Both countries feature a universal free public health system that can be accessed by anyone (although cuts in the name of austerity have been severe), this being for me an extremely important political issue. Since early 2016 I have lived in Ireland where, like Italy, PrEP is not available yet, although many people get it through informal channels or by buying it online. I grew up and lived for most of my life in Italy, a country characterized by a strong homophobic discourse and violence, my sexuality shaped by the hegemony of discourse around personal responsibility and being a ‘good gay’ to promote safe sex, thus avoiding the infamous association with HIV-AIDS. Di Feliciantonio, Gadelha and DasGupta, 2017 Rose, 1997), I think positioning myself is a crucial preliminary step in underlining the political concerns driving this intervention. As widely acknowledged by feminist and queer scholarship (e.g. the taking of a prescription drug to prevent HIV-infection), the rise of homonormativity and many other relevant topics most gay men of my age have routinely faced in Western Europe.
His short intervention builds upon research work I have been conducting in several European cities around (HIV-positive) gay migration as well as my personal experience with (bareback) sex, HIV-prevention, PrEP (Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis, i.e.