Pe. Stevens, HIV PREVENTION EDUCATION FOR LESBIANS AND BISEXUAL WOMEN - A CULTURALANALYSIS OF A COMMUNITY INTERVENTION, Social science & medicine, 39(11), 1994, pp. 1565-1578
AIDS is increasing almost four times as fast among women, yet lesbians
and bisexual women are among the least studied, least understood and
most elusive populations affected by the AIDS epidemic. This paper rep
orts the results of community-level HIV prevention research designed:
(a) to examine the knowledge, perceptions, social contingencies and po
litical constraints affecting the HIV risk taking of lesbians and bise
xual women; and (b) to offer them context specific HIV prevention educ
ation. The study was a peer educator-based intervention project situat
ed in San Francisco's women's bars, dance clubs, and sex clubs to reac
h socially and sexually active lesbians and bisexual women in natural
settings. Between June 1992 and May 1993, ethnographic interviews were
conducted with 626 women attending the bars and clubs; group presenta
tions at these locales reached 1315 women. The structure of the interv
ention was effective in prompting interest in HIV prevention informati
on and intent to change behavior. The resultant cultural analysis deta
ils risk behaviors lesbians and bisexual women participate in, myriad
constraints they face in trying to enact safer behaviors, gaps in know
ledge, difficulties comprehending the relevance of HIV prevention, and
risk reduction strategies commonly employed.