Friendship and the Sociality of GBTQ+ Sexual Health in Times of Resistance

Sexual health has always been a social matter. While the science of disease transmission remains a focus for public health stakeholders, for social scientists, the sociality of infections, both enduring and emerging, remains central. That is, friendships and relationships are core to health, risk and illness. Yet, there has been virtually no work on how friendships and their varying contours are interplaying with (increasingly) antibiotic resistant STIs. Drawing on 49 interviews with sexuality and/or gender diverse people in Australia, we argue that the sociality of sexual health is central to the development of antibiotic resistance. Our analysis highlights the importance of friends to this, including de(stigmatising) STIs, deployment of humour to regularise important meanings, striking a balance between autonomy and mutuality, and role of friends as sexual health educators. These hitherto under-recognised relational dimensions of sexual health are critical to working with communities in addressing the rise of resistant STIs.