Sexual consent: Exploring the perceptions of heterosexual and non-heterosexual men

“You’re Gay, It’s Just What Happens”: Sexual Minority Men Recounting Experiences of Unwanted Sex in the Era of MeToo

“…They also noted power imbalances between receptive (bottom) and penetrative anal sex partners (tops); challenges with finding the right moment to negotiate consent; forced insertion and HIV risk; the diversion of sexual advances; and the pervasiveness of casual sexual harassment in GBM venues (e.g., grabbing, forced kissing). Further analysis from this dataset revealed beliefs that consent practices among nonheterosexual men are inherently different from heterosexual relations, as they are perceived to be more immediate, less emotionally involved, and more likely to occur anonymously (Sternin et al, 2021). However, studies focussing principally on sexual coercion have often missed opportunities for intersectional analysis, including on the grounds of HIV status, transgender identity, and race, which is undoubtedly necessary to understand how power and oppression inform sexual decisionmaking (Aspin et al, 2009;Scheim et al, 2019).…”

“…There has been growing scholarly interest in the topics of unwanted sex and sexual violence among gay, bisexual, queer, and other men who have sex with men (GBM) (Felix et al, 2021;De La Ossa, 2016;McKie et al, 2020;Salter et al, 2020;Sternin et al, 2021). Approximately 30%-47% of GBM report experiencing a sexual assault over their lifetime (Black et al, 2011;Chen et al, 2020;Rothman et al, 2011).…”

Examining substance-involved sexual experiences and consent communication by sexual identity

“…Regarding internal consent feelings, only one study has examined whether these feelings differed between people who identified as bisexual, lesbian, gay, or heterosexual, finding no difference in internal consent feelings between the groups (Walsh et al, 2019). Contrary to these findings, Sternin et al (2021) found that heterosexual and non-heterosexual men discussed differences in emotional connection during sexual activity. Specifically, there was a perception from heterosexual and nonheterosexual men that having sex with women involved more emotion, especially regarding consent communication, than if someone had sex with a man.…”

“…consent communication for penetrative sex may vary by which partner is inserting and which partner is receiving; . Yet, others have found that SM persons may be perceived as more agentic and use more explicit consent communication than heterosexual persons (Sternin et al, 2021).…”

“…Few researchers have examined how SM persons communicate or conceptualise sexual consent (Beres et al, 2004;Griner et al, 2021;Sternin et al, 2021;Walsh et al, 2019), and none have examined the relationship between substance use and sexual consent among SM persons. One reason that SM persons may not have been included in prior consent research is because much of the theoretical foundation for research on consent communication has focused on traditional gender norms (Hickman & Muehlenhard, 1999;Jozkowski et al, 2014) -with women being the gatekeepers (the person who agrees/denies sex) and men being the initiators (the person who pursues/asks for sex).…”