Breakin' It Down(e): Contemporary politics of identity and sexual risk behaviors of San Francisco bay area filipino men who have sex with men

Queer Asian American studies scholars have suggested the politics of gay Asian American male identity has emerged in response to experiences of oppression within the gay white American mainstream. Many of these politics address sociohistorical experiences of orientalization and a racialized desire of the gay Asian male body. In the face of efforts towards a more politicized community of queer Asian Americans, a variety of health disparities and risk taking behaviors continue to grow more poignant among these men and within this community. Rising concerns for this community in the San Francisco Bay Area has spawned additional research, as various studies have discovered trends of behavioral risk and an emerging HIV Epidemic among young API MSM in this area of the country. With the above taken into consideration, this qualitative study will aim to explore narratives of lust, desire, and motivations for high risk sexual encounters among downe identified Filipino men in the San Francisco Bay Area. These findings will provide new data and community voices for organizations aiming to serve this population. Findings from the qualitative interviews shows that this community has encompassed a new sexual identity, “Downe,” at which a predominant network of Filipino, and more recently other Asian American men, have created the identity in response to issues of racism within gay white mainstreams. Primary motivation of this movement is to separate themselves from stereotypes of the “gay Asian male.” Thus, a fusion of a political ethnic and sexual identity has now emerged among queer A&PI youth.