Barry D. Adam

Constructing the neoliberal sexual actor: Responsibility and care of the self in the discourse of barebackers

This paper analyses on the discourses employed by a subset of gay and bisexual men who no longer practise protected sex more than twenty years into the HIV epidemic. In‐depth interviews with 102 men in Toronto are used to examine the moral reasoning of those for whom the language of barebacking provides a shared set of accounts and tacit understandings for unprotected sex. Barebacking raises some of the central issues of contemporary theory around risk, responsibility, and ethics, and poses new challenges to HIV prevention policy as barebacking discourses adapt some of the major tenets of neoliberal ideology by combining notions of informed consent, contractual interaction, free market choice, and responsibility in new ways. At the same time, interviews with barebackers reveal competing and contradictory discourses that suggest new avenues of engagement for HIV prevention initiatives.

AIDS Optimism, Condom Fatigue, or Self-Esteem? Explaining Unsafe Sex Among Gay and Bisexual Men.

This study examines leading explanations for unsafe sex in light of in‐depth interviews with 102 high‐risk gay and bisexual men in Toronto to see how well they engage with the social circumstances and reasoning processes of men in their sexual relationships. We argue that there is an inadequate fit between some of the leading explanations and the discursive accounts provided by high risk men themselves. Their accounts focus on unsafe sex occurring as a resolution to condom and erectile difficulties, through momentary lapses and trade offs, out of personal turmoil and depression, and as a byproduct of strategies of disclosure and intuiting safety. This study examines, in particular, the circumstances and rationales associated with men who identify their practices as “barebacking.” We conclude with recommendations for communicating prevention messages to those most at risk based on the self‐understandings of gay and bisexual men who most frequently practice unprotected sex.

Relationship Innovation in Male Couples

Interviews with 70 men in coupled relationships in Toronto show the range and development of gay relationships in managing sexual inclusivity. Monogamy scripts appear most commonly among younger men and/or men new to gay relationships, and among men whose formative years have been in cultures with limited or absent autonomous gay worlds. But more common is allegiance to particularly masculine discourses of autonomy and adventurism, insisting on a right to sexual self-determination and attraction to the sense of affirmation and pleasure experienced with other men. Indigenous sexual cultures among gay men have taken their own autonomous path of development apart from (if still a part of) the courtship and family practices of the heterosexual hegemony, and have innovated new options and understandings in conducting relationships.

The Defense of Marriage Act and American Exceptionalism: The "Gay Marriage" Panic in the United States

SI N C E 1995, when Utah passed the first law of its kind, thirty-seven states and the federal government have moved rapidly to legislate bans against something that does not, in fact, exist in the United States, namely, “gay marriage.”1 Termed the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) at the federal level, the speed and success of the passage of this law and the “miniDOMAs” at the state level show many of the earmarks of a moral panic, especially when swept into law through referenda. What is especially noteworthy about this American trend is the degree to which it is exceptional on the world scene. At a time when the legal recognition of gay and lesbian relationships has been proceeding apace in advanced industrial nations around the world (most notably, in Scandinavia, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Canada, Germany, and Hungary and partially or locally in Australia, Austria, Brazil, Colombia, Czech Republic, New Zealand, Portugal, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom), the efforts of U.S. legislators to prohibit legal recognition demand explanation.2 While none of these countries introduced full legal recognition of same-sex relationships all at once, and few have granted the full range of

Adherence practices among people living with HIV.

This paper offers a critique of patient-deficit models of adherence by examining the articulation of dosing schedules and food prohibitions with the structure of everyday lives. Interviews with 31 men and 4 women taking HAART show that doses associated with regular daily life events are most consistently taken, but many individuals rework official dosing guidelines around timing and food consumption. Barriers to adherence often arise from conflicting demands imposed by work schedules, different medications, food prohibitions, and even outright discrimination as in the case of US immigration policy. Adherence may be the outcome of compromises made in an effort to solve contradictory demands, and may be situational and related to the qualities of particular drugs, as much as to personality traits. Autobiographical narratives that give order to ones sense of self provide foundations upon which adherence decision making occurs. Finally, perceptions of drug effectiveness may lead to self-reinforcing adherence practices.

Accounting for unsafe sex: Interviews with men who have sex with men

Semi‐structured one‐on‐one interviews with 102 gay and bisexual men were conducted to examine the reasoning processes men use to exempt themselves from practicing safe sex. Qualitative analysis of the interviews revealed the following recurring themes: (a) Many men who were in couple relationships avoided condom use for reasons involving intimacy or trust, or because both partners were HIV‐negative; (b) unsafe sex sometimes occurred inadvertently or involuntarily; (c) negative moods and self‐images were associated with unsafe sex; (d) by “intuiting” that their partner was HIV‐negative, participants exempted themselves from the need for safe sex; and (e) when the boundary between safe and unsafe was unclear, participants used a combination of unofficial and official guidelines to determine what is safe.

Epistemic fault lines in biomedical and social approaches to HIV prevention

This paper raises the question of how knowledge creation is organized in the area of HIV prevention and how this concatenation of expertise, resources, at-risk people and viruses shapes the knowledge used to impede the epidemic. It also seeks to trouble the discourses of biomedical pre-eminence in the field of HIV prevention by examining the claim for treatment as prevention, looking at evidence constructed through the biomedical frame and through the lens of the sociology of science. These questions lie within a larger socio-historical context of lagging worldwide attention and funding to prevention in the HIV area and, in particular, neglect of populations at greatest risk. Much contemporary HIV prevention research relies on a population science divided over an epistemic fault line from the communities and individuals who must make sense of the intrusion of a life-threatening disease into their pursuit of pleasure and intimacy. There are, nevertheless, lessons to be learned from prevention success stories among sex workers, injection drug users, and gay and bisexual men. The success stories point to a need for a robust social science agenda that examines: the ways that people are socially organized and networked; the popular strategies and folk wisdoms developed in the face of HIV risk; socio-historical movement of sexual and drug cultures; the dynamics of popular mobilization to advance health; the institutional sources of HIV discourses; and popular understandings of HIV technologies and messages.

The Emergence of Gay Identities in Contemporary Turkey

The recent emergence of gay (gey) identities raises core questions implicating globalization processes with the diffusion of models of sexual identity from other countries, and enjoins a vigorous debate on how and why gay identities are gaining increasing circulation around the world, challenging longstanding traditions of sexual organization. Relying on the voices of 20 Turkish men in Ankara, we argue that there is no one-way determinism in the adoption of sexual identity from the global to the local and that the meaning of gey is variable, entailing diverse ways of imagining, portraying, and seeing oneself. Turkish society today shows a heterogeneous set of co-existing and shifting social forms of inter-male connection, including some men who act consistently in terms of one or the other social form, and others who tack between them according to situation or personal preference.

Navigating Islam and Same-Sex Liaisons Among Men in Turkey

ABSTRACT This study reports the experiences of 20 Turkish men in having sex with men in an Islamic society. As part of a broader study on Turkish homosexualities, the article analyzes responses to the question, “What joys and difficulties have you experienced regarding your sexual orientation in relation to Islam?” to elicit responses on how Islam and homosexuality might coexist in everyday life.

The MaBwana Black men's study: community and belonging in the lives of African, Caribbean and other Black gay men in Toronto

In Canada, there is a paucity of research aimed at understanding Black gay men and the antecedents to risk factors for HIV. This study is an attempt to move beyond risk factor analysis and explore the role of sexual and ethnic communities in the lives of these men. The study utilized a community-based research and critical race theory approach. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight key informants to augment our understanding of Black gay men and to facilitate recruitment of participants. In-depth interviews were done with 24 Black gay men. Our data showed that the construction of community for Black gay men is challenged by their social and cultural environment. However, these men use their resilience to navigate gay social networks. Black gay men expressed a sense of abjuration from both gay and Black communities because of homophobia and racism. It is essential for health and social programmers to understand how Black gay men interact with Black and gay communities and the complexities of their interactions in creating outreach educational, preventive and support services.