HIV Stigma in the MSM Community Today. What it Looks Like and Ways of Reducing It. A Qualitative Study.

Abstract

Poverty, stigma, and limited access to quality health care are drivers of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) epidemic among marginalized populations, and these factors are disproportionately experienced by racial, ethnic, gender, and sexual minority groups. In the Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) with HIV seronegative men who have sex with men (MSM) and MSM living with HIV, participants described ways they were affected by HIV stigma they experienced within and outside the MSM community. They also provided ideas for interventions on stigma reduction based on their experience of past interventions and what they would like to see in their community. Most recommendations suggested were not isolated strategies but integrated and combined structural, institutional, community, interpersonal and individual levels of the socioecological models.