Homofobia e assistência à saúde para pessoas vivendo com HIV/Aids

Abstract

Homophobia is the term used to designate the feeling or attitude directed towards homosexuals that inferiorizes, antagonizes, discriminates or violates them due to their sexuality. The literature indicates that homophobia is socially produced, especially by cisheternormative and sexist ideologies, and can be perpetrated by individuals, communities or institutions. In contemporary times, homophobia has been experiencing a resurgence, especially when combined with living with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV)/Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (Aids). Therefore, this research aims to understand how homophobia impacts the health care of gay and bisexual men living with HIV/AIDS. Based on qualitative research, six gay and bisexual men aged 18 and over were interviewed, with positive HIV serology in an advanced stage of infection and hospitalized in an infectious disease reference unit. The interlocutors were contacted through dialogue with the institution's care team, reading of the medical records and an initial approach by the researcher to present the research. The interviews followed a semi-structured model and were carried out in person at the field hospital. To analyze the information produced, this study used Bardin's content analysis (2016). The results indicate that homophobia is part of everyday life and contemporary social dynamics and when combined with a positive HIV status, it becomes even more complex, producing specific situations of suffering. In the context of health care, among the most significant effects of homophobia, the presupposition of heterosexuality of all users stands out, inability to clinically manage sexuality that differs from heterosexuality and the non-recognition of this marker as clinically relevant health data. Furthermore, the experience of the interlocutors showed that the suffering they experienced has interfaces both with their life stories and experiences prior to the diagnosis and the context of inequities, social injustice, oppression and negligence by the State to which they are exposed.