The Social Networks and Health Outcomes of Sexual Minorities

Men who have sex with men (MSM) have some of the most outsized and pronounced rates of  HIV due, in part, to fragmentation in the healthcare system and deeply entrenched macro and meso-level stigma. Using an intersectional lens focused on Black MSM, a group with especially high rates of HIV,  I investigated the health outcomes and networks of Black MSM and Black transgender women participating in the nationally representative uConnect study led by Dr. John Schneider and the Chicago Center of HIV Elimination at the University of Chicago Department of Medicine. Other work in this space that I have conducted has examined the unique relationships between skin color,  caste and social/sex networks among Indian MSM, a highly disenfranchised population.