Marcelo Montes Penha, MA and PhD Candi¹, Michele G. Shedlin, PhD¹, Maria Cecilia Zea, PhD², Carol A. Reisen², Paul J. Poppen², Fernanda T. Bianchi², and Carlos U. Decena, PhD Candidate¹. (1) Institute for AIDS Research, National Development & Research Institutes, 71 West 23 St. 8th fl., New York, NY 10010, (212) 845-4503, montespenha@ndri.org, (2) Department of Psychology, George Washington University, Building GG, 2125 G Street NW, Washington, DC 20052

Ethical guidelines generally attempt to cover a large number of ethical possibilities regarding the researcher’s conduct, responsibilities and obligations. This paper reviews and addresses the need to create ethical guidelines specifically for conducting fieldwork on sexual behavior among MSM by MSM ethnographers. The proposed guidelines have resulted from the experience of planning the study “Contextual Influences on Sexual Risk Among Latino MSM,” a collaboration between George Washington University and the National Development and Research Institutes.

Considering the gap in the literature on ethics and MSM and that Latino MSM generally conduct research on Latino MSM, ethical guidelines become crucial to support fieldworkers and to manage erotic subjectivity and to guide the complex roles of the researcher in his community. These suggested guidelines provide reference points for professional conduct: 1) to assure the protection and integrity of human subjects, 2) ensure the scientific rigor of the research, and 3) to protect researchers and subjects from distressful situations in the field. These guidelines provide a much needed and innovative perspective on and support for ethnography on sexual behavior. The paper provides an important approach to the challenges faced by researchers in studying their own community.

Learning Objectives:

• Identify the challenges and ethical issues faced by ethnographers who conduct fieldwork in sexual venues inside their own community.
• Discuss the process of designing ethical guidelines for fieldwork on sexual behavior in order to ensure scientific rigor and the protection of human subjects.
• Apply the experience of designing ethical guidelines for other specific themed studies.

Keywords: Sexual Behavior, Field Experience

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.