Building the HIVe: Disrupting Biomedical HIV and AIDS Research with Gay Men, other men who have sex with men (MSM) and Transgenders

Networked and digital technologies mediate the sexual behaviours and practices of many gay men, other men that have sex with men (MSM) and transgenders (TG). These changes challenge the effectiveness of biomedical HIV and AIDS research, prevention and care. Driven by the normative positivist philosophy of science, these approaches—while paramount to fighting the epidemic—have neglected to rethink their ontological and epistemological assumptions when confronting the cognitive, social, cultural, material and technological drivers of HIV. The HIVe is a dynamic model that stimulates ongoing systems-wide strategic collaboration among HIV research, policy and practice sectors to share effective digital community-based and led HIV prevention and care interventions across gay men, other MSM and TG communities. ‘Building the HIVe’ fore fronts community-based and led social sciences HIV and AIDS research, prevention and care. The model addresses digitally mediated and driven sexual behaviours to reduce vulnerabilities, construct and exchange social, cultural, economic and symbolic capitals, and challenge stigma and discrimination with the aim of stopping new HIV infections. The HIVe disrupts and queers biomedical approaches by building an accessible and dynamic open source, universal access research community engaged in reflexive performativity to improve the health and human rights of marginalised communities disproportionately at risk of HIV and AIDS.