HIV Stress Exchange: Queer Men, Intergenerational Stress, and Intimacy Amidst the Time of HIV

HIV remains a principal inequity for queer men across the United States. Biomedical practices all but dominate interventions, and HIV-related stress persists among queer men. Regarding HIV as discourse is not well represented in prevention and care. This study is a response, then, to this need that seeks to build an HIV-informed model of praxis, entitled HIV Stress Exchange. A Queer Discourse Study was conducted with 20 queer men across two generations, pre-AIDS and post-AIDS. The data included in-depth interviews and material resources participants brought to the conversation. In all, this data speaks to the ways in which HIV is given life in discourse and what meaning it holds in embodied lives. Resultantly, five themes materialized, inclusive of all ages and sero-statuses: HIV provided meaning as in-/validated, un-/voiced, un-/intelligible, holding intimacy/-ies, and being PrEP/-ared. Based on the findings, the conceptual model for HIV Stress Exchange is presented along with an HIV-informed model of practice.