Privileging The Personal Mobilising marginalised identities and voices in the context of HIV health promotion with ‘hard to reach’ migrant and second generation Asian gay men in Metropolitan Sydney, Australia; a resource development and community building initiative Min Fuh Teh Community Health Promotion Officer (Asian Gay Men’s Project), ACON

“HIV is not a priority, work, study, life, settling in, finding love, these are!”

Nationally, Asian men make up the highest group in MSM/gay HIV notification after men of Anglo background, with an upward going trend sitting at 13.9% for 2009 Multicultural HIV and Hepatitis Service (MHAHS) Trends in NSW HIV notifications (unpublished). Country of Birth Thailand China, Hong Kong, Taiwan Vietnam Indonesia Philippines Malaysia Singapore (CDB, NSW Ministry of Health, 2011)

Myths & Assumptions Hard to reach Apathy - Asian culture’s conservative…we can’t talk about sex…why bother? What is “Asian” anyway?

“Double Trouble” ‘Minority within a minority’ Stuck between ethnic and sexual worlds Homophobia Racism Barriers preventing access to and uptake of HIV and health services A need for culturally appropriate interventions addressing MSM of multicultural backgrounds Reeders, D. W. (2010) Double Trouble? The Health Needs of Culturally Diverse MSM. Melbourne: Centre for Culture, Ethnicity & Health.

“Our work against the AIDS pandemic can only be won on the cultural level” *Dr. George Ayala, Executive Officer of MSMGF, and Vallerie Wagner, of AIDS Project Los Angeles. “War Diaries,” Tisa Bryant & Ernest Hardy (ed.), AIDS Project Los Angeles (APLA) and the Global Forum on MSM and HIV (MSMGF), 2010.

Directory

A Cultural Vacuum Invisibility A hunger to represent 70 volunteers: 9 different ethnicities Poets and artists, photographers, writers, community members/‘Models’ From a resource creation  community building/mobilising exercise

The Danger of A Single Story

Collateral Benefits With a $5000 City of Sydney community arts grant We are able to work on issues as diverse as Homophobia, Racism, Invisibility, Role modeling, Health promotion messages, Identity work and art

Challenges