‘Proyecto Orgullo’, an HIV prevention, empowerment and community mobilisation intervention for gay men and transgender women in Callao/Lima, Peru

Improvements in biomedical technologies, combined with changing social attitudes to sexual minorities, provide new opportunities for HIV prevention among gay and other men who have sex with men (GMSM). The potential of these new biomedical technologies (biotechnologies) to reduce HIV transmission and the impact of HIV among GMSM will depend, in part, on the degree to which they challenge prejudicial attitudes, practices and stigma directed against gay men and people living with HIV (PLHIV). At the structural level, stigma regarding gay men and HIV can influence the scale-up of new biotechnologies and negatively affect GMSM’s access to and use of these technologies. At the personal level, stigma can affect individual gay men’s sense of value and confidence as they negotiate serodiscordant relationships or access services. This paper argues that maximising the benefits of new biomedical technologies depends on reducing stigma directed at sexual minorities and people living with HIV and promoting positive social changes towards and within GMSM communities. HIV research, policy and programs will need to invest in: (1) responding to structural and institutional stigma; (2) health promotion and health services that recognise and work to address the impact of stigma on GMSM’s incorporation of new HIV prevention biotechnologies; (3) enhanced mobilisation and participation of GMSM and PLHIV in new approaches to HIV prevention; and (4) expanded approaches to research and evaluation in stigma reduction and its relationship with HIV prevention. The HIV response must become bolder in resourcing, designing and evaluating programs that interact with and influence stigma at multiple levels, including structural-level stigma.

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S13.4 What Do Gay Men Need? - Challenges Regarding Comprehensive Approaches in HIV-Prevention Interventions from a National Perspective

Sexually Transmitted Infections ◽

10.1136/sextrans-2013-051184.0064 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 89 (Suppl 1) ◽

pp. A20.3-A20

Author(s):

D Sander

Keyword(s):

Hiv Prevention ◽

Gay Men ◽

Prevention Interventions ◽

Hiv Prevention Interventions ◽

National Perspective

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The Paradoxes of PrEP: Rejection, Reluctancy, and Novel Gay Identities in Biomedical HIV Prevention in Serbia

interalia: a journal of queer studies ◽

10.51897/interalia/odvi6514 ◽

2022 ◽

pp. 34-51

Author(s):

Zoran Milosavljević

Keyword(s):

Hiv Prevention ◽

Gay Men ◽

Hiv Transmission ◽

Gay Identity ◽

Hiv Status ◽

Social Significance ◽

Gay Communities ◽

Hiv Status Disclosure ◽

Status Disclosure ◽

Hiv Negative

This article explores the different ways in which gay men in Serbia perceive PrEP as a novel method of HIV prevention. In the article, I draw on data from my research on PrEP use among thirty gay men in Belgrade. The use of PrEP is still very low amongst gay communities in Serbia due to their rejection of PrEP and due to the stigma around PrEP use. In Serbia, the social significance of PrEP relates to HIV status disclosure on gay social/dating media. Paradoxically, on gay dating sites, the signifier "PrEP" blurs the line between HIV positive gay men – who have achieved undetectable HIV status through a potent ARV therapy – and those HIV negative gay men who use PrEP as a preventative tool against HIV transmission. In the article, I will argue that a new form of gay identity has emerged on gay dating apps in Serbia – "undetectable, on PrEP." This new identity emerges from confusion in HIV risk assessment. The use of PrEP has been seen as a marker to denote someone’s HIV negative status and to protect them from HIV transmission. However, some gay men with an undetectable HIV status would like to be regarded as HIV negative even though they are not, and thus they use the signifier "on PrEP" to highlight their desire to claim an HIV negative status. PrEP has many symbolic valences: from HIV status disclosure to assumed promiscuity. As I will argue, while the health paradigm is of utmost importance for Serbian gay men, internalized stigma additionally drives the low uptake of PrEP amongst gay communities in Serbia, thus contributing to the confusion regarding PrEP use and the overall approach to HIV prevention. This article finds that those respondents who accept PrEP without stigma or confusion regarding their HIV status are also more willing and ready to recommend using PrEP to other gay men.

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PrEP in the press

Journal of Language and Sexuality ◽

10.1075/jls.20002.jon ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 9 (2) ◽

pp. 202-225 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Lucy Jones ◽

Luke Collins

Keyword(s):

Hiv Prevention ◽

Critical Discourse Analysis ◽

Gay Men ◽

Public Awareness ◽

Critical Discourse ◽

Linguistic Representations ◽

The Press ◽

Trial Basis ◽

Sex With Men ◽

Political Spectrum

Abstract This research reports on newspaper representations of PrEP, a HIV-prevention drug recently made available on a trial basis to at-risk individuals in England. Using corpus-assisted queer critical discourse analysis, we investigate the linguistic representations of the users of PrEP within three leading British newspapers from across the political spectrum between 2014–18. We find that users of PrEP are most frequently positioned as ‘men who have sex with men’ or ‘gay men’, a representation that we argue limits public awareness of HIV itself, and of available HIV prevention. Furthermore, while the most left-leaning newspaper in our corpus focuses on the human benefit of PrEP, the most right-leaning newspaper takes a moralistic stance which frames gay men as risk-taking and therefore less deserving of healthcare funding than other groups. We therefore argue that certain representations of PrEP’s beneficiaries are implicitly homophobic, and that most representations are unhelpfully restrictive.

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High levels of mild to moderate depression among men who have sex with men and transgender women in Lima, Peru: implications for integrated depression and HIV care

10.1101/2020.01.07.20016808 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Jerome T. Galea ◽

Stephanie Marhefka ◽

Segundo R. León ◽

Guitele Rahill ◽

Elena Cyrus ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Hiv Prevention ◽

Transgender Women ◽

Hiv Care ◽

Depression Care ◽

Care Services ◽

Treatment Services ◽

Moderate Depression ◽

Prevention And Treatment ◽

Patient Health ◽

Sex With Men

ABSTRACTDepression disproportionally affects people at risk of acquiring or living with HIV and is associated with worse health outcomes; however, depression care is not routinely integrated with HIV prevention and treatment services. Selection of the best depression intervention(s) for integration depends both on the prevalence and severity of depression among potential users. To inform depression care integration in a community-based setting in Lima, Peru, we retrospectively analyzed routinely collected depression screening data from men who have sex with men and transgender women seeking HIV prevention and care services (N=185). Depression was screened for using the Patient Health Questionnaire-9. Prevalence of any depression (PHQ-9 ≥5) was 42% and was significantly associated with the last sexual partner being “casual” (p=0.01). Most (81%) depressive symptoms were mild to moderate (≥5 PHQ-9 ≤14). Integrating depression care with HIV prevention and treatment services in Peru should begin by implementing interventions targeting mild to moderate depression.

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