The Eroticizing Of Hiv

This book examines sexual fantasies and their influence on everyday life through the stories of twenty-two men who introduce themselves as bugchasers, i.e. gay men who eroticize HIV. The author defines bugchasing, charts its history and contexts, and considers how it has changed in the age of internet and PrEP. Through the participants, their experiences and contexts, this text also theorizes about sexual fantasies, seeking to understand how people define sexual fantasies and use the internet as a space to navigate their desires, meet others, and find support. Chapters also consider the practical implications of fantasy, most notably, how fantasies influence men’s decisions around HIV prevention and care. This book speaks to renewed interest in both the AIDS crisis and the sociology of everyday life to illustrate how fantasies such as bugchasing appear, evolve, and adapt. This book will be of interest to scholars focused on queer studies, sexuality studies, gender studies, and healthcare.

Since the AIDS epidemic was recognized, information on safer sex has been assumed to be the most crucial means of preventing further spread of the disease. But how well has AIDS education worked? What kinds of education work best and for whom? This study is the first to provide an in-depth analysis of the results of AIDS education programs and to explore the psychosocial factors that affect behavioral responses to education. B. R. Simon Rosser provides a detailed profile of a specific population at risk, including factors such as sexual behavior, psychology, religious affiliation, legal status, and discrimination. Using comparative measures of behavior, personality, social status, attitudes, and risk-taking, he identifies important differences between homosexual men who engage in safer sex and those who do not. Finally, he evaluates the impact of different approaches to AIDS education. Examining both positive and negative effects, Rosser shows that the spread of the HIV virus was actually accelerated by a national education campaign utilizing fear, and contrasts this result with four international gay-sensitive education campaigns that produced positive changes in behavior and lifestyle. He discusses ways in which AIDS education must develop in order to become more effective, together with crucial changes that are needed in both the gay population and the larger community if HIV transmission is to be halted. This study is a valuable resource for education and research in AIDS prevention, sexual behavior, psychovenereology, education, health, and related disciplines.

Deliver effective services to this growing population! This volume presents the first collection of reports on the impact of HIV/AIDS on the transgender community worldwide. It includes a thorough description of the unique HIV risks of transgender people and exposes their largely neglected health and social service needs. This unique book also reports on the first generation of prevention interventions targeting this community, discusses guidelines for providing sex reassignment services to HIV-positive transsexuals, and encourages collaboration between communities at risk, researchers, and people in the helping professions. The social stigma faced by this population adds to their risk of HIV infection. Low self-esteem, rejection, neglect, employment discrimination, disenfranchisement, and a desire for acceptance and validation are all contributing factors. Yet, as the editors point out, “On the positive side, the transgender community has been able to mobilize and empower itself, and has found a voice that no longer can be ignored. We call on transgender and nontransgender people alike to work together to advance HIV prevention and promote our sexual health.” In Transgender and HIV you'll encounter: extensive discussions of the health, social service, and HIV prevention needs of the transgender community tips on how to work with marginalized communities in an empowering way explorations of the sexuality of both male-to-female and female-to-male transsexuals first-ever findings on sex reassignment surgery on HIV-positive individuals guidelines for surgery on HIV-positive transsexuals Transgender and HIV provides much-needed and often-requested information on HIV prevalence, risks, prevention, and care for this increasingly visible community.

The Netherlands' response to AIDS is widely regarded as well organized and effective. This is largely due to the timely response to the threat of the disease, with a prevention programme starting in 1982. This Dutch example provides an instructive case study for other countries with relevance for policy makers now and in the future. The book documents and discusses Dutch prevention policy: most specifically the prevention policies and activities for various target groups; the focus on prevention research and studies on sexuality and health behaviour; and the emphasis on individual responsibility.

Why LGBTQ+ people must resist the seduction of dignity In 2015, when the Supreme Court declared that gay and lesbian couples were entitled to the “equal dignity” of marriage recognition, the concept of dignity became a cornerstone for gay rights victories. In Disrupting Dignity, Stephen M. Engel and Timothy S. Lyle explore the darker side of dignity, tracing its invocation across public health politics, popular culture, and law from the early years of the HIV/AIDS crisis to our current moment. With a compassionate eye, Engel and Lyle detail how politicians, policymakers, media leaders, and even some within LGBTQ+ communities have used the concept of dignity to shame and disempower members of those communities. They convincingly show how dignity—and the subsequent chase to be defined by its terms—became a tool of the state and the marketplace thereby limiting its more radical potential. Ultimately, Engel and Lyle challenge our understanding of dignity as an unquestioned good. They expose the constraining work it accomplishes and the exclusionary ideas about respectability that it promotes. To restore a lost past and point to a more inclusive future, they assert the worthiness of queer lives beyond dignity’s limits.

Reflecting the current state of research into the communication aspects of HIV/AIDS, this volume explores AIDS-related communication scholarship, moving forward from the 1992 publication AIDS: A Communication Perspective. Editors Timothy Edgar, Seth M. Noar, and Vicki S. Freimuth have developed this up-to-date collection to focus on today’s key communication issues in the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Chapters herein examine the interplay of the messages individuals receive about AIDS at the public level as well as the messages exchanged between individuals at the interpersonal level. Acknowledging how the face of HIV/AIDS has changed since 1992, the volume promotes the perspective that an understanding of effective communication through both mediated and interpersonal channels is essential to winning the continued battle against AIDS. Issues addressed here include: Social stigma associated with the disease, social support and those living with HIV/AIDS, and the current state of HIV testing Parent–child discussions surrounding HIV/AIDS and safer sexual behavior, and cultural sensitivity relating to developing HIV prevention and sex education programs The effectiveness of health campaigns to impact attitudes, norms, and behavior, as well as the current state of entertainment education and its ability to contribute to HIV prevention News media coverage of HIV/AIDS and the impact of the agenda-setting function on public opinion and policy making Health literacy and its importance to the health and well-being of those undergoing HIV treatment. The role of technological innovations, most notably the Internet, used for both prevention interventions as well as risky behavior The volume also includes exemplars that showcase the diversity of approaches to health communication used to combat the HIV/AIDS epidemic. These cases include interpersonal and mass communication mediums; traditional along with new media and technology; research by academics and practitioners; individual as well as community-based approaches; work based in the United States and internationally; and campaigns directed at at-risk, HIV- positive, as well as general populations. With new topics, new contributors, and a broadened scope, this book goes beyond a revision of the 1992 volume to reflect the current state of communication research on HIV/AIDS across key contexts. It is designed for academics, researchers, practitioners, and students in health communication, health psychology, and other areas of AIDS research. As a unique examination of communication research, it makes an indelible contribution to the growing knowledge base of communication approaches to combating HIV/AIDS.

This collection of original essays discusses the increasingly rapid spread of AIDS among women, considering the varying experiences and responses of women of color, lesbians, and economically impoverished women. The essays range widely from policy assessments to case studies, focusing on women as sufferers, caretakers, policy activists, community organizers, and educators.

This book provides a comprehensive overview of behavioral interventions to prevent HIV-AIDS risk-related behaviors. It synthesizes the empirical literature on individual, group, and community-level interventions and provides an objective and detailed assessment of intervention outcomes. Factors associated with behavioral risk for HIV transmission, theories of HIV risk behavior change, and the state of HIV prevention technology transfer are also reviewed. Additionally, behavioral interventions for adolescents and adults of diverse ethnic and sexual backgrounds are discussed with respect to each intervention type. Although the focus is on sexual risk reduction, interventions for sexual behavior of substance abusing populations are also covered.