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Online Dating Among Australian Gay and Bisexual Men: Romance or Hooking Up?

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Abstract

Increasingly, gay and bisexual men (GBM) meet casual sex partners online and this has been associated with sexual risk behavior. How do GBM meet regular partners? This online anonymous survey of 4215 GBM included 2562 men with a primary regular partner (PRP) who were included in these analyses. Mean age of the sample was 38.1 years. 60.3 % had met their PRP at least 2 years earlier. Meeting their PRP online increased from 14.0 % before 2001 to 79.9 % in 2013–2014. At all time points, men who met their PRP online were somewhat older than those who met their PRP offline. Regardless of how they met their PRP, most men met casual sex partners online. Among GBM, meeting sexual and romantic partners online has replaced other methods, for all age groups. The population of GBM who use the internet for this purpose is now equivalent to all sexually active GBM.

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Acknowledgments

This study was funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia. The Kirby Institute is affiliated with the Faculty of Medicine, University of New South Wales. The Australian Research Centre in Sex Health and Society (ARCSHS) is affiliated with the Faculty of Health Sciences, La Trobe University. The Kirby Institute and ARCSHS receive funding from the Commonwealth of Australia Department of Health and Ageing.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Kirby Institute, The University of New South Wales, Kensington, NSW, 2052, Australia

    Garrett Prestage, Benjamin Bavinton, Ian Down, Phillip Keen & Jack Bradley

  2. Australian Research Centre in Sex Health and Society, La Trobe University, 215 Franklin Street, Melbourne, 3000, Australia

    Garrett Prestage & Duane Duncan

  3. Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, UK

    Jeffrey Grierson

  4. University of New England, Armidale, Australia

    Duane Duncan

Authors
  1. Garrett Prestage
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  2. Benjamin Bavinton
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  3. Jeffrey Grierson
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  4. Ian Down
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  5. Phillip Keen
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  6. Jack Bradley
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  7. Duane Duncan
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Garrett Prestage.

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Prestage, G., Bavinton, B., Grierson, J. et al. Online Dating Among Australian Gay and Bisexual Men: Romance or Hooking Up?. AIDS Behav 19, 1905–1913 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10461-015-1032-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10461-015-1032-z

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