Keeping gay and bisexual men safe: The arena of HIV prevention science and praxis.

Abstract In this article, I draw from an ongoing ethnographic study of HIV prevention for gay, bisexual, and 'men who have sex with men' to develop an institutional analysis of HIV behavioral intervention science and praxis. I approach this analysis through the lens of the social worlds framework, focusing on the institutional arena in which HIV behavioral interventions are devised and executed. Toward this end, I focus on two fundamental points of contention that lie at the heart of the prevention enterprise and put its social organization in high relief: (1) conceptions of health and lifestyle practices and (2) attributions of expertise.

Health and sexual status in an urban gay enclave: an application of the stress process model.

In this article, I apply the stress process model as a framework to understand sexual sociality and its impact on health among urban gay men in a large North American gay enclave. Data consisting of in-depth interviews with 70 gay men coupled with three years of fieldwork demonstrate a sexual status order that privileges caucasian, middle-class men in their twenties and early thirties, and that disadvantages black and Asian men, men over 40 years of age, and poor men. Men with low sexual status faced significant stressors in the form of avoidance from others, stigmatization, and rejection.

Crystal methamphetamine and sexual sociality in an urban gay subculture: an elective affinity.

This paper draws on 49 qualitative interviews to explore the contextual antecedents of methamphetamine use in a sample of gay and bisexual Manhattan men. The paper distinguishes itself from the public health literature on crystal methamphetamine use in this population by shifting the analytic focus from individual-level factors of drug use to the role of social context. While individual-level factors--including self esteem and social awkwardness--are related to methamphetamine use, we argue that these factors arise in and are exacerbated by interactional pressures attendant to Manhattan's gay sexual subculture, which revolve around the expectation of peak sexual performance.