Disrupting discourse and pushing the paradigm: Reframing HIV risk behavior among Asian & Pacific Islander men who have sex with men (API MSM)

The legacy of the model minority myth and its effects as a social construction has continued to plague public health discourse around HIV risk among Asian and Pacific Islander men who have sex with men (API MSM). A genuine understanding of API MSM HIV risk is further distorted by low rates of HIV infection, relative to that of other race categories, promoting divestment and the false belief that that HIV is not a problem in communities of API MSM.

The results of this study seek to reframe HIV risk behavior in a sample of API MSM (n=150) in the San Francisco Bay Area. Data on HIV risk behavior, substance use, acculturation, social support, exposure to prevention messages, HIV-related stigma, internalized homophobia, and HIV testing and partner seeking behavior will be analyzed.

Questionnaires are completed by all individuals who receive an HIV test or participate in HIV prevention programs at a community-based HIV/AIDS service organization. In addition to univariate and bivariate analyses, HIV risk behavior data are analyzed cross-sectionally, using linear and logistic regression. Interactions between key constructs are also tested.

Data collection for this study has not ended; therefore, results are not final. However, preliminary analyses reveal growing salience in foreign-born status, socio-cultural and network influences.

Current public health HIV prevention frameworks rely on data verified at the aggregate level for all populations; this essentialist approach is ill-equipped to understand HIV risk among API MSMs. Instead, CBOs must lead research priorities in understanding the social and cultural contexts of HIV/AIDS.