Why are gays more susceptible to getting HIV than straight people?

I've got nothing, but if I had to hazard a guess, I'd say it's because a lot of them don't know what the fuck they're doing! I guess if you never learned how condoms work I could see why. But since most of the data is about the first world, wouldn't most of the people tested know about protection?

 

Men who have sex with men are less likely to use condoms (they are uneducated about sexually transmitted diseases and think that since we can't get pregnant we don't need to use them).

Anal sex has a higher HIV transmission risk rate than vaginal sex.

And typically any marginalised group is going to be more reckless in all aspects of their lives, including their sex lives.

Combine those three together and unfortunately you get comparatively high HIV rates.

 

Actually, that isn't true. While there is a higher incidence among gay men, it's lower among gay women, so it balances. Now to address your actual point: what Ridiculous said. Although it baffles me that someone in the west could be unfamiliar with sexual health, given how much I've heard about it.

 

Meh, I live in the Netherlands and my biology book had maybe two lines about homosexuality. Honestly, I learned more about sexual health and crap on Tumblr than I did during three years of biology... Not surprised it isn't any better in the USA.

 

Me too, same country. They didn't cover it at all honestly. As if they didn't want us to know.

 

Not to mention smaller sample sizes make it a lot easier to spread quickly/easily.

 

this

your question is loaded, the answer is "they aren't."

reasons listed above:

Anal sex

nope sorry not all gay individuals pariticipate in anal sex so that's a very poor explanation Sexual Health: A Public Health Perspective: A Public Health Perspective - Wellings, Kaye, Mitchell, Kirstin, Collumbien, Martine - Google Books Sexual Behaviors and Situational Characteristics of Most Recent Male-Partnered Sexual Event among Gay and Bisexually Identified Men in the United States - Rosenberger - 2011 - The Journal of Sexual Medicine - Wiley Online Library

"They're more reckless!"
citation needed

"MWHSM don't understand condoms"
see above 2x

 

Unfortunatly it probably has to do with the fact that sexual health is VERY heteronormative and generally assumes penis-in-vagina sex is what happens in all sexual encounters. This goes for sex education as well as sexual health professionals. Recently here in NZ they did a study and the results were pretty disheartening. I literally sat in a room of sexual health doctors and GPs who all had blank faces when someone mentioned dental dams. If they don't know what a dental dam is, I don't have much hope for them helping people prevent AIDS

SomeLeviathan your post is dot on but unfortunately understanding condoms and not having anal sex doesn't protect you every time, and sexual health services just ain't trained to help us queers deal with anything else. Don't even get me started on male-to-male sexual assault survivors who contracted HIV that way. We ain't even getting CLOSE to getting any sort of awareness around the dangers of that side of the problem.

(Just to clarify before I offend someone, I am by NO MEANS implying that MWHSWM are more likely to sexually assault, but they ARE more likely to be assaulted than the general population and WAY less likely to receive any sort of assistance from it.)

(also P.S. do y'all trigger warn for certain content here?? If I need to do that please let me know how to do it and I will add some warnings for this post <3)

 

Anal sex is riskier than vaginal sex is due to the fact the anus can tear easily and pass infections. Straight couples who have anal sex are also at risk for HIV, especially if they don't use protection.

I think the reason some gay men may pass it is also bad sexual health education. Like another poster said, only PIV is discussed, anal sex is seen as 'taboo' and therefore people wanting to engage in it may not know the risks.

 

I actually saw this on Dr. Oz. Anal sex makes it easier to spread STD's, especially HIV, as opposed to vaginal sex. The colon is meant to absorb leftover nutrients like water, so it makes sense that it can easily contract HIV when introduced to it.

 

No, gay men are not the origin. No, gay men are not any more promiscuous than any other sexuality.


The primary reason is that unprotected anal sex has a much higher risk of HIV/STD contraction than vaginal sex.

 

I have read that gay men AND bi and straight women who have anal sex are most likely to get HIV. Straight men and lesbians are least likely. Unprotected anal sex is a high risk factor for HIV. So just be careful and use protection!

 

Yep. All of these.

The comment about marginalization and being reckless is interesting. I believe it and I've seen it. However, have they studied this or is there a basic reason, like self-destructive tendencies?

---------- Post added 15th Sep 2014 at 11:15 PM ----------

Interesting chart. It seems to say that a person has to do even receptive anal a lot to be exposed. Does this imply that guys who are HIV+ did this quite often, on the average, prior to becoming exposed? I wonder what the asterisks mean up by the oral sex listings, where the risk is relatively very low.

 

Receptive anal intercourse increases the chance of microscopic tears occurring, greatly increasing the chances for the Human Immunodeficiency Virus to be transferred into the bloodstream more so than other forms of sexual activity. The same goes for straight anal sex as well. This is why condom use is very important when it comes to anal sex if you're the bottom or receptive partner, especially since you never know 100% for sure who the other person has been with in the past (infidelity is a sad but common occurrence in a lot of relationships, gay or straight), and because there are other risks to barebacking that some people may not know about (I.e urinary tract infections).

 

1- anal sex have more chances of spreading STDs than vaginal sex.

2-Many women are somewhat scared of anal sex and dont dare to try it or they have tried but prefer it in vagina.

3- many men (straight or gay) are open to casual sex with people they find attractive and are somewhat less selective in terms of what they find attractive enought to have sex, women on the other hand are usually less open to casual sex and is harder for them to be turned on by a guy. So they sort of regulate how much sex the straight guys are having or who is even having it. On the other 2 gay guys are guys so there is less regulation. contrary to homophobic myth, gay guys are not more promiscuous than straight guys, is that we, men, are usually more promiscuous than women ( i said usually, there are all kind of men and women). The reason of this some say is due to biology, others said is due to the way men and women are programmed differently by society, others that is a mixture of both.

4- sex can be a coping mechanism against the scars left from constant recurrent homophobia.

5- lack of sex education directed to gay population, specially among poor population, and even worst in third world country.

 

I don't know about any formal studies or theories. But I can say that for the specific example of gay men, we are under significant societal pressure that tells us (either explicitly or implicitly) that being gay is undesirable, and should be hidden. Because of this a significant portion of us will just remain closeted; another significant portion will come out, but will never get into a committed relationship so they are still able to go "under the radar" easily in day to day life.

However a lot - if not most - of closeted and uncommited gay men still want to and do have sex (the 'dating' apps we all know of are testament to this) ... and naturally this is going to lead to fleeting encounters with multiple partners. Our marginalisation is a direct cause of this; it presents itself as an obstacle in the way of forming committed relationships, driving us towards casual sexual encounters.

'Reckless' might not be the best word for this, because there's nothing wrong with having multiple sexual partners, but it's definitely a lot more risky from a sexual health point of view.

 

Liquid Swords, interesting graph. I assume the data refers to unprotected anal sex but if possible can you clarify or post a link to the data.

Thanks

SGG

 

It is all for unprotected sex, yes. The asterisks mean that it refers to oral sex performed on a male.

Yes, it does seem to say that the chances of getting HIV from unprotected anal sex one time are slim. I'm not sure how they've calculated the figures though, so I don't know whether that figure of 50 is per 10,000 exposures to someone who is definitely HIV positive themselves or not, and if not whether those 10,000 exposures are with a group with high rates of HIV ie gay men or just the general male population. Certainly this would make a significant difference to the level of risk.

I feel bad for posting without really knowing the full details so apologies for that. Mainly I just wanted to make the point that unprotected anal sex is much more dangerous in terms of transmission of HIV than vaginal or oral. The place I got the graph from is here but I can't seem to find the original source. If anybody could do a little digging and find it I'd be interested to read