Top or Bottom? Varsity youth talk about gay sexuality in a Stepping Stones Workshop: Implications for sexual health

Abstract

This article discusses the constructs of sexuality amongst a group of LGBTI university students during a Stepping Stones workshop aimed at exploring their engagement with sexual and reproductive health rights issues as it affects them. These constructs include notions of binary identities of being gay, such as being a 'top' versus being a 'bottom', that are then applied to sexual practices and behaviour that have serious implications for sexual health and bodily integrity. We discuss the intersections of gender identity, sexuality, sexual health and sexual rights, arguing that such constructs are not only limiting in their demarcations of sexual boundaries in relationships and for intimacy but also that attempts to engage sexual health promotion must take into account the intersecting identities of gender and sexuality that are tied to sexual behaviour.

Why do we have sex? Reflections from a Stepping Stones participatory action research with youth LGBTI in Johannesburg

“…Here, as elsewhere, participants' perceived vulnerability of contracting HIV seemed rather low, as deduced from, a) the casual nature of sexual encounters and, b) the surprise expressed when educated about sexual health by participants during the group sessions (Nduna and Jama 2001). Moreover, risky behaviour is likely to be a function of 'social identities' rather than of one's own independent decisionmaking (Beeker, Guenther-Grey and Raj 1998;Kiguwa and Nduna 2017).…”

“…The authors, who are lecturers at the university facilitated nine workshop sessions with young LGB men and women at the University using the Stepping Stones workshop method. Also see Kiguwa and Nduna (2017). Stepping Stones (SS) is an HIV prevention behaviour-change intervention (Jewkes, Nduna and Shai Jama 2010).…”

“…During the workshop male participants suggested that masculine gay men, the 'tops' were less likely to publicly identify themselves as gay as they could easily pass as straight in the society. Some of the participants said they switched roles in their relationships; see (Kiguwa and Nduna 2017) for a discussion on the 'top/bottom'.…”