Queer sex is tremendous. It’s intense, pleasurable, and some might say it’s magical. But it’s also powerful. As a community, it is our most common shared experience. It’s something we long for, fondly reminisce about, and something we can spend enormous amounts of time planning for and reveling in. It has meaning and it has value, and therein lies its power. To harness the power of our queer sex is a profound act of audacity.
MPact Global Action for Gay Men’s Health and Rights, where I work, was created 20 years ago. Its founding was a brazen act of prioritizing and calling for investment in the lives and the sexuality of gay, bisexual, and queer folks around the world. Our community came together around the radical notion to advance queer health and human rights. Our sex has always been a critical part of our organizing — for years before Stonewall, through the worst of the AIDS epidemic, and amid the ongoing attack on our bodies and sexuality. Queer liberation is part of a larger sexual revolution, and MPact works with our global partners to ensure that sex is centered in our organizing.
To have queer sex in a country where it is illegal is the epitome of audacity. Hundreds of gay men in Senegal have been arrested, many HIV-positive, in that country’s recent and disturbing antigay crackdown. In Indonesia, gay sex clubs and saunas are raided by police and arrested men are paraded in front of the media. These actions are not just meant to harm and torture gay men but to denigrate, demoralize and stigmatize. While Mpact works in both these countries to support partners and advance human rights, it’s the gay men who persist in these hostile environments that are the real inspiration. They continue to cultivate their sexuality, find connections, and foster community. They accept the risk because sex is fundamental to who we are and how we build relationships with one another. This type of courage has transformed cultures and has been central to over four decades of our HIV movement.
HIV is sexually transmitted, and for 45 years, we’ve defiantly pursued sexuality in the midst of this pandemic. Much to the chagrin of Larry Kramer, people continued to have sex even during the darkest years of AIDS. There was an underground cruising culture, clandestine sex parties, and necessary and explicit sexual health educational materials. We were overwhelmed with death, loss, and risk, yet our pursuit for sexual pleasure was undaunted.
As the epidemic evolved, our sex persisted. Through the years, our sexuality continued to flourish, from bareback culture to undetectable, to PrEP and DoxyPEP. Risk has always been incidental to our sex. We’ve cruised in dangerous outdoor spots, we’ve flouted unjust antigay sex laws, and we’ve navigated a deadly epidemic, all because our sex matters. We’ve boldly embraced its value, and we understand it is a form of resistance.
Mpact has centered queer sex in our movement because it reinforces the primary, yet radical, principle that sex is a fundamental human right. It is nothing to be ashamed of or to run away from, and pleasure, intimacy, and connection deeply impact our quality of life. We’ve created activations, like the International HIV Kiss-In to celebrate the sexuality of queer people living with HIV and provide an opportunity for people to boldly display their sexuality and to make a political point about stigma, immigration policies, and access to HIV health care. Our work with adult content creators allows us to collaborate with intrepid content creators who understand and leverage the economic and cultural power of sex. Together, we develop health promotion content to build community and inform people about vital sexual health options.
As our communities and sexualities continue to come under attack, we are required to be bold and to be brazen. We can’t allow others to use our sex as a weapon against us. We must be shameless and fearless. We can claim the power of our sex and create change for our community. Let’s continue to remind each other that our sex is an incredible form of political resistance and also one hell of a good time.
Alex Garner is the senior director of Strategic Initiatives and Communications at Mpact Global. Learn more about Mpact's work advancing LGBTQ+ health and human rights at mpactglobal.org.
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