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LGBTQ+ Health Disparities - Coggle Diagram
LGBTQ+ Health Disparities
HIV/Aids rate of infection and the populations it effects are telling of SES and racial health disparities. For example, racial minorities make up 1/4 of the US population, but 58% of HIV/AIDS cases.
Taking into context the fourth-world status of AIAN people (which includes things like intergenerational poverty, trauma, increased rates of STI's, drugs use, and inadequate access to healthcare, and low rates of HIV testing and morbidity with HIV) and compounding these factor are the health disparities specific to AIAN LBGTQ people.
The term "two spirit" is used by AIAN people who do not fit into the normalized western gender binary of gender and sexuality. It describes people with masculine and feminine traits and is exclusively used by AIAN people.
There are multiple factors that are associated with sexual risk of MSM and two-spirit AIAN people. This includes: 76% of HIV infected AIAN people being men with 3/4 being a result of MSM behavior; 73% of AIAN people with HIV have a history of injection drug use and are MSM; and, increased risk of health problems for two-spirit people.
This study titled "They tell us “we don’t belong in the world and we shouldn’t take up a place”: HIV discourse within two-spirit communities" seeks to center attention to two-spirit people and their identification in the face of HIV, with compounding oppressive forces and health disparities for two-spirit men.
The sample was drawn of 6 two-spirit men regardless of HIV status, who hold social influence in their communities and who were maximum 35 years old during the second wave of HIV in the US.
Four discursive themes constituted HIV within there narratives: as professionalized identity, as a health sub-/priority, and as a vehicle for belonging/reclaiming.
Shadow Presence
Spoken incidents of HIV/AIDS are largely absent within these narratives, and when talked about, two-spirit leaders do not ruminate about the topic. The virus functions as a truth that many refuse to face, which symbolizes stigmatized activities that may lead to HIV.
To some, the virus is simultaneously ever-present and also silenced into a vector of behavior and risk in a way that equates homosexuality to HIV risk.
The experience of AIAN people having lack of information about medical knowledge such as STI risk can be attributed to AIAN peoples' continued fourth world status.
This silencing about HIV contributes to a "shadow presence" across generations both within and outside Native communities.
Mental/Health Sub-/Priority
Participants vocalized how alcohol is a primary mental health and overall health problems (as well as an instigator) for problems in both AIAN and gay communities.
However, alcohol use and abuse for AIAN people is an immutable characteristic, while HIV is aligned with being gay and health concerns. This fosters a connection between "Native" and "gay".
Professionalized Identity
Participants incited HIV as a way to connect with the professional world, as it offers a viable way into adulthood, and building professional and financial capital. This is seen in leaders of societal with (AIAN LGBTQ people) and their locus on HIV and LGBTQ communities within the Native communities by being "HIV professionals".
Belonging, (Re)Claiming
HIV functions as a discursive mechanism to connect with and reclaim community and culture within the AIAN and LGBT communities, but moreover to belong.
HIV can bridge AIAN people by providing a way to participate in professional practices while it also imbues a sense of belonging to two-spirit (AIAN) people, rather than to Native culture/ people generally. HIV facilitates a belonging to a claimed two-spirit identity and the broader LGBT community, but two-spirit people fell as though they must sideline their "Native-ness".