Black sexual minority men are disproportionately affected by HIV/AIDS in the United States. 

While research has pointed to social and structural barriers to information and resources, a new paper by University of Michigan School of Information assistant professor Megan Threats draws on intersectionality theory to explore how the HIV/AIDS-related information practices of Black sexual minority men (for example: gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men) are shaped by interlocking systems of oppression. 

By introducing the theoretical concept of “information resilience,” Threats highlights the protective and promotive strategies Black sexual minority men use to access, share and utilize information despite the challenges of intersectional stigma and discrimination.

“Toward information resilience: Applying intersectionality to the HIV/AIDS information practices of Black sexual minority men” was published in the Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology. 

“There's a rich body of literature in library and information science that looks at the information practices of marginalized communities,” Threats says. “But the issue with information poverty is that it places the burden of accessing and interacting with information on the individuals, instead of on the systems that might be failing them. It tends to frame individuals as information-poor, which has drawn criticism from many scholars.” 

In contrast, Threats’ paper moves away from a deficit-based focus to one of resilience. It centers an intersectional framework, which draws on how interlocking axes of power and inequality operate simultaneously to impact the behaviors of individuals and groups and affect their access to resources. 

“While we consider the impacts of systems of marginalization and oppression, my work also looks at what communities do in spite of those systems,” Threats says. “We recognize that people do engage in promotive practices, and communities still thrive despite these challenges.” 

Through interviews with 22 Black sexual minority men, Threats’ paper outlines the myriad of ways the community engages with protective information practices like avoidance and concealment of medical information due to discrimination or anticipated discrimination, while also defining promotive information practices that help individuals connect to resources. 

“From my findings, I've observed that people both survive and thrive,” Threats says. “They find ways to cope with and overcome difficulties.” 

For example, while some of the men Threats spoke to felt that LGBTQ community centers had a wealth of resources and information that might be relevant and useful to them, they did not feel comfortable or accepted in those spaces because they were being occupied primarily by white queer-identifying people. Despite this, they still sought out protective information via peers, online spaces and events. 

Threats’ paper presents a new theoretical model of information resilience. It is the “first library and information science study to be conducted within a transformative paradigm that integrates a community-based participatory research approach and intersectionality to examine information practices,” according to the paper. 

She did much of the research with the help of a community advisory board compromised of Black sexual men living in North Carolina. 

“One thing I especially loved was that the results of the study were actually applied by community health centers,” Threats says. “For example, people expressed that they didn’t feel as welcomed in some spaces, so there was a push for more mobile testing services in areas where people lived. They also wanted healthcare providers to show up at local events because they often felt they had to travel to spaces that were not always accessible or welcoming.”

Read “Toward information resilience: Applying intersectionality to the HIV/AIDS information practices of Black sexual minority men” in the March issue of the Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology. See the abstract below: 

Using intersectionality as a critical theoretical framework and analytical tool, this study investigated the HIV/AIDS information practices of Black sexual minority men (SMM). Twenty-two Black SMM were interviewed about their HIV/AIDS-related information practices. The resulting data were analyzed inductively using methods influenced by constructivist grounded theory. I propose information resilience as a strengths-based concept to describe protective and promotive information practices that focus on meeting individual or community-centric goals despite intersectional stigma and discrimination. Anticipated and experienced intersectional stigma and discrimination were the key motivators for protective information practices among Black SMM. Promotive factors, including peer support and self-efficacy, shaped promotive information practices to foster development and enhance well-being. The findings have implications for the incorporation of intersectionality theory into information practices research, contribute to theoretical development in the field of library and information science, and have implications for the design of information and technology-based HIV prevention and treatment interventions to address intersectional discrimination and its impact on Black sexual minority men.

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Megan Threats is an interdisciplinary scholar with a background in library and information science and public health. Her research focuses on historically marginalized communities’ health information and technology practices, particularly on Black and LGBTQ communities. Learn more about her by visiting her UMSI faculty profile.