- Man-to-Man Seminars
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The Man-to-Man: Sexual Health Seminars [Rosser and
Bockting, 1993] were developed as a new approach to HIV/STD
prevention specifically to promote the individual and communal
health of MSM. The 2-day seminars are designed to help participants
clarify issues critical in their sexuality and to promote safer sex.
Topics were sexual communication; components of sexual identity;
sexual orientation in history, across cultures and across the life-span;
stages of coming out; barriers to healthy sexuality, including abuse,
neglect, heterosexism, and victimization and recovery from these;
intimacy, dating, and relationships; responsible sexuality,
including sexual attitudes, values, boundaries, and assertiveness;
sexual expression functioning and dysfunction; HIV and STDs; safer sex,
personal HIV risk assessment and sexual decision making; personal and
community empowerment; gender nonconformity and transgender expression;
sexuality in disability, illness, and aging; sexuality and spirituality;
integration and sexual health.
The seminars had 4 key process components:
- Systematic desensitization which has been used successfully in
medical school sex curricula and other adult sexual education (less
sexually explicit topics and media are introduced first, more explicit
topics being addressed later) [Rosser, Dwyer, Coleman, Miner, Metz,
Robinson, and Bockting, 1995].
- The five stages of Coleman's (1982) homosexual identity formation
(pre-coming out, coming out, exploration, first relationships, and
integration) were used as the curriculum outline to promote sexual
identity maturation.
- Comprehensive sexual health education that addresses common challenges
for MSM and promotes overall, long-term, healthy living.
- Research on cofactors of unsafe sex for MSM (e.g., drug and alcohol use,
loneliness, and falling in love) [Rosser, 1991].
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The seminars include multimedia presentations, presentations by health
professionals, videos, panels, behavioral modeling, story-telling,
assessments, exercises, and small-group discussions. To provide
modeling and expert credibility, large-group presentations and small-group
discussions are facilitated by MSM-identified health professionals.
The seminar is innovative in that it applies a sexological
methodology (the Sexual Attitude Reassessment (SAR) methodology) [Rosser
et al., 1995; 1999], based on a model developed out of the community's
experience [the "Coming Out" maturational model of Coleman (1982)],
to promote long-term individual and communal sexual health, and
in which empirically derived material addresses the
contextual cofactors of HIV risk. This sexual health approach takes
into account the pursuit of sexual fulfillment and satisfaction, intimacy,
and affirmation of self and identity. The assumption is that if one is more
sexually literate, comfortable, and competent, one is also more likely to
develop successful long-term strategies to reduce risk in the real-life
context of changing sexual circumstances.
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