Gay men's sex venues, the men who use them, and gay community perceptions: insights from a convenience sample of gay men attending a community festival in Melbourne.

BACKGROUND: Despite being understood as sites for the potential spread of sexually transmissible infections, we know remarkably little about gay men's sex venues and how they are perceived in the gay community. The present paper aims to describe community attitudes to sex venues and towards the gay men who use them. METHODS: Self-administered questionnaire at a gay community social event. RESULTS: Men who use gay men's sex venues differ from non-users in relation to their age, the number of casual sexual partners they have, their openness about their sexuality and their comfort with sexualised spaces. Also, not all venues are equal and appear to attract diverse clienteles with particular characteristics. CONCLUSION: Differentiation among gay men's sex venues and the men who use them may offer opportunities for targeting interventions for sexual health promotion.

Understanding gay men's sex venues as sites for sexual health promotion.

BACKGROUND: Despite being understood as sites for the potential spread of sexually transmissible infections, we know remarkably little about how men spend their time when they visit sex venues. The present paper aims to describe the nature of men's visits to sex venues in terms of where they arrived from, their use of alcohol and other drugs before and while at the venue, their expenditure of time in a range of activities at the venue, and their awareness of sexual health promotion materials at the venue. METHODS: Telephone interviews were conducted with 219 men completed within 2 days of them being recruited as they left a sex venue. RESULTS: The majority of men arrived from home or work and had not consumed alcohol or drugs in the 4 h before the visit. The visit lasted 201 min on average and time spent in particular sites or activities within venues varied somewhat with respect to the demographic and behavioural characteristics of the men. Most men reported seeing posters or pamphlets dealing with sexual health. CONCLUSION: Understanding how men use such venues should allow more effective health promotion in those venues.

Australian men's sexual practices in saunas, sex clubs and other male sex on premises venues.

BACKGROUND: Sex on premises venues (SOPVs) where men have sex with men have been implicated in the spread of sexually transmissible infections, but few studies have described men's sexual encounters in SOPVs, particularly the degree to which men from different backgrounds engage in risky sexual practices. METHODS: Interviewer administered surveys were conducted with 186 Australian men who have sex with men (MSM) within 48 h of visiting an SOPV. They reported their sexual practices, the characteristics of their partners and other circumstances surrounding their sexual encounters. RESULTS: All analyses were based on the number of sexual encounters (n = 430). Oral sex was the most common practice, occurring in 74.9% of encounters, followed by massage, frottage or kissing (53.7%), solo or mutual masturbation (36.3%), and anal sex (32.1%). Multivariate analyses revealed age as a significant factor for having protected anal sex (P = 0.001), insertive anal sex (P = 0.004) and receptive anal sex (P < 0.001). These practices were more frequent in encounters among younger men, while masturbation (P = 0.03) was more frequent among older men. When men's sexual partners were affected by alcohol, encounters were less likely to involve unprotected anal intercourse (P = 0.006) and more likely to involve massage, frottage or kissing (P = 0.009). Men disclosed their HIV status in only 7.7% of encounters. CONCLUSIONS: With the likelihood of risky sexual practices varying according to background, results from this study should be used to guide interventions aiming to promote safer sex in SOPVs.