Marseille 2007
| Abstract #463 - Unprotected anal intercourse among french gay men : logic and sense | ||||
|
Session: 26.99: Posters B (Poster) on Tuesday in Chaired by Authors: Presenting Author: Mr Gabriel GIRARD - CERMES/EHESS, France |
||||
| Additional Authors: | ||||
| Aim: The various researches on AIDS prevention show the permanence of a high number of unprotected behaviours among gay people, between seroconcordant but also between sero-nonconcordant partners. In France, quantitative investigations recently underlined the association between these behaviours and socio-sexual factors : being HIV positive, using alcohol and recreational drugs, having a high number of partners. These data reveal the heterogeneity of the ways of life among gay communities. Our qualitative investigation aims to look further into the analysis of the various profiles of gay risk-takers, in order to better include the logic and the sense of unprotected sexual behaviours. | ||||
| Method / Issue: The investigation is based on 40 semi-directed biographical interviews, realized in Paris and in Brittany. Gay men were recruited via associations network and advertisements on Internet (blogs). Respondents are selected on : two groups of age : the first half having always known a sexuality with AIDS (20), the other half having experienced the irruption of the epidemic (20) HIV status : to identify a group of HIV positive men (20) place of residence : to compare the experiences of gay life and sociability, between Paris (25) and an other French city (15) Interviews make it possible to analyze the course, and the experience of gay life, by applying a qualitative method. The analysis is focused on perceptions of the risks and the prevention, linked with the socio-sexual experience. | ||||
| Results / Comments: The realization and the analysis of the interviews are in hand, but the first results allow us to identify two main types of perception and justification of the unprotected behaviours. Two models of organization of the social relations take shape: - a community model : the weight of the group is central in the definition of preventive standards and preventive deviances. The risk is perceived on the margin of the community. - an individualistic model : the risk of contamination is avoidable and controllable by the individual. These two models imply different answers, in term of preventive rules, for oneself and the others. Our analysis will allow a more precise explanation of the variations in the patterns of the prevention between homosexuals. The analysis illustrates the difficulty of stabilizing standards of sexual and relational behaviours, on an individual and collective scale. Divergences appear within the sample, on what makes community between the homosexual individuals. The perception of the risks is founded on different experiences of homosexuality. | ||||
| Discussion: The problems arising from the acceptability of the prevention are not new in the history of the epidemic. But, in the context of a durably installed disease, AIDS prevention always represents an ethical and political stake of first importance. Analysing the diversity of gays ways of life allows a better understanding of the evolutions in the preventive behaviours. Whereas the international debates are interested in harm reduction, the necessity remains to question the way in which the gays, receivers of the prevention, adapt and perceive the preventive recommendations. | ||||
| Go Back | ||||
