Researching Aids Sexuality And Gender

The current HIV and AIDS regime has opened up unknown vistas in intellectual pursuits and knowledge creation. One such newly opened up area of research is studying HIV and AIDS in relation to gender issues. However, owing to the devastating nature of the epidemic, most studies tend to focus on women merely as an "at risk" population leaving aside the wider sociological dimensions that pertain to women's sexuality in general, issues of AIDS related stigma and discrimination and how it impacts on women's careers as economic contributors to society. The uniqueness of the present study lies in the fact that it embodies the author's triangulated research into the tripartite dimensions of HIV and AIDS, women's sexuality, and gender-sociology, all against the backdrop of analysing actual experiences of career women in Kenyan universities.

After widespread neglect over many years, the study of human sexuality has recently come to the forefront of many of the most important debates in contemporary society and culture. This book addresses seriously the issue of how to improve the methodological basis of research into non-heterosexual sexualities, exploring the key question of what different methodological and theoretical uses of intersectionality contribute to our understandings of non-heterosexual sexualities. Bringing together research from the UK, USA, Europe and Australasia, this innovative collection rethinks traditional methodologies, creating new epistemologies and applying new approaches, whilst critically examining key issues, including communities, identities, relationships, sexualities, homosexual parenthood, fostering, civil marriage, and politics. As such, it will be of interest to researchers, scholars and students across the social sciences and health professionals.

At a time when lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender individuals--often referred to under the umbrella acronym LGBT--are becoming more visible in society and more socially acknowledged, clinicians and researchers are faced with incomplete information about their health status. While LGBT populations often are combined as a single entity for research and advocacy purposes, each is a distinct population group with its own specific health needs. Furthermore, the experiences of LGBT individuals are not uniform and are shaped by factors of race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, geographical location, and age, any of which can have an effect on health-related concerns and needs. The Health of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender People assesses the state of science on the health status of LGBT populations, identifies research gaps and opportunities, and outlines a research agenda for the National Institute of Health. The report examines the health status of these populations in three life stages: childhood and adolescence, early/middle adulthood, and later adulthood. At each life stage, the committee studied mental health, physical health, risks and protective factors, health services, and contextual influences. To advance understanding of the health needs of all LGBT individuals, the report finds that researchers need more data about the demographics of these populations, improved methods for collecting and analyzing data, and an increased participation of sexual and gender minorities in research. The Health of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender People is a valuable resource for policymakers, federal agencies including the National Institute of Health (NIH), LGBT advocacy groups, clinicians, and service providers.

As the HIV epidemic moves into its fourth decade, it is clear that the global response has failed to adequately address the needs of a wide range of vulnerable populations and groups. Chief among these are gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men, and transgender persons, who globally face the disproportional burden of HIV infection. This volume rethinks HIV prevention and health promotion for sexual and gender minorities – in both the industrialised societies of the West, as well as in the developing nations of the Global South. The chapters it contains offer a critical analysis of past and present HIV research employing categories to designate gay and other men who have sex with men, transgender persons, and/or other persons and communities with diverse gender and sexual identities. Contributors question the politics of many of the existing classifications and categories in HIV research and argue for a more sophisticated analysis of gender and sexual diversity in order to tackle the social and political barriers that impede the design of successful HIV prevention and health promotion approaches. This book was originally published as a special issue of Global Public Health.

The last twenty years have seen a growth in multi-disciplinary work in the area of sexuality, culture and health. What was once a set of specialist concerns has been steadily mainstreamed. Alongside this, a broader interest has developed in ‘social’ and 'cultural’ factors relating to sexuality and sexual health, from family planning and STI management to gender and intimate partner violence and the technologisation of sex. This book offers a research-based overview of key topics relevant to social and cultural perspectives on sexuality and sexual health. Beginning with an extended introduction and divided into six sections, it looks at culture, sex and gender, sexual diversity, sex work, migration and sexual violence. Each section opens with an editorial discussion which places the theme, and the chapters that follow, in a contemporary context. Six additional substantive chapters can be accessed online at www.routledge.com/cw/aggleton. Including cutting-edge conceptual and empirical material from around the world, this is a key resource for students in, and across, a variety of academic disciplines in the social and health sciences. It is especially suitable for readers from sexuality studies, gender studies, development studies, anthropology and sociology as well as those with public health and social work backgrounds.

Gain important insight and a broader perspective on where, why, and how sex workers conduct their business For years, the focus of sex work research has been on street-based male and female sex workers and the HIV-related risks they pose to their clients. Contemporary Research on Sex Work moves beyond the basic association between sex work and unprotected sex to a fuller description of the varied facets of the industry while still pursuing a better understanding of HIV risk among those working the streets. The diverse approaches in this unique book include targeted sampling, qualitative and quantitative interviews, ethnographic interviews with key informants, using sex workers as recruiters, and quasi-experimental intervention designs. Contemporary Research on Sex Work dispels the notion that all sex workers are prostitutes working the streets, highlighting instead various aspects of sex work in terms of gender, venue, and context. Social scientists from a variety of disciplines present research collected from across the United States, Cambodia, the Philippines, Argentina, and Canada that reflects the efforts to explore interventions and programs designed to improve the social and physical lives of male, female, and transgender sex workers—and their clients. The book examines how different circumstances determine different issues of power, control, health, social functioning, mental health, and HIV/STI risk each sex worker faces. Contemporary Research on Sex Work examines: condom use by transgender female sex workers the association between mental health issues and unprotected sex the influence of structural intervention in reducing biologically sexually transmitted infections (STIs) the “hidden” population of women who solicit clients in private locations off the street stigma resistance among male sex workers in Canada the relationship between childhood sexual abuse and subsequent involvement in sex work health services among male sex workers in Argentina how the intersection between race/ethnicity affects female sex workers in Los Angeles how sex workers deal with the negativity that surrounds their profession job-related risk and safety for sex workers in Canada legal concerns and policy issues and much more! Contemporary Research on Sex Work is your guide to the next generation of sex work research, highlighting the need to understand sex work as work. The book is an essential resource for researchers in the fields of sex research, sex work, and HIV/AIDS prevention, and for clinicians who work with those involved in the industry.