Stories from two generations of gay men living in the midst of HIV-AIDS

In Australia and other Western countries, gay men and intravenous drug users were particularly vulnerable to moral judgement and stigma in the early years of the HIV-AIDS epidemic. For most of the final decades of the twentieth century, HIV-AIDS policy and debate in Australia focussed on the initial cohort of gay men who were affected-that is, those born in the late 1940s and 1950s. Since the early 2000s, however, increased rates of HIV infection have shifted focus to men born in more recent decades, the 1980s and 1990s in particular, during which sustained, publicly funded health messages were commonplace. Our analysis of interviews with 56 gay Australian men who were HIV-negative at the time of interview focused on the effect of HIV-AIDS on the participants' sense of self and revealed evidence of three principal narratives: self-regard, sexual self, and self and others. While we found variations within and between the cohorts, our research showed that HIV-AIDS has had a similar impact on the identities and lived experiences of both generations of Australian gay men.