scholarly journals Male Sex Workers Selling Physical Sex during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Portugal: Motives, Safer Sex Practices, and Social Vulnerabilities

Societies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 118
Author(s):  
Henrique Pereira
Keyword(s):  
Health Care Access ◽  
Sex Workers ◽  
Safer Sex ◽  
Sexual Practices ◽  
Male Sex Workers ◽  
Care Access ◽  
Safer Sex Practices ◽  
Male Sex ◽  
Social Vulnerabilities ◽  
Sex Practices

The purpose of this research was to assess the motives, safer sex practices, and vulnerabilities of male sex workers who sold physical sex during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study used a mixed strategy, utilizing purposive sampling techniques to conduct 13 online surveys with male sex workers working in Portugal during the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants were aged between 23 and 47 years old and mostly provided their services to other men. Additionally, half of the participants were immigrants. Participants mentioned paying for essential expenses (rent, food, phone, etc.), having money for day-to-day expenses, wanting to, and enjoying it, as their main motives for engaging in sex work. Regarding sexual practices, 3 to 11 participants did not always or did not consistently use condoms during penetrative sex with their clients. Thematic analysis was used to identify the following repeated patterns of meaning regarding COVID-19-related vulnerabilities, encompassing a loss of clients and income, increased work availability, price reductions and negotiation difficulties, emotional functioning, health care access, safer sex negotiations, age, and immigration status. The findings serve as a basis for recommendations regarding social policies aimed at male sex workers who sell physical sex in Portugal.

HIV, sexually transmitted infections and sexual practices among male sex workers attending a sexual health clinic in Melbourne, Australia, 2010-2018

2020 ◽  
Vol Publish Ahead of Print ◽  
Author(s):  
Evelyn M. Turek ◽  
Christopher K. Fairley ◽  
Marjan Tabesh ◽  
Tiffany R. Phillips ◽  
Catriona S. Bradshaw ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Health ◽  
Sexually Transmitted Infections ◽  
Sex Workers ◽  
Sexual Practices ◽  
Health Clinic ◽  
Male Sex Workers ◽  
Sexually Transmitted ◽  
Male Sex

scholarly journals Violence and Victimization in Interactions Between Male Sex Workers and Male Clients in Mombasa, Kenya

2020 ◽  
pp. 088626052092236
Author(s):  
Pablo K. Valente ◽  
Alberto Edeza, BS ◽  
Tsitsi B. Masvawure ◽  
Theo G. M. Sandfort ◽  
Peter B. Gichangi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sex Work ◽  
Sex Workers ◽  
Peer Networks ◽  
Same Sex ◽  
Male Sex Workers ◽  
Male Clients ◽  
Sexual Exchange ◽  
Male Sex ◽  
Depth Interviews ◽  
Sex Practices

Male sex workers (MSWs) and male clients (MCMs) who engage their services face increased vulnerability to violence in Kenya, where same-sex practices and sex work are criminalized. However, little is known about how violence might arise in negotiations between MSWs and MCMs. This study explored the types of victimization experienced by MSWs and MCMs, the contexts in which these experiences occurred, and the responses to violence among these groups. We conducted in-depth interviews with 25 MSWs and 11 MCMs recruited at bars and clubs identified by peer sex worker educators as “hotspots” for sex work in Mombasa, Kenya. Violence against MSWs frequently included physical or sexual assault and theft, whereas MCMs’ experiences of victimization usually involved theft, extortion, or other forms of economic violence. Explicitly negotiating the price for the sexual exchange before having sex helped avoid conflict and violence. For many participants, guesthouses that were tolerant of same-sex encounters were perceived as safer places for engaging in sex work. MSWs and MCMs rarely reported incidents of violence to the police due to fear of discrimination and arrests by law enforcement agents. Some MSWs fought back against violence enacted by clients or tapped into peer networks to obtain information about potentially violent clients as a strategy for averting conflicts and violence. Our study contributes to the limited literature examining the perspectives of MSWs and MCMs with respect to violence and victimization, showing that both groups are vulnerable to violence and in need of interventions to mitigate violence and protect their health. Future interventions should consider including existing peer networks of MSWs in efforts to prevent violence in the context of sex work. Moreover, decriminalizing same-sex practices and sex work in Kenya may inhibit violence against MSWs and MCMs and provide individuals with safer spaces for engaging in sex work.

scholarly journals Sexual practices, partner concurrency and high rates of sexually transmissible infections among male sex workers in three cities in Vietnam

Sexual Health ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 39 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael C. Clatts ◽  
Lloyd A. Goldsamt ◽  
Le Minh Giang ◽  
Gary Yu
Keyword(s):  
Sex Workers ◽  
Anal Intercourse ◽  
Sexual Practices ◽  
Ho Chi Minh City ◽  
Anal Sex ◽  
Male Sex Workers ◽  
Male Client ◽  
Sexually Transmissible Infections ◽  
Male Sex ◽  
Partner Concurrency

Background This paper examines sexual practices, partner concurrency and sexually transmissible infections (STI)/HIV infection among male sex workers (MSWs) in Vietnam. Methods: Six hundred and fifty-four MSWs, aged 16–35 years, were recruited in Hanoi, Nha Trang and Ho Chi Minh City between 2009 and 2011. Survey measures included demographic characteristics, drug use, types of sexual partners and sexual practices. Subjects were screened for STIs, including HIV. Results: MSWs in Ho Chi Minh City (33%) were more likely than those from the other two sites to be current users of one or more types of illegal drugs (P < 0.001). MSWs with both male and female elective partners (compared with other partnership types) were more likely to have anal sex with male client partners (P < 0.001), elective male partners (P = 0.045) and elective female partners (P = 0.025). At last sex with a male client partner, only 30% used a condom during anal intercourse. At last sex with an elective female partner, only 31% used a condom during vaginal sex and only 3% during anal sex. Although rates of HIV are low (4%), other STIs are high, including chlamydia (17%), gonorrhoea (29%) and human papillomavirus (33%). Most (57.3%) have never been tested for HIV and only 17% have ever disclosed to a healthcare provider that they have sex with men. Conclusions: Complex patterns of sexual concurrency, coupled with high rates of STIs, signal the urgent need for health services interventions among MSWs, both to improve individual health outcomes and to reduce secondary STI/HIV transmission among sexual partner networks.

A reflective review on gay and bisexual men in China

2021 ◽  
pp. 204382062110545
Author(s):  
Eileen Y.H. Tsang
Keyword(s):  
Sex Workers ◽  
Gay And Bisexual Men ◽  
Sexual Practices ◽  
Treatment As Prevention ◽  
Bisexual Men ◽  
Male Sex Workers ◽  
Male Sex ◽  
And Bisexual ◽  
Exposure Prophylaxis ◽  
Living With Hiv

Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP), Treatment as Prevention (TasP), and undetectability affect the experience of gay and bisexual men living with HIV. They also link ‘risk’ and ‘safety’ to raw sex and the use of recreational drugs as they relate to sexual practices among gay and bisexual men. From these insights, we can think about the complex connections between biomedical innovations in the field of HIV, sexual practices, subjectivity, pleasure, spaces, and technologies. This commentary offers a sociocultural perspective based on a study with 28 male sex workers (hereafter MSWs) on gay and bisexual men—mainly male sex workers— and their wives (Tongqi) in China.

scholarly journals Male clients of male sex workers in West Africa: A neglected high risk population

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cheick Haïballa Kounta ◽  
Luis Sagaon-Teyssier ◽  
Pierre-Julien Coulaud ◽  
Marion Mora ◽  
Gwenaelle Maradan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Risk Reduction ◽  
Sex Workers ◽  
Sexual Partners ◽  
Sexual Practices ◽  
High Risk Population ◽  
Anal Sex ◽  
Male Sex Workers ◽  
Male Clients ◽  
Male Sex ◽  
Male Sexual Partners

AbstractResearch on male clients of male sex workers (MCMSW) has been neglected for a long time globally. We aimed to characterize MCMSW and to identify factors associated with their sexual practices using data from the prospective cohort study CohMSM conducted in Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Mali and Togo. Our study focused on HIV-negative men who have sex with other men (MSM) recruited between 06/2015 and 01/2018 by a team of trained peer educators. Scheduled study visits at 6, 12 and 18 months included medical examinations, HIV screening, risk-reduction counselling and face-to-face interviews to collect information on their sociodemographic characteristics, sexual behaviours, and HIV risk-reduction strategies (HIV-RRS). Three stigmatization sub-scores were constructed (experienced, perceived and internalized). Mixed-effects logistic regression was used for data analysis. Of the 280 participants recruited at baseline, 238, 211 and 118, respectively, had a follow-up visit at 6, 12 and 18 months. Over a total of 847 visits, 47 transactional sex (TS) encounters were reported by 38 MCMSW (13.6%). Of the latter, only one participant reported systematic TS (2.6%), 18 (47.4 %) stopped reporting TS after baseline, and 6 (15.8%) reported TS after baseline. Thirteen participants (34.2 %) reported occasional TS. After adjusting for country of study and age, the following self-reported factors were associated with a greater likelihood of being MCMSW: protected anal sex, exclusively insertive anal sex with male sexual partners, avoidance of sex after consuming psychoactive products and experiencing stigmatization (all during the previous 6 months). The majority of MCMSW in this study employed HIV-RRS with male sexual partners, including engaging in protected anal sex, avoidance of sex when consuming psychoactive products, and practising exclusively insertive anal sex.

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