with the public health discourse of safe sex, which foregrounds agency and rational decision making, in relation to all aspects of PEP: sexual practices, treatment decision and disclosure.

It's not just condoms: Social contexts of unsafe sex in gay men's narratives of post-exposure prophylaxis for HIV

This paper draws on findings from an ongoing prospective cohort study with a quantitative and a qualitative arm to monitor the implementation of guidelines for non-occupational post-exposure prophylaxis in Australia. The aim of the qualitative arm was to explore in-depth details of exposures and participants' understanding of ‘risk’. This paper documents the physical, social and emotional contexts in which unsafe sex leading to post-exposure prophylaxis occurred. It will be argued that unsafe sex happened in spite of participants' knowledge about safe sex and as a consequence of a temporary absence of control. Five themes characterising the social contexts of unsafe sex can be identified in the narratives: issues relating to past, current and potential future relationships, drugs and alcohol, public and private social spaces, stress, and adventure. These contextual categories are not always neatly separated but interact with each other in various ways. Findings suggest that disseminating knowledge of safe sex practices based on condom use alone is not enough. Safe sex messages need to be contextualised to make links between sexual practices and the everyday experiences of those for whom they are intended.

Making sense of 'barebacking': gay men's narratives, unsafe sex and the 'resistance habitus'.

Why do some gay men continue to engage in unsafe sexual practices despite the known and widely publicized risks of HIV infection? Dominant models of health promotion have been criticized for reducing this complex psychosocial issue to a question of instrumental technique - 'use a condom every time'. Accordingly, there has recently been an attempt to develop a deeper understanding of unsafe sexual practices by paying attention to the 'subjective meaning' manifest in gay men's own accounts of their behaviour. However, this paper argues that such studies have failed to develop an adequate understanding of the historical nature of such behaviours and the way in which they are embedded in a 'cultural psyche' that the individual gay man may not even be consciously aware of. Accordingly, using published autobiographical and fictional narratives written by gay men over three different periods of gay history (pre-AIDS, during AIDS and 'post'-AIDS), this paper aims to show that contemporary 'barebacking' behaviour may constitute one manifestation of a 'resistance' or 'transgressional' 'habitus' that has remained a consistent feature of gay men's individual and social psyche since the early days of gay liberation. The paper discusses the potentially health-damaging implications of this 'habitus' and the possibility and desirability of facilitating change.

Collective and Individual Identities: South Asian Gay Men in North America

The proverbial diversity of South Asia is reflected in its diaspora in North America in numerous networks and organisations of queer South Asians. These sites produce debates about authenticity in tension with conceptions of gay representations. Crosscutting such tensions is a critique of individualist identities, thought by most to be foundational to being American and fully implicated in North American middle-class model of gayness. While not advancing an essentialist argument about a collectivist East and individualist West, this paper explores gay men's narratives regarding shapig relations with their families and struggling to build supportive gay, South Asian identified communities

Sex and Truth in Gay Men's Narratives

(2003). Sex and Truth in Gay Men's Narratives. Journal of Gay & Lesbian Social Services: Vol. 15, No. 3-4, pp. 143-152.

'Resistance' and health promotion

The main aim of this paper is to present some theoretical ideas which derive from the author's empirical research on health promotion, specifically amongst gay men, and health promotion relating to safer sexual practices. This research has been ongoing over the last five years and has involved sustained analysis of gay men's narratives relating to sexual practices, derived from ethnographic work, interviews, focus groups, questionnaire data and a detailed analysis of published autobiographical and fictional works. The paper suggests that reported increases in unprotected anal intercourse amongst gay men may be partially explained by a 'transgressive' and 'resistance' stance towards repeated health promotion efforts. It is also hypothesised that this 'resistant' response to health promotion may not be specific to gay men and may become increasingly common amongst the general population. Accordingly, the paper ends by sounding a cautionary note for health education and promotion, and emphasises the need for sustained empirical research in this area.