Secrecy and risk among MSM in Tbilisi, Georgia

Abstract

There is concern that the tremendous economic, social, and political upheavals that the Republic of Georgia has undergone in the years since the fall of the Soviet Union may have created an environment fertile for HIV transmission. Notably absent from official statistics and HIV-related research in Georgia is discussion of men who have sex with men (MSM) and, therefore, little is known about the MSM population or its potential to acquire or transmit HIV. Data were collected from 30 MSM recruited through a testing and counseling center in Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia. Two focus groups with six men each and 18 individual in-depth interviews were conducted between October 2006 and February 2007. The study participants described a Georgian culture that is largely intolerant of sexual contact between men. In describing the various forms of discrimination and violence that they would face should their sexual identities be discovered, the MSM in this sample described a variety of behaviors that they and other Georgian MSM undertake to conceal their sexual behavior. Many of these could put these men and their partners at risk for HIV. Although official HIV rates in Georgia are still low, results from this qualitative study indicate that efforts to educate and to provide unobtrusive and anonymous testing and counseling services to MSM may be critical to the deterrence of an HIV epidemic in the Republic of Georgia.

Keywords:

• HIV
• Eastern Europe
• MSM

Notes

1. It should be noted that Tanadgoma focuses on HIV testing and psychological counseling for a number of different populations, including MSM but also injecting drug users, prisoners, and female commercial sex workers. Tanadgoma estimates that MSM currently account for 20–25% of its clientele. The NGO was chosen to collaborate on this project because, while MSM are in the minority among the people it serves, this is perhaps the only organization in Tbilisi to openly address MSM needs. Furthermore, Tanadgoma had already demonstrated its ability to recruit MSM into research projects – albeit in relatively small numbers – through respondent-driven sampling (UNGASS, 2008), a technique shown to be effective in the recruitment of otherwise-hidden populations (Heckathorn, 1997, 2002).