How the Term ‘MSM’ Began During the AIDS Epidemic and Why It May Not Help Now
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“Men who have sex with men” or MSM originated during the HIV pandemic to focus on behavior rather than identity – but not everyone thinks the term helps.
Since the global monkeypox outbreak started to spread this past spring, more people are seeing the term “men who have sex with men,” or MSM, in the news and public health messages. You may have also heard this term in places like HIV prevention campaigns or at the doctor’s office.
I am a behavioral scientist who focuses on reducing health disparities and improving health equity for sexual and gender minority populations at highest risk for poor outcomes. At the most basic level, men who have sex with men is a term that was originally intended to describe the risk of HIV transmission associated with sex between two men. But in reality, MSM describes a diverse group of behaviors and identities, bringing with it a complex web of social, political and cultural considerations about how it’s used.
Why use MSM?
HIV researchers have used the term “men who have sex with men” since at least 1988 as a way to describe a particular type of sexual behavior that may affect health.
The acronym MSM, however, was introduced in 1994 as a new concept by some researchers and community advocates in response to public health research and prevention efforts early in the HIV/AIDS pandemic. These efforts almost exclusively targeted men based on their sexual identity as gay. Community advocates criticized this approach for excluding Black and Latino men who have sex with men who were affected by the pandemic but did not identify as gay, homosexual or bisexual. MSM was considered to be a more inclusive, less stigmatizing term that could be used to reach a broader range of people.
Limitations of MSM
Despite its usefulness in some contexts, the term MSM has been hotly debated by scholars and community advocates since it was coined. Disagreement on its use is usually grounded in three arguments.
The first is that the term is ambiguous. Some researchers argue that distilling MSM down to “sex between two men” is too simplistic. For one, there are a number of nuances and factors that influence the amount of risk associated with sex between two men, such as how sex is performed and who and how many partners are in their sexual network. There is also confusion about how frequently or recently someone must have sex in order to be considered MSM. And there is no consensus about whether transgender men who have sex with men should be considered MSM.
The second critique is that the term undermines the identities of sexual minority group members, particularly people of color. Many public health researchers use MSM as a neutral term to push back against the idea that there is only one legitimate gay identity. However, some have criticized the term for erasing other sexual identities such as queer, two-spirited and same-gender loving by being the default term used in research, despite participants describing themselves as otherwise.
Almost 30 years since it was introduced, the term MSM is becoming increasingly ubiquitous in both medical and public health spaces. But it does have limitations. Considering the sociopolitical context of whether MSM should be used, rather than using it by default, can help support the self-determination of those who belong to historically marginalized communities.
JaNelle Ricks, Assistant Professor of Health Behavior and Health Promotion, The Ohio State University
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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