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Sexual and Gender Diversity Within the Black Men Who Have Sex with Men HIV Epidemiological Category

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Abstract

Epidemiological categories not only reflect existing frameworks for public health, but also reify how subpopulations are defined, understood, and targeted for interventions. The sweeping categorization of Black men who have sex with men (BMSM) used in HIV research and intervention work is one such example. The current paper builds upon previous critiques of the “MSM” nomenclature by delineating the sexual and gender diversity embedded in the term as it pertains specifically to Black peoples. The emphasis is on developing greater specificity about the sociocultural and structural factors that may be shared among these subgroups, such as racism and poverty, and the factors that are likely to distinguish the groups, such as levels of sexual minority identification; access to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) services and community; and experiences with anti-bisexual or anti-transgender bias. The aim then is to provide a framework for HIV health policy work for Black sexual minority cisgender men (SMCM) and gender minorities (GMs).

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Notes

  1. Based on unpublished analyses of Gallup Poll data estimating the population of Black gay and bisexual identified men by Angeliki Kastanis and Gary Gates (2015), conducted upon request of first author. These data do not include those that engage in same sexual behavior or have same sex attractions but do not identify as LGBT.

  2. We address this axis with regard to cisgender BMSM because, as described above, most research on BMSM is conducted with cisgender men in mind, regardless of whether this assumption is made explicit. However, we acknowledge that Black transmen and transwomen are also diverse in sexual orientation identity.

  3. There are no peer-reviewed accounts detailing the origins of the term SGL. However, most anecdotal accounts experienced by the first author and community accounts, as seen by public entries to Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Same_gender_loving), indicate that the term was coined by community activist Cleo Manago.

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Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge and appreciate the work of behavioral health interventionist and socio-political TV commentator Dr. Cleo Manago for his leadership in initially proposing to us the need to revisit a discussion of the Black MSM framework as it related to HIV/AIDS. Further, we acknowledge Brad Sears and Drs. Ilan Meyer, Gary Gates, Gary Harper, and Greg Millett for willingness to review and provide feedback, as well as Soon Kyu Choi and Sheila Nehzad for assistance with formatting and literature reviews, on preliminary versions of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Bianca D. M. Wilson.

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This article is a theoretical paper and does not contain any studies with human participants or animals performed by any of the authors.

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Bianca Wilson and Ayako Miyashita declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Wilson, B.D.M., Miyashita, A. Sexual and Gender Diversity Within the Black Men Who Have Sex with Men HIV Epidemiological Category. Sex Res Soc Policy 13, 202–214 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13178-016-0219-z

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