Gay-Boy Talk--Mutchler
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Introduction
A large body of research indicates that gay youth are at high risk
for multiple behavioral problems such as suicide attempts, low self-
esteem, identity confusion, and sexual behaviors that may transmit HIV
(Hays, Kegeles & Coates, 1990; Remafedi, 2002; Savin-Williams &
Rodriques, 1993; D’Augelli, Hershberger & Pilkington, 2001). Much of
the research about gay youth is driven by a deficit model of development
in which the attention is focused on identifying what is lacking in
their lives. Such a perspective of gay youth as victims may have the
undesired effect of reinforcing high-risk behaviors. Scholars have only
recently begun to critically examine the impact of focusing attention on
problem behaviors among gay youth and some have argued that such deficit
models may be contributing to their stigmatization (Bohen, Russell &
Montgomery, 2002; Savin-Williams, 2001). This deficit view neglects the
resiliency and protective behaviors also reported by gay youth.
Studies have revealed that gay youth report resiliency (Anderson,
1998). Still, very few studies have adopted a resiliency paradigm for
understanding how gay youth survive, cope, and thrive in the context of
persistently homophobic and heterosexist social and cultural
environments. Most research about HIV risk and safer sex among gay
youth focuses on factors related to unsafe sex (Strathdee, et al., 1998;
Valleroy, 1998) but offer little in the way of understanding gay youth’s
safer sexual behaviors or factors that may heighten such behaviors.
This paper focuses attention on a subset of the sexual stories told by
young gay men interviewed as part of the ‘‘Sexual Stories’’ project conducted
by Matt G. Mutchler, PhD, one of the authors of this manuscript. The ‘‘Sexual
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Convention