Women Usually Take Care of Their Girlfriends: Bisexuality and Hiv Risk among Female Intravenous Drug Users

Abstract

Thirty-eight percent of a random sample of 39 female IVDUs disclosed recent homosexual behavior. The women were interviewed in jail, but their homosexual relationships were formed and occurred primarily outside of jail. Ethnographic methods identified twice as much homosexuality as a structured research interview. The women who disclosed homosexual behavior, which reportedly had recent onset for most of them, usually did not self-label themselves as “gay” or “lesbian”; perhaps “bisexuality” best characterizes their sexual histories. These bisexual women were more likely to share needles and works than the heterosexual women, placing themselves and others at higher risk of HIV transmission; their sexual partners were usually other IVDUs. No precautions were being taken to prevent possible female-to-female sexual HIV transmission. Failure to take precautions against AIDS may be attributable to unjustified feelings of “safety” in often serially monogamous homosexual relationships, as well as sheer fatalism about HIV infection.