The study's findings suggest current HIV prevention efforts are effective in reducing risky sexual behaviors and promoting awareness about the importance of HIV testing among black MSM. Black MSM experienced greater levels of stigma, victimization, trauma and childhood sexual abuse.Black MSM were more likely to report hazardous marijuana use, while white MSM were more likely to report high levels of alcohol problems.Black MSM were more likely to report not having close relationships with their sexual partners.
The authors used data from RADAR, a project funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, that identifies drivers of HIV infections on multiple levels, including sexual partner and relationship characteristics, network dynamics and community-level factors. It analyzed young black MSM's social networks, such as past sexual partners, as well as measures of stress, past trauma and stigma. The study is the largest and most comprehensive to assess why these disparities exist. "That, coupled with the higher HIV prevalence in the population, means any sexual act has a higher chance of HIV transmission." "Their social and sexual networks are more dense and interconnected, which from an infectious disease standpoint makes infections transmitted more efficiently through the group," Mustanski said. "Our study illuminates how HIV disparities emerge from complex social and sexual networks and inequalities in access to medical care for those who are HIV positive." "We have known from prior studies that this paradox exists - black young MSM engage in fewer risk behaviors but have a much higher rate of HIV diagnosis," said senior study author Brian Mustanski, professor of medical social sciences at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and director of the Northwestern Institute for Sexual and Gender Minority Health and Wellbeing.
If these rates persist, one out of every two black MSM will become infected with HIV at some point in their lives, compared to one in five Hispanic MSM and one in 11 white MSM, reports the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The study was recently published in the Journal of Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndromes.
The pair began as pals, bonding over music and hanging at Tyler’s place. “We actually met on a gay dating app,” Tyler said. “Sizeism in particular is an insanely annoying issue and as annoying as it is for me I still benefit in the sense that I am built like a football player and people find that more attractive than someone who does not have a powerlifter’s build or just a muscular figure. He said: “There also is not enough action to dismantle these- isms from our community. Talk has intensified over the last two decades about the racism inherent within pockets of the gay community, and while some apps have taken action to curb it, racism remains an everyday reality for queer folk of colour.Īnd to Tyler, a black gay man, racism as well as classism and sizeism is not spoken about enough. “Part of our identity is being fat/heavy/thick, black and gay men and we want all people but especially those people to know that you do not have to have to have a certain look to find love,” he said.