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Sexual Risk Behavior and Venues for Meeting Sex Partners: An Intercept Survey of Gay and Bisexual Men in LA and NYC

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Abstract

Understanding the link between venues for meeting sex partners and sexual risk behavior is critical to developing and placing effective sexual health education and HIV prevention services. Non-monogamous gay and bisexual men (n = 886) were surveyed in New York and Los Angeles about the venues that they met recent sex partners: bathhouses, private sex parties, gay bars/clubs, the gym, via public cruising, and the Internet. Bars/clubs, bathhouses, and the Internet were the most endorsed venues for meeting partners. Men having met a majority of their partners (i.e., “preference”) via these three venues were compared/contrasted. Those having preference for bars/clubs were dissimilar from men with preference for bathhouses or the Internet on multiple levels (e.g. age, number of sex partners, temptation for unsafe sex). However, these men were proportionally similar in whether they had engaged in a recent episode of unprotected anal intercourse (UAI). Logistic regressions predicting UAI suggested venues might not play a role in differentiating men who had preference for bars/clubs, bathhouses or the Internet. Additional regression analyses utilizing all six venues to predict UAI suggested other person-factors such as identity as a barebacker and temptation for unsafe sex better explain UAI. This research suggests HIV prevention and educational campaigns targeted within venues need also address socio-psychological person-factors in addition to environmental/venue contexts.

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Acknowledgments

The Sex and Love v2.0 Project was supported by the Hunter College Center for HIV/AIDS Educational Studies and Training (CHEST), under the direction of Dr. Parsons. The authors acknowledge the contributions of other members of the CHEST Sex and Love v2.0 Project Team–Gideon Feldstein, Catherine Holder, James Kelleher, and Juline A. Koken. The authors also wish to thank Sarit A. Golub and the anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for HIV/AIDS Educational Studies and Training (CHEST), New York, NY, USA

    Christian Grov, Jeffrey T. Parsons & David S. Bimbi

  2. Department of Sociology, Graduate Center of the City University of New York (CUNY), New York, NY, USA

    Christian Grov

  3. Department of Psychology, Hunter College of the City University of New York, 695 Park Avenue, New York, NY, 10021, USA

    Jeffrey T. Parsons

  4. Department of Psychology, Graduate Center of the City University of New York (CUNY), New York, NY, USA

    Jeffrey T. Parsons & David S. Bimbi

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  1. Christian Grov
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Correspondence to Jeffrey T. Parsons.

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Grov, C., Parsons, J.T. & Bimbi, D.S. Sexual Risk Behavior and Venues for Meeting Sex Partners: An Intercept Survey of Gay and Bisexual Men in LA and NYC. AIDS Behav 11, 915–926 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10461-006-9199-y

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