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Intersectional Microaggressions and Implications for Health Inequities and HIV Among Latino/x Sexual Minority Males in Puerto Rico

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Abstract

Latino/x sexual minority males (SMM) continue to be disproportionately impacted by health inequities. This study aims to understand the lived experience of Puerto Rican (PR) SMM related to how intersectional microaggressions influence health-related risk and protective factors. Young adult (ages 21–30) PR SMM from San Juan, Puerto Rico, completed a bilingual in-depth individual interview (14 in Spanish and 1 in English). A thematic analysis based on the original language of the interviews was conducted using NVivo. Six prominent themes were identified through the data analysis: (1) religious microaggressions, being gay is bad because God doesn’t like it; (2) gender microaggressions, gay is not good because it’s not for men; (3) sexuality microaggressions, this one is a homosexual, coming out as a sexual minority; (4) trans microaggressions, drag queens create an illusion; (5) internalized microaggressions, battling with internalized homophobia; and (6) mitigating microaggressions, establishing a supportive community. Findings suggest that multiple forms of microaggressions based on the intersectionality of sexuality and gender manifest from straight as well as gay communities. PR SMM demonstrated their resiliency by assessing interactions with others to mitigate risks and enhance supportive networks.

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Data Availability

Data collected for this study are available from the corresponding author [MG] on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank staff and resources provided by PR CoNCRA the Comisión de Derechos Civiles de Puerto Rico for their support. Special thanks for the participants sharing their intimate stories to enhance our understanding of their lived experience related to the HIV epidemic in San Juan, PR.

Funding

This research was funded by the National Institute of Mental Health (2R25MH087217-06) through Yale University—Center for Interdisciplinary Research on AIDS (CIRA) at Research Education Institute for Diverse Scholars (REIDS). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. MG.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Social Work, San José State University, San Jose, CA, 95112, USA

    Moctezuma Garcia

  2. Center for Interdisciplinary Research on AIDS, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA

    Moctezuma Garcia

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  1. Moctezuma Garcia
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Conceptualization, methodology, validation, formal analysis, investigation, data curation, writing, project administration, funding acquisition: M.G. The author has read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Moctezuma Garcia.

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Garcia, M. Intersectional Microaggressions and Implications for Health Inequities and HIV Among Latino/x Sexual Minority Males in Puerto Rico. J. Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40615-023-01900-2

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