Grant: Doctoral Award - Frederick Banting and Charles Best Canada Graduate Scholarships

If HIV infections among gay and bisexual men continue to escalate at existing rates more than half of current university aged gay men will contract HIV by the age of 50 (Flock, 2013). Resiliency Theory (Herrick et al. 2011) suggests that North American gay men face chronic exposure to stigma and discrimination, and stresses the need for strength based HIV programs for gay men. We propose that one answer is that effective programs will be emic, or internally derived from specific gay subcultures. Initial analysis (Roth et al. 2013) of data from the Momentum Health Study, a CIHR and NIH funded longitudinal study of Vancouver gay male health (www.momentumstudy.ca) indicates a subculture of Intensive Sex Partying (Prestage et al, 2009 ) associated with Group Sex Events (GSE). Despite repeated calls (Mimiaga et al. 2010; Solomon et al. 2011; Phillips et al. 2013) for HIV/STI intervention programs specifically designed for gay men attending GSE, to date no original programs have been formulated or implemented. The Momentum team is in a strong position to design such a program, having already recruited over 115 men who report attending GSE from a total of 600 men. Adopting a mixed method approach we will first analyze already collected quantitative data to test the hypothesis that men attending GSE differ in terms of sexual behavior, substance use and psychosocial patterns, indicating a true gay subculture. If verified, then etic, or externally constructed generic safer sex intervention messages may in effect not be acceptable to these men. Our second hypothesis is that GSE participants practice HIV protection strategies at Vancouver GSE. To test this we will contact and interview Momentum participants who reported GSE attendance. We have ethics permission to do this, and have secured support from Vancouver gay HIV prevention organizations such as the Health Initiative for Men, to collaborate on the study of this important cultural and epidemiological phenomenon.