Abstract:
Queer young men in Aotearoa New Zealand (NZ) grow up in heterocentric and heteronormative contexts, with little modelling of their future sexual and romantic. This ethnographic study looks at these men’s experiences seeking love, companionship and sex as a self-directed andragogic (Knowles, 1980) process. Mezirow’s transformative learning theory (Mezirow & Associates, 1990; Mezirow 1996; 1997; 1998) is the theoretical framework for this study. Two primary themes emerged from these men’s accounts with respect to their romantic, social and sexual experiences related to HIV vulnerability: a romance theme and a pleasure theme.
