Defining men who have sex with men (MSM)

Abstract

The term "men who have sex with men," or MSM, came into being in the 1980s in the context of public health efforts to understand men's sexual behavior as it relates to HIV transmission and prevention (Mays, Cochran, &Zamudio, 2004; Woodyard, Peterson, & Stokes, 2000). The term is used to refer to a wide range of distinct groups of men: those who self-identify as gay, bisexual, or transgender; incarcerated self-identified heterosexual men who, due to their circumstances, engage in voluntary sex with other men; self-identified heterosexual men who engage in sex with other men as a means of survival during incarceration, periods of homelessness, or for economic gain; men who have sex with females and/or with male-to-female transgender persons but also have sex with males; men who self-identify as "same-gender loving" or "sexual freaks;" and men who self-identify as "questioning" (Goldbaum, Perdue, & Higgins, 1996; Mays et al., 2004).