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.
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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 |
By: Jonathan Garcia,1 Miguel Muñoz-Laboy,2 Richard Parker,1 and Patrick A. Wilson1
1Department of Sociomedical Sciences, Columbia University, 722 W. 168 Street, 5th Floor, New York, NY 10032
2Department of Social Work, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA
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