141st APHA Annual Meeting

In This section

288462
Identity, partnering patterns, and sexual behavior among gay and bisexual men in South Korea

Monday, November 4, 2013

Minsoo Jung, PhD, MPH , Department of Healthcare Management, Dongduk Women's University, Seoul, South Korea
This qualitative study investigates the different types of selecting sex partners by Korean homosexuals in terms of homosexual identity and sexual behavior. In-depth interviews of urban gays or bisexual men were conducted; the snowball sampled through a gay portal web site (n = 32). The results of coding the interviews based on the grounded theory approach identified three types of partnering: 1) gays who do not prefer anal intercourse, but pursue safe sex in long-term relationships with fixed partners; 2) those who have fixed partners and perform anal sex, a category into which both gays and bisexuals fall; and 3) those engaged in anal sex, but enjoy a concurrent sexual relationship without having fixed partners, which was common among bisexuals. People from the first type tended to select partners on the basis of the interpersonal sexual script, while the second and third types were affected by the community-level sexual script by engaging in small group activities online and offline. Despite the dominating conservative climate in Korea today, homosexuals select their partners in varied ways, yet, the in-community partnering remained consumptive. This suggests that there is a need for community-level capacity building programs designed to understand the changed pattern of partnering.

Learning Areas:
Other professions or practice related to public health
Social and behavioral sciences

Learning Objectives:
Analyze partnering patterns among gay and bisexual men in South Korea. Articulate the characteristics of sexual behavior among gay and bisexual men in South Korea. Explain the gay people's community-level sexual script. Build gay people's community capacity towards safe sex. Mitigate social prejudice and stigma towards homosexuals.

Keywords: Sexuality, Sexual Risk Behavior

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: N/A

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am qualified to be an abstract Author on the content I am resposible for this study. I have participated in 10 research projects on this topic. I also have presented five papers in the annual meeting of the American Public Health Association. As of now, I am the first author of more than 40 peer-reviewed journal articles.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.