Psychosocial Experiences of East and Southeast Asian Men Who Use Gay Internet Chatrooms in Toronto: An Implication for HIV/AIDS Prevention1

Portions of an earlier version of this paper were presented at the Asian & Pacific Islander Summit on HIV/AIDS Research, Oakland, California, USA, 15–17 November 2002.

Abstract

Objectives In recent years we have witnessed an increase in Asian men who use gay Internet chatrooms in Toronto. Previous research has shown that many men who had sex with men (MSM) sought sex partners through the Internet and that meeting sex partners via the Internet increases sexually transmitted infection (STI) and HIV risk. This study aims to (1) explore psychosocial issues relating to Asian men who use gay chatrooms and (2) identify culturally appropriate HIV prevention strategies for this population.

Design In-depth interviews were conducted with a total of 21 East and Southeast Asian men who used Internet gay chatrooms. Unstructured, open-ended questions were used to obtain narrative data to help understand their lived, psychosocial experiences of gay chatrooms. Transcripts of the interviews were read to highlight themes and concepts.

Results Analysis revealed complex lived, psychosocial experiences of Asian men who use gay chatrooms in Toronto. They tended to be socially isolated and highly marginalized, which had led to intense needs for social connections and thus left some Asian men vulnerable to sexual exploitation. Although they were fully aware that they should use condoms in anal intercourse with a casual partner, they had some misconceptions about HIV. Moreover, they rarely, if ever, used condoms in oral sex with a casual partner, which might leave them vulnerable to STI.

Conclusions It is important for service providers to continually provide accurate information about STIs and HIV/AIDS including how they can be contracted. However, HIV prevention strategies for this population must also address issues relating to social isolation and marginalization in order to combat the spread of HIV/AIDS effectively. This can be accomplished by an online peer support program.

Keywords:

• HIV/AIDS
• Prevention
• Asian MSM
• Gay Asian Men
• Social Services

Notes

Portions of an earlier version of this paper were presented at the Asian & Pacific Islander Summit on HIV/AIDS Research, Oakland, California, USA, 15–17 November 2002.

These numbers are based on Statistics Canada categories of Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Southeast Asian and Filipino.

The term ‘Asian’ is used to refer to people of East and Southeast Asian descent and is used interchangeably with the term ‘East and Southeast Asian’ in this paper.

Participants tended to use abbreviations when they typed and there were many spelling and typographical mistakes. To improve comprehension, we changed the abbreviations back to their full forms and corrected spelling and typographical mistakes without specifying these modifications in the text.