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HEALTH & SEXUAL STATUS IN AN URBAN GAY ENCLAVE: An Application of the Stress Process Model
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been very low points of my life, where I really don’t really care…The few times that it has happened, it is usually when I’m not in a very high self-esteem mode.
Interviewer: Can you talk more about that? How does that figure in? What kind of thought processes you’re having when you’ve had unprotected sex at these moments?
Darren: Well, it’s just because you don’t care. Usually at those times, you’re usually drunk. I don’t care. I’m swept away in the moment. It’s not so much (that) I’m thinking, like, I could (become) HIV positive, or anything like that – I just don’t care.-Darren, 41yo, Black
For others, the sexual status order and its associated stressors can lead to a history
of safe and unsafe sexual practices that correlate with cleavages in the Village. For
instance, Bart—mentioned above—is disheartened by his subordinate status which he
attributes to his Asian descent. White men, he suggests, go out of their way to avoid him
in bars, clubs and Internet chat rooms, even when he expresses no interest in them.
Recently, for instance, Bart had a disturbing incident in a bathhouse whereby he was
singled out by a White man involved in an all White group sex scene:
Bart: [They were] having a group scene in their room and, um, I, everybody who was passing by, of course, they were just watching what they were doing, which is probably a normal thing, and just, when I got there, the guy who was in front of the door, he said, “get out of here!”, like he can’t even look at me.
Interviewer: Were they White?
Bart: Yeah, all White guys. For a moment, I just wanted, you know, to step forward [and say something]. Then I just realized, it’s useless, first of all, because he’s high; second, he’s young and he’s stupid, and it’s just not worth it. He was like early twenties…He doesn’t like, either just Asians, or maybe any people of color, and that actually happens pretty much online, too. At least, you know, some guys openly say on their profiles that they’re not sexually attracted to Asians, which is fine with me, everybody has his own preference, or whatever, but some guys stop responding (and say) nasty things, they never say it politely. “We’re not a match”, at least they can say, but sometimes they can say something like, “Oh, this is not Chinatown.”-Bart 39 yo, Asian
Bart’s low sexual status in the Village is a pivotal backdrop against which he
makes sexual decisions. As Diaz (1998) notes, sexual decision-making is rarely a simple,
unidimensional process but, rather, grows out of a complex assemblage of emotional
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been very low points of my life, where I really don’t really care…The few times that
it has happened, it is usually when I’m not in a very high self-esteem mode.
Interviewer: Can you talk more about that? How does that figure in? What kind of
thought processes you’re having when you’ve had unprotected sex at these moments?
Darren: Well, it’s just because you don’t care. Usually at those times, you’re usually
drunk. I don’t care. I’m swept away in the moment. It’s not so much (that) I’m
thinking, like, I could (become) HIV positive, or anything like that – I just don’t care.
-Darren, 41yo, Black
For others, the sexual status order and its associated stressors can lead to a history
of safe and unsafe sexual practices that correlate with cleavages in the Village. For
instance, Bart—mentioned above—is disheartened by his subordinate status which he
attributes to his Asian descent. White men, he suggests, go out of their way to avoid him
in bars, clubs and Internet chat rooms, even when he expresses no interest in them.
Recently, for instance, Bart had a disturbing incident in a bathhouse whereby he was
singled out by a White man involved in an all White group sex scene:
Bart: [They were] having a group scene in their room and, um, I, everybody who
was passing by, of course, they were just watching what they were doing, which is
probably a normal thing, and just, when I got there, the guy who was in front of the
door, he said, “get out of here!”, like he can’t even look at me.
Interviewer: Were they White?
Bart: Yeah, all White guys. For a moment, I just wanted, you know, to step forward
[and say something]. Then I just realized, it’s useless, first of all, because he’s high;
second, he’s young and he’s stupid, and it’s just not worth it. He was like early
twenties…He doesn’t like, either just Asians, or maybe any people of color, and that
actually happens pretty much online, too. At least, you know, some guys openly say
on their profiles that they’re not sexually attracted to Asians, which is fine with me,
everybody has his own preference, or whatever, but some guys stop responding (and
say) nasty things, they never say it politely. “We’re not a match”, at least they can
say, but sometimes they can say something like, “Oh, this is not Chinatown.”
-Bart 39 yo, Asian
Bart’s low sexual status in the Village is a pivotal backdrop against which he
makes sexual decisions. As Diaz (1998) notes, sexual decision-making is rarely a simple,
unidimensional process but, rather, grows out of a complex assemblage of emotional
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