Love, passion and rebellion: Ideologies of HIV risk among Latino gay men in the USA

Abstract

In this paper, we analyse the focus group discussions of approximately 300 Latino gaymen, when asked to explain the high rates of unprotected anal intercourse in their communities. Men's responses and discussions were mapped into three different categories, representing different ideologies of sexual risk: (1) ideologies about situations, circumstances and male characteristics that converge in a loss of sexual control; (2) ideologies about a basic incompatibility between safer sex and interpersonal trust, intimacy and love; and (3) fatalistic ideologies about the inevitability of HIV infection, where the fatalism evokes responses ranging from resignation to rebellion. The ideologies presented here should not be interpreted simplistically as 'causes' for unprotected sex; rather, they are windows offering views of socially-shared meaning that can help us understand the subjective experience of those who struggle with safer sex in the Latino gay community.