Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Machismo prescribes that homosexual encounters among Latino men are conducted along highly gendered lines: men tend to be anally insertive or receptive over the lifecourse, but not both. Some have argued that Latino men have more lifecourse homosexual relations in comparison to other racial/ethnic groups. This is often due to the perception that Latin America has a quasi-institutional orientation toward homosexuality, which sharply contrasts it with the United States. Although scholars suggest that sex role preferences and a greater likelihood of homosexual encounters exist among Latino men in the United States, limited empirical data validate these claims. I analyze Latino / non-Latino differences in male homosexual behaviors and sex role preferences by using the 2002 cycle of the National Survey of Family Growth, a nationally-representative area probability sample of nearly 5000 men. Findings reveal that non-Mexican Latino, but not Mexican, men possess increased likelihoods of ever having homosexual encounters in comparison to non-Latino Blacks and Whites. Latino men prefer insertive or receptive sex in comparison to non-Latino Blacks and Whites, but this difference is largely due to education. Mexican men tend to be orifice-specific (oral or anal), while non-Mexican Latinos are more oriented to both oral and anal sex. Nonetheless, all Latino men are more likely than non-Latino Blacks and Whites to refuse to answer questions pertaining to male homosexual behavior. I conclude by discussing the racial/ethnic implications of sex role preferences for HIV/AIDS transmission in the United States.