The male homosexuality reappearance in hiv infection prevention strategies: Reflections on the prep implementation in Brazil

Abstract

This paper takes its starting point the text by Nestor Perlongher, entitled O desaparecimento da homossexualidade [The disappearance of homosexuality], depicting an emptying of male homosexual identity with the emergence of aids, and proposes a new reading about the pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) implementation by the public health system in Brazil. Distributed from early 2018 and considered as one of the newest HIV/aids prevention measures, PrEP is a continuous antiretroviral therapy aimed for subjects who have not been infected with the virus. Taking as an empirical reference the Clinical Protocol of PrEP Therapeutic Guidelines, we identified how, from the notion of risk, prophylaxis enables the return of homosexuality to doctors' offices and, furthermore, operates as a discursive object of sanitary and social problematizations. Thus PrEP produces a new homosexual category, linked to disciplinary and biopolitical technologies, which rely on the individualization and accountability of individuals for self-care.