Asian MSM/gay men can be hard to reach with HIV awareness messages. Health promotion is affected by their experiences of stigma, sexual racism, homophobia and other challenges. Min Fuh Teh, (ACON) describes a new resource for gay Asian men and offers a perspective on how health promotion can be effectively provided in the context of broader exploration of a gay/MSM individual's wellbeing. This presentation was given at the AFAO/NAPWA Gay Men's HIV Health Promotion Conference in May 2012.
Privileging The Personal: effectively mobilising Asian gay men in HIV health promotion
1. Privileging The Personal
effectively mobilising Asian gay men
in HIV health promotion
Min Fuh Teh
Community Health Promotion Officer (Asian Gay Men’s Project),
ACON
2. Why work with Asian gay men?
Country of Birth
Thailand Nationally, Asian men make up the
China, Hong Kong, highest group in MSM/gay HIV
Taiwan
notification after men of Anglo
Vietnam
Indonesia background, 13.9% for 2009 (Kirby
Philippines Institute, 2010)
Malaysia
Brazil
Singapore
(CDB, NSW Ministry of Health, 2011)
3. Myths & Assumptions
• Hard to reach
• Apathy - Asian culture’s conservative…we
can’t talk about sex…why bother?
• What is “Asian” anyway?
4. The reality on the ground
• ‘Minority within a minority’
• Between ethnic and sexual worlds-pressure
from both sides
• HIV stigma
• Sex a private issue
• Challenges of everyday life…
“HIV is not a priority, work, life, settling in, finding love,
these are!”
5. “Our work against the AIDS pandemic can only
be won on the cultural level”
*Dr. George Ayala, Executive Officer of MSMGF, and Vallerie Wagner, of AIDS Project
Los Angeles. “War Diaries,” Tisa Bryant & Ernest Hardy (ed.), AIDS Project Los Angeles
(APLA) and the Global Forum on MSM and HIV (MSMGF), 2010.
7. Of Intersections and Collateral Benefits
• Limited resources, competing priorities
• Marriage of art with health promotion, identity work
and community building
“2 birds (or many birds) with one stone”
• Culture
• Identity
• Health Promotion
• HIV & Sexual health attitudes
• Stigma & preconceptions
8.
9. The holding environment – a vacuum
• Lack of visibility of Asian identities
• Role modelling
• A hunger to find our own voice and representation
• Just beginning to happen - Community
dialogue/awareness around intersections of
race/culture and sexuality, and how that then impacts
health and wellbeing
• Individualism vs communalism
• Engaging the political
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19. The Trojan Horse
• Breaking down barriers with a sexy resource
• Mass media
• Reach wider audience (not come out, non gay
scene attached)
• Promotions: engage ethnic media and gay
media
• Reach ethnic communities: parents and our
support systems
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22. The journey counts too!
Community Mobilisation
• 60 volunteers (and 20 more for events)
• Ownership of the process, “for the
community, by the community”
• Community Building…
“I have not been really out, I don’t have many
friends who understand me…but now I feel I
belong”
In this brief presentation I want to look at the ‘problem’ of HIV among CALD communities and in the process use this as an opportunity to raise some questions which I think are pertinent to the way we respond to HIV among CALD communities over the next five years.
We can see here that Asian gay men should be a strong focus of our HIV health promotion efforts