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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.
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Privileging The Personal effectively mobilising Asian gay men in HIV
health promotion
Min Fuh TehCommunity Health Promotion Officer (Asian Gay Men’s Project),
ACON
Why work with Asian gay men?
Nationally, Asian men make up the highest group in MSM/gay HIV notification after men of Anglobackground, 13.9% for 2009 (KirbyInstitute, 2010)
(CDB, NSW Ministry of Health, 2011)
Country of Birth
Thailand
China, Hong Kong, Taiwan
Vietnam
Indonesia
Philippines
Malaysia
Brazil
Singapore
Myths & Assumptions
• Hard to reach• Apathy - Asian culture’s conservative…we
can’t talk about sex…why bother?• What is “Asian” anyway?
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!”
“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.
Beyond black and white
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
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
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
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”
Acknowledgments
Siri May Shinen WongJames GrayDermot RyanGeoff HonnorAndy Quan Laurindo Garcia
