Publications

Emotional intimacy shapes how satisfying a relationship feels, and queer and feminist scholarship ties it closely to how sexual minority men build partnerships. This Photovoice study used individual photo-based interviews with 16 sexual minority men to describe both their experiences of emotional intimacy and the strategies they use to cultivate it. Three interwoven themes emerged: embracing vulnerability to drive self-acceptance, described through embodied courage and autonomy; building relationality with partners through empathy, trust and reciprocity; and securing connections with family, friends and community, where acceptance and belonging supported intimacy. The findings can guide tailored programming that helps sexual minority men build intimate relationships.

Kinship among Two-Spirit, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersex people frequently looks different from the nuclear family that housing policy assumes, and that mismatch narrows housing options. This policy case study examines systemic factors across federal, provincial and municipal levels in Canada, zeroing in on two measures: the Multigenerational Home Renovation Tax Credit and Expanding Housing Options in Neighbourhoods. Using Toronto as its setting, the analysis considers how these policies fit, or fail to fit, the household needs of 2SLGBTQI+ adults whose living arrangements reflect queer kinship. The authors identify openings for change toward shared housing that supports chosen families.

Researchers examined whether starting PrEP leads to more bacterial sexually transmitted infections among gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men in Ontario. Data came from iCruise, an online longitudinal study following 535 participants who completed 12 weekly diaries between July 2017 and April 2018. Marginal structural models accounted for factors that change over time, and a bias analysis tested how misreported infections might skew results. About 13 percent of participants took PrEP during follow-up. PrEP use was linked to higher gonorrhea incidence, but not to chlamydia, syphilis, or bacterial STIs overall. The authors back pairing routine gonorrhea screening with PrEP services.

Digital health records that collapse sex and gender into a single binary field cause real harm. When systems cannot carry the information clinicians need for affirming communication, patients face misgendering, deadnaming, and being outed, leading to disrespectful encounters, inappropriate care, and avoidance of health services altogether. This case study introduces the HL7 International Gender Harmony Model, a standard designed to support the design, implementation, and use of digital health information systems that enable affirming clinical interactions. Applying the model to a recently published account of one Canadian patient's experience, the authors show how such harms could be addressed through nursing informatics.

HPV vaccines became publicly funded for younger gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men in most Canadian provinces in 2015 and 2016. To gauge oral infection levels afterwards, this study recruited sexually active men in Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver between 2017 and 2019 through respondent-driven sampling; those aged 16 to 30 self-collected oral rinse samples for testing. Among 838 valid specimens, about 37 percent of participants reported at least one vaccine dose. Oral HPV prevalence was low overall, at 2.6 percent for any type and 1.2 percent for high-risk types. The results provide a baseline for tracking vaccination's future impact.