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This paper critically examines the role of transnational AIDS networks and resources in the consolidation of one of the earliest identity categories, meti, used within an emerging Nepali LGBT movement in the early 2000s. It argues that political identity formation in resource-poor contexts with limited domestic support for queer organising has been a cumulative effect of transnational exchanges between activists and resource networks. Beyond this, the paper traces the emergence and changing meanings of meti to show how a seemingly Indigenous category is more closely linked to modern configurations of male same-sex sexuality in response to opportunities available for political mobilisation. The paper is based on secondary research and interviews with 71 participants and participant observation conducted during seven months of fieldwork in Nepal, and interviews conducted outside the country between 2016 and 2019. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper draws on anthropological research exploring women's changing sexuality within an urban context of Tanzania. The women involved were participating in an HIV prevention trial and worked in bars, restaurants, hotels and nightclubs, or sold local beer or food in Mwanza city. In ethnographic fieldwork and interviews and group discussions with women, narratives about sexuality focused on gendered and moral discourses of sexuality, the commodification of sexuality, and emotions and intimacy in relationships. This paper discusses how women's sexual subjectivies are shaped by a city where social, structural and economic changes over an era of neoliberalism and AIDS has created both disciplinary and liberalising spaces in which gendered and moral discourses of sexuality have emerged. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using crip theory, specifically Barounis' formulation of antiprophylactic citizenship, Piepzna-Samarasinha's conceptualisation of care work, and Shotwell's calls against purity, this paper analyses the making of the film HIV in the Rust Belt during the COVID-19 crisis. HIV in the Rust Belt (directed by Holly Hey) documents some of the experiences of local HIV survivors. During the course of filming, however, a story emerged about the importance of an AIDS facility, David's House Compassion, which had served as a hospice and a resource centre between 1988 to 2003. When COVID-19 arrived in the USA, we were mid-way through filming. Doing this work during the COVID-19 pandemic opened up a host of questions about the porousness of bodies as well as the slippage of time and stigma between the two pandemics. As we continued filming, we were made more aware that the story of David's House Compassion could be just as much as story of COVID-19, representative of antiprophylactic citizenship, an idea of belonging that comes from an openness and vulnerability that only sickness can offer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we explore the relationship between "viral load" as a virological, immunological, epidemiological and social category and how it links the four decades-long global HIV pandemic to the ongoing response to COVID-19. We argue, metaphorically, that the response to SARS-CoV-2 contains 'genetic' material from HIV, which has (as a result of the digital age which reproduces error-filled data at incredible speed) mutated and is being transmitted into the social and political body. Using sexual health and substance use as focal points, we turn to Deleuzoguattarian theoretical insights about the assemblage of desire, affect and material factors that produce epidemics. Contrasting historical and contemporary scenes and issues, we explore the complex assemblage created by viral loads, medical and public health protocols, conceptions of risk, responsibility and fear that connect both pandemics. Finally, we consider the goal of viral eradication and related militaristic metaphors, alongside the increasing convergence of medicine, public health, the law and corporate interests, and contrast this with community responses that engage with what it means to be living and dying in viral times. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A person diagnosed with HIV today might never experience AIDS, nor transmit HIV. Advances in treatment effectiveness and coverage has made the UN 2030 vision for the 'end of AIDS' thinkable. Yet drug adherence and resistance are continuing challenges, contributing to avoidable deaths in high burden African countries, especially among men. The mood of global policy rhetoric is hopeful, though cautious. The mood of people living with HIV struggling to adhere to life-saving medication is harder to capture, but vital to understand. This paper draws on ethnographic fieldwork with a high burden population in Kenya to explore specific socio-economic contexts that lead to a potent mixture of fatalism and ambition among men now in their thirties who came of age during the devastating 1990s AIDS crisis. It seeks to understand why some HIV-positive members of this bio-generation find it hard to take their life-saving medication consistently, gambling with their lives and the lives of others in pursuit of a life that counts. It argues that mood - here understood as a shared generational consciousness and collective affect created by experiencing specific historical moments - should be taken seriously as legitimate evidence in HIV programming decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Copyright of Culture, Health & Sexuality is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Culture, Health & Sexuality is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Culture, Health & Sexuality is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Culture, Health & Sexuality is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Culture, Health & Sexuality is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Culture, Health & Sexuality is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Culture, Health & Sexuality is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Culture, Health & Sexuality is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Culture, Health & Sexuality is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper examines the shifting nature of contemporary epidemiological classifications in the HIV/AIDS epidemic. It first looks at assumptions that guide a discourse of vulnerability and circulate around risk categories. It then examines the underlying emphasis in public health on the popular frame of “vulnerable women” who acquire HIV through heterosexual transmission. Drawing on work on gender, sexuality, and intersectionality, the paper asks why a discourse of vulnerability is infused into discussions of heterosexually‐active women's HIV risks but not those pertaining to heterosexually‐active men's. The paper then moves to current surveillance categories that are hierarchically and differentially applied to women's and men's risks in the HIV epidemic. Here, the focus is on the way in which contemporary classifications allow for the emergence of the vulnerable heterosexually‐active woman while simultaneously constituting lack of fathomability concerning bisexual and lesbian transmission risk. Lastly, theories of intersectionality, are used to examine current research on woman‐to‐woman transmission, and to suggest future more productive options. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies of sexual risk behaviour in the context of HIV/AIDS often utilize theories of risk which are predicated on the idea of the rational actor making choices, and thus operate with a strong notion of the autonomous individual. The underlying assumption is that a well-informed individual would strive to reduce risk and therefore choose not to engage in risky behaviour in sexual encounters. Drawing on longitudinal fieldwork in Arusha town and the surrounding districts in northern Tanzania, this paper explores how people draw on a complexity of knowledge and experience when they try to reduce the likelihood of contracting HIV. It shows how the embeddedness of social relationships, and the constraints of culture restrict the possible range of options, particularly for women. The paper examines the paired concepts of risk and trust, arguing that trust in a sexual relationship is gendered in particular ways. Gender hierarchies often place women in a subordinate position to men as a result of which women have to make compromises which put their health at risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Culture, Health & Sexuality is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper argues that the relationship between homophobia and HIV/AIDS is not as direct as is often assumed. This argument is pursued through an examination of the situation of gay men in Australia, a country where the HIV epidemic is largely confined to gay men, and Bangladesh, a country and culture where sex between men does not conform to categories of human sexuality privileged in Western theory. Both of these countries reveal something different about cultures of sex between men, which provides a counterpoint to the often compelling and usually pervasive accounts of HIV-related discrimination that are derived particularly from North America. The paper concludes with a plea that as efforts are geared up to fight the HIV pandemic in Asia and the Pacific, researchers, planners and practitioners become more critical of the conceptual tools they rely on in thinking about HIV/AIDS and human sexual activity, so that it is possible to mobilize (and do less damage to) local cultures of sexuality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent advances in treatment have improved the health of many people living with HIV/AIDS. The research described in this paper shows that the changing context of care is also impacting significantly on people who provide services. In this paper, we explore both perspectives by comparing recent service provider data with that derived from research involving people living with HIV/AIDS. We explore four themes: (1) hope and optimism; (2) changing context, roles and identities; (3) changing relationships; and (4) quality of life. Treatment advances and a new focus on living has altered the context of working with people living with HIV/AIDS and challenges health professionals to find new meanings and relationships within that context. Study findings have implications for the wider health care context and the changing roles and power balances within this arena. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Culture, Health & Sexuality is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Culture, Health & Sexuality is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Culture, Health & Sexuality is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Culture, Health & Sexuality is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Culture, Health & Sexuality is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Culture, Health & Sexuality is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article discusses various reports published within the issue, including one by Sheri Bastien on the importance of interpersonal communication in AIDS prevention, one by Chi-Chi Undie and collogues on HIV-positive persons in Kenya, and one by Kristin Mmari and colleagues on risk factors related to unsafe activities among orphaned and non-orphaned people in Tanzania.

Copyright of Culture, Health & Sexuality is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Culture, Health & Sexuality is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Culture, Health & Sexuality is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Culture, Health & Sexuality is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Culture, Health & Sexuality is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Culture, Health & Sexuality is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Culture, Health & Sexuality is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Culture, Health & Sexuality is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Culture, Health & Sexuality is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Culture, Health & Sexuality is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper reports on a study of the relationship of homophobia to HIV/AIDS-related stigma in Jamaica. Ethnography, key informant interviews and focus groups were used to gather data from a sample of 33 male and female adults during the summer of 2003. The sample included health and social service providers, HIV positive men and women, and men and women with same sex partners in urban and rural Jamaica. A strong and consistent relationship between homophobia and HIV/AIDS-related stigma was reported, but the relationship varied according to geographic location, social class, gender, and skin colour (complexion)—to the extent that this coincided with class. Stigma against people living with HIV/AIDS and homosexuality was implicated in low levels of use of HIV testing, treatment and care services and the reluctance of HIV positive people to reveal their serostatus to their sexual partners. Data reveal a pressing need for anti-stigma measures for both homophobia and HIV/AIDS, and for training for health and human service professionals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies of female sexuality in Africa tend to adopt an instrumental approach, many times problematizing sexual conduct in relation to HIV infection and/or reproduction. This study aimed to explore sexuality as a relational concept. Using interviews and participant observation, the paper shows how sexuality becomes a point of self-identification for young professional women in Nairobi between 20 and 30 years-old. These women form a group who implicitly and explicitly criticize conventional gender roles through the overt pursuit of sexual pleasure as recognition of their womanhood. This aspect of the feminine sense of self is at odds with normative notions of femininity. To avoid criticism for being ‘un-proper’, women adopt a deferential attitude towards men. The focus on upwardly mobile professional women and their experiments with new types of heterosexual relations in dating provides insight into both sexuality and gender. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the intellectual and social origins of racialist homophobia in contemporary Zimbabwean political discourse, exemplified by President Robert Mugabe's anti-homosexual speeches since the mid-1990s. It challenges the notions that such homophobia is either essential to African patriarchy or simple political opportunism. Tracing overt expressions of intolerance towards male-male sexuality back to the colonial period, it focuses on ways in which notions of appropriate, respectable, exclusive heterosexuality within the ‘cowboy’ culture of White Southern Rhodesia trickled into, or were interpreted in, the African nationalist movement. It concludes that understanding this history could improve efforts to address concerns around sexual health in Zimbabwe and elsewhere in the region, particularly silences around same-sex sexuality in HIV/AIDS education and prevention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Nigeria, popular understandings of HIV/AIDS and individual risk assessment and behaviour unfold within an interpretative grid that draws on a religious moral framework. This paper reports results from a two-year study of HIV/AIDS-related beliefs and behaviour among adolescent and young adult rural-urban migrants in two Nigerian cities. The young people in the study originate from south-eastern Nigeria; they almost uniformly identify themselves as Christian; and they commonly situate their understandings and explain their behaviours in response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic in terms of religion, especially in relation to the increasingly popular and dominant religious discourses of evangelical and Pentecostal Christianity. Findings suggest that popular religious interpretations of HIV risk pose real dangers, leading many young migrants to imagine themselves as at little or no risk, and contributing to inconsistent protective practices. The study highlights the limitations of intervention strategies that ignore the extent to which religion, health, sexuality and morality intersect in people's everyday lives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has been little research into how the diverse cultures within Papua New Guinea interpret, represent and understand the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Using qualitative ethnographic research, this study examines how incoming ideas about AIDS relate to the existing cultural frameworks of a rural Christian community. Although L, elet respondents in New Ireland have recourse to indigenous conceptions, apocalyptic Christianity is the most influential framework in their understanding of AIDS. Two interconnected issues are examined: how the epidemic is understood in apocalyptic terms, and how this affects practical approach to the disease. The paper indicates a need for more research into the stances taken by different Christian groups towards HIV/AIDS. This is especially important in the Pacific, where Christianity is the dominant worldview and where there has been a rapid spread of apocalyptic forms of Christianity, which may have particularly significant consequences for the epidemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the obstacles and opportunities experienced by a diverse group of persons living with HIV and AIDS in accessing medical and social services. A social networks approach is used to analyse data from 56 in-depth interviews conducted with persons living with HIV and AIDS in Orange County, California. From this analysis, the service pathways by White/Caucasian gay men, Latina/Hispanic women who speak only Spanish, and injecting drug users of diverse ethnicities are used to illustrate the influence of race/ethnicity, gender, and sexual orientation on service access. Implications for service provision and future research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The family, household and community have often been identified as having a crucial role to play in HIV and AIDS-related care in developing countries. Yet few studies have sought to examine the limits to the support that such institutions can provide. This paper describes findings from a study of the care and support offered to people living with HIV and AIDS in Chiang Mai province, an area of Thailand severely affected by the epidemic. Following an initial Rapid Assessment Process (RAP), data was collected from in-depth household and individual interviews, focus group discussions and participant observation in two village communities. A number of recurrent themes emerge from the data: local beliefs and practices as factors mediating family and community responses; the impact of recent economic and social change on the social organisation of family and village life (including the role of formal village leaders and the growth of sex work); the complex interface between traditional and modern systems of care and support; differences between rich and poor in access to, and use of, health services; and the unequal burden of responsibility shouldered by women as care givers. The implications of these findings for the future provision of health care and support in this part of Thailand are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Culture, Health & Sexuality is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This study explored how leaders of Black churches active in the fight against HIV conceptualised sex and sexuality when describing HIV interventions within their institutions. We analysed interviews with pastors and identified three frames through which leaders understood and communicated about sex and sexuality: (1) an evasive frame, in which participants avoided discussing behaviours and populations that have historically been disparaged within the church by emphasising involuntary risk exposure; (2) an agentic frame, which recognised sexual behaviour that differed from heteronormative conduct; and, (3) a pluralist frame, which allowed individuals to maintain their own beliefs about appropriate sexual conduct. Participants used frames to engage in a range of HIV interventions while upholding stigmatising beliefs about sexual behaviour and identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Trans women engaged in sex work live at the intersections of discrimination against sex workers, women and transgender people. Dominant public health approaches have constructed trans women in sex work as a group at high risk of HIV infection. This study employed localocentricity, situated within a cultured-centred approach, as a theoretical framework to document health narratives among 29 trans women who had knowledge of or experience in sex work. This theoretical framing draws attention to the articulations between health and illness expressed by trans women in sex work in USA. Research participants emphasised how their health was affected by extreme socio-political-cultural marginalisation as well as medical poverty and mental health issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Young people are among those most vulnerable to HIV/AIDS in South Africa. To date, however, there has been a shortage of fictional narratives appropriate to their needs, and addressing issues of HIV/AIDS. Accessibility to literature is of concern for a variety of reasons, ranging from low levels of literacy among many Black students to the non- availability of books in many schools. This paper aims to extend notions of the meanings of literacy within the context of HIV/AIDS prevention amongst South African youth. It examines the significance of such literacy both to life itself and to what counts as literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Culture, Health & Sexuality is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

While it is clear that in many communities ideas about masculinity and circumcision are connected, it is still unclear how young Kenyan men in the former Nyanza province from the traditionally non-circumcising Luo people perceive voluntary medical male circumcision as connected to masculinity and the role of voluntary medical male circumcision in the transition from boyhood to manhood. The objective of this study was to explore norms of masculinity and the decision-making process among Luo young men to provide a better understanding of how circumcision and masculinity relate to cultural norms within this community. The methodology consisted of eight FGDs with male peer groups and 24 in-depth interviews to elicit young men's perceptions of masculinity and voluntary medical male circumcision. Findings from thematic analysis reveal that young men described several key characteristics of masculinity including responsibility, bravery and sexual attractiveness. For some young men, voluntary medical male circumcision has embedded itself into cultural norms of masculinity by being a step in the transition from boyhood to manhood and by being a marker of some of these masculine characteristics. In the case of voluntary medical male circumcision, there may be opportunities to integrate other programming that helps men transition into healthy adulthood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]