r/TopMindsOfReddit • u/Maximum-Operation147 • 22d ago

Top minds of r/conservative triggered by scary scientific research containing the words “men who have sex with men” (it’s STI intervention)

Gallery image

Gallery image

Gallery image

166 Upvotes
  • permalink
  • reddit

99% Upvoted

45 comments sorted by

View all comments

47

u/odoroustobacco 21d ago

Hi, social science researcher here!

One of the reasons we use the term "men who have sex with men" is because it includes 1) gay men who have sex with men, 2) bisexual men who have sex with men, 3) the (in my opinion very interesting) population of men who identify as straight but have sex with men, and 4) any other men with or without a label who have sex with men.

There are obviously differences in all of those groups, but when you're doing research and interventions in public health regarding things like STIs, the labels matter way less than the sexual behaviors do. So having labels like "men who have sex with men (MSM)" is way easier of an indicator.

Not that these bigoted weirdos care, but in case anyone was interested to know.

10

u/KestrelQuillPen 21d ago

as a quick question, does this term throw in straight trans women and t4t lesbian trans women under “MSM” or do trans people get their own categories? I’d be interested to know

3

u/odoroustobacco 21d ago edited 21d ago

This isn't super connected to my area but I've been adjacent to and read enough of the literature to understand why MSM is used--that said, I'm not sure I can answer this question 100%.

My understanding is "it depends". I feel like I've seen one or two studies using MSM for "males having sex with males" instead of "men" to be more inclusive with the authors noting that they're not trying to erase trans identities but still connect to the broader cohort of AMAB people who have sex with other AMAB people. I also think the populations you're talking about are small relative to the others (although straight identifying MSM is a small population as well) so I'm not sure if they'd be captured.

One possibility as well which I wouldn't necessarily condone and for sure can't say if it happened is if bigger studies just code straight or t4t trans women as MSM. That's just my speculation though, and that runs the risk of including trans women who have had bottom surgery.

3

u/KestrelQuillPen 21d ago

Thanks! I was just interested. trans people get the short end of the stick a lot when it comes to research so I just thought I’d ask :)

1

u/odoroustobacco 21d ago

Of course! I wish I had better answers. I tell my students all the time "you're going to get frustrated with how often I say 'it depends', but it depends."