Sex Markets and Sexual Opportunity Structures of Behaviorally Bisexual Latino Men in the Urban Metropolis of New York City

Sex markets (the spatially and culturally bounded arenas) that shape bisexual behavior among Latino men have been utilized as a deterministic concept without a sufficient focus on the ability of individuals to make autonomous decisions within such arenas. We nuance the theory of sex markets using the concept of sexual opportunity structures to investigate the ways in which behaviorally bisexual Latino men in the urban metropolis of New York City navigate sexual geographies, cultural meaning systems, sexual scripts, and social institutions to configure their bisexual behaviors. Drawing on 60 in-depth interviews with bisexual Latino men in New York city, we first describe and analyze venues that constitute sexual geographies that facilitate and impede sexual interaction. These also allow for a degree of autonomy in decision-making, as men travel throughout the urban sexual landscape and sometimes even manage to reject norms, such as those imposed by Christian religion. We explore some of the cultural meaning systems and social institutions that regulate sex markets and influence individual decision-making. Secrecy and discretion—regulated by the family, masculinity, migration, and religion—only partially shaped sexual behavior and relationships. These factors create a flux in “equilibrium” in bisexual sex markets in which sociocultural-economic structures constantly interplay with human agency. This article contributes to the literature in identifying dynamic spaces for sexual health interventions that draw on individual agency and empowerment.

Table 1

Examples of sex markets and activities that take place

Place	Location relative to residence of participant	Types of patrons/ people in space	Activities in space	Ways to find partners	Reasons for visiting place for bisexual Latinos
Home in outer borrow	Participant prefers to meet potential sex partners in his residence	Lower middle class neighborhood, youth in the streets, participant lives in a rented room	Having dinner, playing cards, watching movies, drinking, talking	On-line and through friendship networks	Inexpensive space to hang out with women and men for casual encounters or dating
Heterosexual nightclub (Lower East Side, Manhattan)	Participant commutes from upper Manhattan (approximately 45 minutes)	Middle to upper-middle class club with a high cost of entrance; men and women, mostly meterosexuals	Drinking, eating, socializing, dancing house music and hip hop, cruising, exchange of contacts, kissing among men and women	Cruise, buy cocktails, exchange phone numbers, date	Finding females that are young, potential partners to marry and have children, dates
Gay Bar (Midtown, Manhattan)	Participant lives in Midtown just blocks away from the place	Middle class bar, cocktails are approximately $10, mostly male environment,	Drinking, cruising, socializing, exchange of contacts, sex in restrooms, kissing, men display their bodies with tight clothing	Cruise, buy cocktails, exchange phone numbers, date	Meeting gay and bisexual men, safe space for same-sex sexual expression, potential dates or casual partners
Park in neighborhood	Public space located in the community of the participant in the Bronx	Low and middle class, availability of men and women	Sitting, leisure, cruising, sex work, biking, smoking cigarettes, playing dominos, walking dogs	Using codes, such as the gaze, talking to strangers, asking for a cigarette	Socialization with potential friends, casual sex partners, leisure
Latino Heterosexual club in neighborhood	Participant lives blocks away from the establishment in Washington Heights	Low and middle class, Latino men and women with a heterosexual role, some meterosexuals	Dancing to Latin music, drinking, exchange of contacts, kissing, sex work, women are hypersexualized in dress	Cruise, buy cocktails and bottles of liquor, exchange phone numbers, casual sex, date	Supply of people who share general aspects of Latino culture such as dancing and speaking Spanish, casual sex partners
DateBi.com	Participant belongs to a virtual network of potential partners	Bisexual, gay men, and heterosexual women of mixed social classes	Messages, winks, likes/dislikes, casual sex, long term relationships, short term relationships, friend networking, those who pay membership have control over initiating conversation	Sell personality and body through description and pictures, maintain a wholesome persona	Supply of potential partners for short and long term relationships
Macho to Macho Website	Person belongs to a virtual network of casual sex partners	Bisexual and gay men of mixed social classes	Cruising, casual sex, pornographic picture pictures, web cam communication for mutual virtual masturbation, sex work, membership fee makes it possible to have web cam sex and message	Display naked bodies, penises, muscles, solicit sex	Supply of partners for casual sex, visual stimulation, fantasy and sexual desire

Read more at: http://ht.ly/Sg4OY 

By: Jonathan Garcia,1 Miguel Muñoz-Laboy,2 Richard Parker,1 and Patrick A. Wilson1

²

1Department of Sociomedical Sciences, Columbia University, 722 W. 168 Street, 5th Floor, NY, NY 10032

2Department of Social Work, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA

1Department of Sociomedical Sciences, Columbia University, 722 W. 168 Street, 5th Floor, New York, NY 10032