Risk management and harm reduction among gay men in Sydney

Abstract

Drawing on extensive behavioural data from Sydney, this paper examines some of the strategies that gay men have devised to manage (as distinct from eliminate) risk of HIV transmission. Apart from negotiated safety and positive-positive sex, which have been practised for some time, the evidence presented here confirms the role of a number of other harm-reduction strategies, some safer than others. The challenge now for educators, both locally and elsewhere, is how to sustain safe sex and where appropriate build harm reduction into gay men's health education in the face of diverse and ever-changing gay communities. Recent rises in HIV infections have increased uncertainty and serve as a timely reminder that there are no easy solutions to what remain complex and difficult-to-grasp phenomena.

Acknowledgement

The National Centre in HIV Social Research and the National Centre in HIV Epidemiology and Clinical Research are funded by the Commonwealth Department of Health and Ageing, Canberra.