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For people living with HIV, decisions about when, how and who to tell about their HIV status can involve navigating complex social, legal and health domains. With a focus on disclosure to broader social and familial networks, we explored the experiences of, and motivations for, HIV (non-)disclosure among recently diagnosed people living with HIV in Australia. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 35 people diagnosed with HIV from 2016 onwards, of whom 25 completed follow-up interviews. Participants commonly reported anticipating negative responses and rejection from others when considering whether to disclose their HIV status. Some participants also took on the role of ensuring others' wellbeing when disclosing (or not), even as they themselves needed emotional support. Finally, some participants felt it important to be open about their HIV status to raise awareness of HIV and challenge HIV-related stigma. Our findings highlight the complex relational and social contexts that shape HIV disclosure. In addition to supporting individual people living with HIV when disclosing, we argue that educational programmes that target the broader, HIV-negative population are needed to shift the social landscape in which people living with HIV disclose. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

'Slamsex' has emerged in gay vernacular in recent years to denote a particular way of taking drugs and a particular kind of sex. Slamming refers in this context to the practice of injecting drugs – typically crystal methamphetamine – intravenously. To pair 'slamming' with 'sex' is to propose that a particular mode of drug administration is constitutive of a particular kind of sex – a relatively novel idea that deserves some unpacking. What does it mean to make a route of drug administration definitional in the delineation of a sexual practice? What does this move reveal about contemporary practices of sex and drug consumption? In this article, we explore these questions with reference to theories of drug effects and practitioners' accounts of slamsex. We conclude by considering the implications of our analysis for slamsex relations and associated harm reduction measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although many studies reported on decreases in sexual partner numbers among gay and bisexual-identifying men in the early period of the COVID-19 pandemic, few studies have explored COVID-19 risk-reduction strategies. Drawing on free-text responses in an online survey (from April to July 2020), we describe the ways in which men sought to minimise the risk of COVID-19 in sexual encounters. Partner selection was an important strategy, in particular, restricting sex to men they already knew. Accounts also indicate how participants assessed risk from potential sex partners based on symptoms, residential location, recent travel, work role, and number of other sexual contacts. Less common were in situ practices, such as avoiding kissing. Participants' responses provide insight into creative community-based responses in the early months of the pandemic, some of which have resonances with early responses to HIV. Findings are discussed in relation to the concepts of 'lay epidemiology' and 'counterpublic health'. In particular, we examine how risks and health are experienced and valued in relation to local knowledges, meanings, and practices; and how practices emerge in response to dominant public health discourses that produce an idealised public based on (hetero)normative assumptions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the potential for HIV treatments to transform the health needs of people living with HIV, receiving a positive HIV diagnosis can be a difficult experience and feelings of shock, distress and concerns for the future are commonly reported. Drawing on Michael Bury's conceptualisation of 'biographical disruption', we utilised semi-structured interviews to explore experiences of HIV diagnoses among 34 people diagnosed with HIV between 2016 and 2020 and living in Australia. Interviews were conducted between January 2018 and August 2021. Despite significant advances in biomedical HIV treatments and prevention, participants commonly experienced HIV diagnosis as emotionally challenging. For those with limited HIV awareness, HIV was commonly understood as a likely fatal condition. For some participants, receiving a positive diagnosis also engendered a degree of uncertainty as to their anticipated life trajectory, particularly its impact on future sexual and romantic relationships, options for starting a family and migration opportunities. For some gay and bisexual male participants, receiving a positive diagnosis almost confirmed a life trajectory that they had worked to avoid and their own sometimes-negative attitudes toward people living with HIV were internalised, making adjusting to diagnosis more complex. While all participants reported challenges in adjusting to an HIV diagnosis, some ultimately came to experience living with HIV as bringing about unexpected and welcome changes to their lives. Our findings highlight the complex and intersecting medical, social and emotional needs of people living with HIV when receiving and adjusting to a positive HIV diagnosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Disclosure of HIV status is usually considered a private encounter involving only a limited number of people at a time. Many people living with HIV are strategic about deciding in what contexts, using which approach, to whom, and to what extent they disclose HIV status. However, social media platforms provide opportunities for people to publicly disclose information about themselves to their networks. Utilising semi‐structured interviews with people recently diagnosed with HIV in Australia, we explore how, why, and using what strategies people living with HIV use social media as a means of publicly disclosing positive HIV status. Participants placed importance on having control of how they framed their life with HIV and adopted strategies to control the audience to whom they disclosed. Public disclosure on social media helped participants come out of the 'sero‐closet', empowered identity affirmation, and enabled them to be voices for other people living with HIV to shift public dialogue. We conclude that public disclosure of a positive HIV status can strip HIV disclosure of being associated with delivering private and unpleasant information, and instead reframe living with HIV from a responsibility to disclose to a right to share. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is highly effective, it has arguably disrupted norms of 'safe sex' that for many years were synonymous with condom use. This qualitative study explored the culture of PrEP adoption and evolving concepts of 'safe sex' in Sydney, Australia, during a period of rapidly escalating access from 2015–2018, drawing on interviews with sexually active gay men (n = 31) and interviews and focus groups with key stakeholders (n = 10). Data were analysed thematically. Our results explored the decreasing centrality of condoms in risk reduction and new patterns of sexual negotiation. With regards to stigma, we found that there was arguably more stigma related to not taking PrEP than to taking PrEP in this sample. We also found that participants remained highly engaged with promoting the wellbeing of their communities through activities as seemingly disparate as regular STI testing, promotion of PrEP in their social circles, and contribution to research. This study has important implications for health promotion. It demonstrates how constructing PrEP as a rigid new standard to which gay men 'should' adhere can alienate some men and potentially create community divisions. Instead, we recommend promoting choice from a range of HIV prevention options that have both high efficacy and high acceptability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research suggests that hepatitis C virus (HCV) transmission is more likely among gay and bisexual men (GBM) who engage in sexually adventurous practices, including group sex while using drugs. The current study explored drug use, sexual practices, HCV knowledge, HCV disclosure, and beliefs about HCV transmission among GBM (n = 193) reporting group sex after/while using drugs compared to those who did not. Survey findings indicate that men who participated in group sex while using drugs were more likely to have engaged in other sexually adventurous practices, ever injected drugs, have greater knowledge of HCV, and to be living with HIV. They were also more likely to perceive themselves at risk of acquiring HCV and to know that their sexual activities put them at risk. Interestingly, they had lower expectations of HCV disclosure and were less concerned about the HCV status of their partners. The lower expectations around disclosure and concern about the HCV status of their partners reflect the challenges for GBM in managing HCV transmission where there are limited effective behavioural strategies for reducing sexual transmission, This research also highlights the need to promote HCV testing and treatment to GBM who engage in group sex while using drugs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Subcutaneously or intramuscularly administered biodegradable microsphere formulations have been successfully exploited in the management of chronic conditions for over two decades, yet mechanistic understanding of the impact of formulation attributes on in vivo absorption rate from such systems is still in its infancy. Methods: Suspension formulation physicochemical attributes may impact particulate deposition in subcutaneous (s.c.) tissue. Hence, the utility of synchrotron X-ray micro-computed tomography (μCT) for assessment of spatial distribution of suspension formulation components (PLG microspheres and vehicle) was evaluated in a porcine s.c. tissue model. Optical imaging of dyed vehicle and subsequent microscopic assessment of microsphere deposition was performed in parallel to compare the two approaches. Results: Our findings demonstrate that synchrotron μCT can be applied to the assessment of microsphere and vehicle distribution in s.c. tissue, and that microspheres can also be visualised in the absence of contrast agent using this approach. The technique was deemed superior to optical imaging of macrotomy for the characterisation of microsphere deposition owing to its non-invasive nature and relatively rapid data acquisition time. Conclusions: The method outlined in this study provides a proof of concept feasibility for μCT application to determining the vehicle and suspended PLG microspheres fate following s.c. injection. A potential application for our findings is understanding the impact of injection, device and formulation variables on initial and temporal depot geometry in pre-clinical or ex-vivo models that can inform product design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increases in hepatitis C (HCV) infections among gay and bisexual men have recently been reported in a number of countries, with sexual transmission being the primary route of infection. Given that in countries such as Australia most gay and bisexual men living with HIV are already engaged in clinical care - as are an increasing number of HIV-negative men - there is potential for reducing onward HCV transmission through proactive testing and treatment. This study explored knowledge, attitudes and practices related to HCV among 194 gay and bisexual men collected through an online survey in Australia. Overall, respondents had high levels of HCV knowledge; however, only 76% knew about the availability of new treatments for HCV. Men's knowledge of their own HCV testing history was uncertain, with one in six unaware if they had ever been tested. Among men who reported recent drug injecting, one-third had been injected by someone else, and two-thirds had injected someone else, indicating a subculture of cross-administering within sexualised drug-use networks. We argue that the robust sexual, socio-cultural and clinical infrastructure that has been developed by - and for - gay and bisexual men around HIV care and prevention creates the potential for reducing HCV in this group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is well-established that a high prevalence of substance use is found in lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer (LGBTIQ) populations; a finding that researchers attribute to the stigmatised status of non-normative sexual and gender expression, and the role of illicit drug use in the collective production of socio-sexual pleasures, expressivity and disclosure in LGBTIQ communities. Despite the connections between sexual experimentation and substance use, LGBTIQ consumption practices have rarely received the attention they deserve within the alcohol and other drug (AOD) field. In this paper, we draw on concepts from post-structuralist policy analysis to analyse how AOD consumption among sexual and gender minorities is constituted in the policies of three Australian LGBTIQ health organisations. Following Carol Bacchi's (2009, p. xi) observation that we are "governed through problematisations rather than policies", we consider how substance use in LGBTIQ populations has been formulated as a policy problem requiring intervention. Doing so allows us to identify the normative assumptions about minority sexual and gender identities that underpin dominant problematisations of LGBTIQ substance use. These include: a) high rates of AOD use in LGBTIQ populations constitute problems in and of themselves, regardless of individual patterns of use; b) LGBTIQ people are a vulnerable population with specialised needs; and c) sexualised drug use is associated with "disinhibition" and a range of risks (including HIV transmission, drug dependence and mental health issues). Addressing the implications of these assumptions for how LGBTIQ communities are governed, we suggest that problematisation is an embodied, situated process, and that there is much to be gained by reframing dominant problematisations of AOD consumption so that this process is better informed by the inventive practices of LGBTIQ consumers themselves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We analyzed the concept of risk compensation and how it has been applied in HIV prevention, paying particular attention to the strategy of HIV preexposure prophylaxis (PrEP). In risk compensation, reduced perceptions of risk after the introduction of a preventative intervention lead to more frequent risk-taking behavior. Such a change may undermine the intervention's protective benefits. We found that many studies purporting to investigate risk compensation do not assess or report changes in perceptions of risk, instead relying on behavioral measures. Our analysis suggests a complex and sometimes counterintuitive relationship between the introduction of a new prevention intervention, perceptions of HIV risk, and subsequent changes in behavior. As PrEP is introduced, we believe comprehensive assessment of community-level risk compensation--that is, changes in risk perceptions and behavior as a result of increased optimism about avoiding HIV among people not directly protected by PrEP--should not be omitted. We therefore suggest ways to assess prevention optimism and community-level risk compensation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction and Aims: Australian health promotion campaigns encourage people to manage their alcohol consumption by avoiding involvement in a form of round drinking known as 'shouting'. We consider this individualist advice in light of our analysis of the social relations established by young people through collective drinking, in which we conceptualise friends, family and work colleagues as participants in complex networks of exchange.Design and Methods: Data were gathered during in-depth, semistructured interviews and ethnographic fieldwork conducted in a socioeconomically disadvantaged outer suburb of Melbourne, Australia. The interview sample comprised nine men and seven women of diverse ethnic backgrounds, with a median age of 21 years.Results: We identified two types of exchange-'shouting' and 'providing'-enacted by round drinking and other collective drinking practices. 'Shouting' is a form of balanced reciprocity in which participants take turns buying drinks for all others in the group. It is an immediate, direct exchange of alcoholic gifts that are equivalent in value. 'Providing' is characterised by indirect reciprocity in which the social aspects of the transaction are emphasised over the value of the goods exchanged. In addition to risking social exclusion, rejecting this form of collective drinking may also risk rejecting the other resources exchanged in this form of sharing, such as food, transport and accommodation.Discussion and Conclusions: Exchanges of alcoholic gifts complicate the straightforward application of individualist health promotion advice. Social relations need to be taken into account when designing health promotion interventions that seek to reduce alcohol-related harm. [Murphy DA, Hart A, Moore D. Shouting and providing: Forms of exchange in the drinking accounts of young Australians. Drug Alcohol Rev 2017;36:442-448]. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, the concept of ‘calculated hedonism’ has dominated sociological understandings of young people’s drinking practices. However, while contributing some important insights, this conceptualisation has not sufficiently considered the affective and embodied aspects of alcohol consumption. Our analysis explores the meanings and understandings of alcohol consumption among male participants in an 18-month study of young adults living in inner-city Melbourne. Data were collected via in-depth, semi-structured interviews and participant observation during drinking events. We draw on Roger Caillois’ notion of ‘play’ to analyse sessional drinking among these men. The four categories of play identified by Callois – competition, chance, simulation and vertigo – were all present in the accounts of these men’s drinking practices. This analysis offers a way of conceptualising men’s alcohol consumption in more nuanced ways that acknowledge the affective and embodied aspects of drinking as part of pleasure-seeking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although there is evidence of increasing overall rates of HIV status disclosure among gay and bisexual men, little is known about men's disclosure expectations and practices. In this study, we investigate the importance non-HIV-positive men in Australia vest in knowing the HIV status of their sexual partners, and the extent to which they restrict sex to partners of the same HIV status, and their HIV disclosure expectations. Data were collected through a national, online self-report survey. Of the 1044 men included in the study, 914 were HIV negative and 130 were untested. Participants completed the assessment of socio-demographic characteristics, HIV status preferences, and disclosure expectations and practices. Participants also completed reliable multi-item measures of perceived risk of HIV transmission, expressed HIV-related stigma, and engagement with the gay community and the community of people living with HIV. A quarter (25.9%) of participants wanted to know the HIV status of all sexual partners, and one-third (37.2%) restricted sex to partners of similar HIV status. Three quarters (76.3%) expected HIV-positive partners to disclosure their HIV status before sex, compared to 41.6% who expected HIV-negative men to disclose their HIV status. Less than half (41.7%) of participants reported that they consistently disclosed their HIV status to sexual partners. Multivariate linear regression analysis identified various covariates of disclosure expectations and practices, in particular of disclosure expectations regarding HIV-positive men. Men who expected HIV-positive partners to disclose their HIV status before sex more often lived outside capital cities, were less educated, were less likely to identify as gay, perceived more risk of HIV transmission from a range of sexual practices, were less engaged with the community of people living with HIV, and expressed more stigma towards HIV-positive people. These findings suggest that an HIV-status divide is emerging or already exists among gay men in Australia. HIV-negative and untested men who are most likely to sexually exclude HIV-positive men are less connected to the HIV epidemic and less educated about HIV risk and prevention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two articles on human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and reproduction have recently been published in Reproductive BioMedicine Online , both describing developments that increase reproductive options for HIV-positive men. A study of a semen-processing technique used at a South African hospital found that two out of 103 processed samples tested positive for HIV DNA and none for RNA, indicating 98.1% and 100% effectiveness, respectively. The authors recommend semen processing followed by viral validation of processed sperm samples when providing assisted reproduction treatment to couples with an HIV-positive male partner. The other article reviews developments such as semen processing, antiretroviral (ARV) therapy and pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), which have all reduced the risk of HIV transmission in the context of reproduction. The author also notes, however, that research on fertility in the context of HIV focuses almost exclusively on heterosexual couples, and has overlooked the links between reproduction, HIV and homosexuality. This article analyses the ambivalent role of semen – associated with both reproduction and infection – and how reproductive medicine and health care in different ways seek to ‘get hold’ of sperm. By taking this analytic approach, sex and parenthood can be thought of as two different but related kinds of intimacy and kinship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Effective HIV treatments have transformed the medical needs of people living with HIV (PLHIV) to a chronic condition. However, stigma, poorer mental health outcomes and social isolation remain significant challenges for many PLHIV. HIV peer support programs have assisted PLHIV in navigating the clinical, emotional and social aspects of living with HIV. We draw on semi‐structured interviews with 26 recently diagnosed PLHIV in Australia to explore experiences of HIV peer support services. Our thematic analysis identified three overarching themes. First, participants commonly reported that peer support programs offered a sense of belonging and connection to a broader HIV community. This established a network, sometimes separate to their existing social networks, of other PLHIV with whom to share experiences of HIV. Second, peer‐based programs provided an opportunity for participants to hear firsthand, non‐clinical perspectives on living with HIV. While participants valued the clinical care they received, the perspectives of peers gave participants insights into how others had managed aspects of living with HIV such as disclosure, sex and relationships. Finally, participants highlighted important considerations around ensuring referrals were made to socially and culturally appropriate support programs. Peer support programs fill an important gap in HIV care, working alongside and extending the work of the clinical management of HIV. Incorporating formal referrals to peer support services as part of the HIV diagnosis process could assist recently diagnosed PLHIV in adjusting to a positive diagnosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives To investigate willingness to use HIV preexposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and the likelihood of decreased condom use among Australian gay and bisexual men. Methods A national, online cross-sectional survey was conducted in April to May 2011. Bivariate relationships were assessed with χ² or Fisher's exact test. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was performed to assess independent relationships with primary outcome variables. Results Responses from 1161 HIV-negative and untested men were analysed. Prior use of antiretroviral drugs as PrEP was rare (n=6). Just over a quarter of the sample (n=327; 28.2%) was classified as willing to use PrEP. Willingness to use PrEP was independently associated with younger age, having anal intercourse with casual partners (protected or unprotected), having fewer concerns about PrEP and perceiving oneself to be at risk of HIV. Among men who were willing to use PrEP (n=327), only 26 men (8.0%) indicated that they would be less likely to use condoms if using PrEP. The likelihood of decreased condom use was independently associated with older age, unprotected anal intercourse with casual partners (UAIC) and perceiving oneself to be at increased risk of HIV. Conclusions The Australian gay and bisexual men the authors surveyed were cautiously optimistic about PrEP. The minority of men who expressed willingness to use PrEP appear to be appropriate candidates, given that they are likely to report UAIC and to perceive themselves to be at risk of HIV. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to make a theoretical and analytic intervention into the field of HIV-related education and prevention by applying the pedagogy framework of Basil Bernstein to a series of pedagogical devices developed and used in community-based programmes targeting gay men in Australia. The paper begins by outlining why it is such an intervention might be necessary at this stage in the Australian response to the epidemic, suggesting that extant pedagogies and the devices that enact them rework a set of power/knowledge dynamics that need to be rethought to afford a reinvigoration of the community sector's work in this area. The framework for the description of pedagogy as knowledge production and distribution, and as a set of power relations enacted through these processes, is then introduced through application to a key set of pedagogic devices that have been used extensively in the Australian community sector's work in HIV-related education and prevention. The paper concludes by outlining what has been revealed through this analysis: that forms of knowledge production and distribution enacted by these pedagogic devices problematically reinstantiate power relations that address gay men, the key targets of such pedagogy, in ways that may be ineffective for the transmission of knowledge that can impact on HIV transmission. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on a study conducted to explore the experiences of recruiting prenatal women into a control trial, to address the prevention of overweight and obesity in early childhood. It states that stronger communication between research staff and clinical staff would have enabled easier identification of the target group. It mentions that they should adopt rigorous recruitment plan and evaluate recruitment strategies.

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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the strategies used by Aboriginal young people to build positive relationships and sexual wellbeing. It does so to counter the risk-focussed narratives present in much existing research and to showcase the resourcefulness of Aboriginal young people. We used peer-interview methods to collect qualitative data from 52 Aboriginal young people living in western Sydney, Australia. Participants reported a strong desire to stay safe and healthy in their sexual relationships and to achieve this they relied heavily on oral communication and yarning strategies. Participants viewed communication as a way to gain or give advice (about bodies, infections, pregnancy, relationships); to assess the acceptability and safety of potential partners; to negotiate consent with partners; to build positive relationships; and to get themselves out of unhealthy relationships. Participants also discussed 'self-talk' as a strategy for building sexual wellbeing, referring to narratives of self-respect and pride in culture as important in establishing Aboriginal young people's positive views of self and as deserving of respectful and safe sexual relationships. These findings suggest that future programmes and interventions based on yarning could be well-regarded, given it is a cultural form of pedagogy and a strategy Aboriginal young people already use to build positive relationships and identities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective We assessed interest in using rectal microbicides to prevent HIV transmission among gay men in Australia. Methods A national online survey was conducted in 2013. Interest in using rectal microbicides was measured on a seven-item scale (α=0.81). Factors independently associated with greater interest in using a microbicide were identified using multivariate logistic regression. Results Data were collected from 1223 HIV-negative and untested men. Mean age was 31.3 years (SD=10.8, range 18-65); 77% were born in Australia and 25% reported any condomless anal sex with a casual partner in the previous 6 months. Overall, there was moderate interest in using rectal microbicides (M=3.33, range 1-5). In multivariate analysis, greater interest in using microbicides was independently associated with being born outside Australia (adjusted OR (AOR)=1.59; p=0.009), greater self-perceived likelihood of becoming HIV positive (AOR=3.40; p<0.001), less uncertainty about the efficacy of microbicides (AOR=0.65; p=0.009), any condomless anal sex with casual partners in the previous 6 months (AOR=1.78; p=0.03) and ever having received postexposure prophylaxis (AOR=1.53; p=0.04). Interest in using microbicides was not associated with age, number of male sex partners or the HIV status of regular male partners. Conclusions Interest in using rectal microbicides was associated with self-perceived vulnerability to HIV, engaging in sexual practices that increase the risk of HIV acquisition and less uncertainty about the efficacy of microbicides. There appears to be a group of men who would benefit from, and are highly motivated to use, a rectal microbicide product. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The consumption of drugs has long been a mainstay of urban queer cultures and it is well-recognised that complex connections exist between sexual minoritisation and desires to chemically alter bodily experience. Yet despite evidence that rates of consumption are higher among LGBTQ populations, research exploring the gendered and sexual dynamics of these forms of consumption is limited and tends to frame such consumption as a response to stigma, marginalisation and discrimination. Against this dominant explanatory frame, this article explores the diverse experiences of LGBTQ consumers, and in so doing highlights both the pleasures and benefits of consumption, as well as potential risks and harms. Contributing to the growing body of ontopolitically oriented research that treats the materiality of drugs as emergent and contingent, we trace the ontologies of drugs, sexuality and gender that LGBTQ subjects generate through specific practices of consumption. Our analysis draws on qualitative interviews with 42 self-identified LGBTQ people from an Australian study designed to explore how sexual and gender-diverse minorities pursue particular drug effects to enhance or transform their experience of gender and/or sexuality. Our participants' accounts illuminate how drug consumption materialises in relation to sex, desire and play where it enhances pleasure, facilitates transgression and increases endurance. In the context of gender variance, our findings suggest that drug use can transform gendered experience and enable the expression of non-normative gender identities, in the process challenging gender binarism. By considering the productive role of drugs in enacting queer identities, this article treats drugs as 'technologies of the self' (Foucault 1988) and explores how drug consumption, sex and gender shape each other across a range of settings. We conclude by reflecting on the implications of our findings for research and service provision, and suggest ways of engaging LGBTQ consumers in terms that address their diverse priorities and experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The consumption of drugs has long been a mainstay of urban queer cultures and it is well-recognised that complex connections exist between sexual minoritisation and desires to chemically alter bodily experience. Yet despite evidence that rates of consumption are higher among LGBTQ populations, research exploring the gendered and sexual dynamics of these forms of consumption is limited and tends to frame such consumption as a response to stigma, marginalisation and discrimination. Against this dominant explanatory frame, this article explores the diverse experiences of LGBTQ consumers, and in so doing highlights both the pleasures and benefits of consumption, as well as potential risks and harms. Contributing to the growing body of ontopolitically oriented research that treats the materiality of drugs as emergent and contingent, we trace the ontologies of drugs, sexuality and gender that LGBTQ subjects generate through specific practices of consumption. Our analysis draws on qualitative interviews with 42 self-identified LGBTQ people from an Australian study designed to explore how sexual and gender-diverse minorities pursue particular drug effects to enhance or transform their experience of gender and/or sexuality. Our participants' accounts illuminate how drug consumption materialises in relation to sex, desire and play where it enhances pleasure, facilitates transgression and increases endurance. In the context of gender variance, our findings suggest that drug use can transform gendered experience and enable the expression of non-normative gender identities, in the process challenging gender binarism. By considering the productive role of drugs in enacting queer identities, this article treats drugs as 'technologies of the self' (Foucault 1988) and explores how drug consumption, sex and gender shape each other across a range of settings. We conclude by reflecting on the implications of our findings for research and service provision, and suggest ways of engaging LGBTQ consumers in terms that address their diverse priorities and experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

COVID-19 may threaten the already poor mental health outcomes of Australian gay and bisexual men and cut ties to important social/sexual networks and community. Qualitative research into the experiences of gay and bisexual men during COVID-19 regulations is currently sparse. We report on 489 responses to a qualitative free-text question asking Australian gay and bisexual men about the impacts of COVID-19 during April 2020. Issues pertinent to gay and bisexual men include lost ties to gay and bisexual social/sexual communities, spaces, and activities, which can reduce a sense of belonging to important sexual identity spaces, as well as significant mental well-being vulnerabilities. Reminiscing the collective response to HIV/AIDS, findings reinforce the value of gay and bisexual community organizations, spaces, and networks as supports for gay and bisexual men and emphasize the need for delivering mental health services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]