Love, sex and power

However, despite the availability of epidemiological literature addressing individual profiles of men at high risk for HIV infection and increasing levels of sexual risk, gay men’s affective and sexual lives remain on the fringe of qualitative discourse that has developed in response to the HIV pandemic. [...] These were: I.] processes of early vulnerablelization [16] as violence in the home, school and community; II.] convergence of vulnerabil- ity with risk in a social and sexual life during the period of ‘coming out’ and adoption of new cultural identities; and III.] affective and sexual interactions between men influenced by constructs of gender and power imbalances [love, sex & power]. [...] Convergence of Vulnerability and Risk Many of the participants described the ‘coming out’ process by which gay youth assume a different social and sexual identity as being a dangerous and confusing part of their lives. [...] And then you realize maybe your wife’s going to have a cock and maybe your kids are actually going to be a couple of Dalmatians dogs and you will live in a condo in the gay ghetto.” Participants reported how they felt ill equipped to deal with this transition. [...] These two men are HIV-positive and speak to the sexual vocabulary they learned at puberty: “When I was 15 years old I cruised and met guys and got picked up in an arcade by an older man well over 30 and he became a regular.