ABSTRACT
Despite the availability of antiviral drugs, HIV continues to present myriad issues when navigating intimate relationships. Intimacy is a relational marker that identifies a person’s most important and valued relationships and is a powerful determinant of health and well-being. The key to effective intimacy regulation is the control partners exert over intimacy-promoting behaviors. However, for the HIV-negative partners of gay men living with HIV, personal control in negotiating and regulating intimacy with their partners is dictated by the presence of HIV. In a post-AIDS culture, HIV continues to demand specific behavior changes to intimacy between these couples, affecting the type of intimate behaviors the partners engage in, the pace at which intimacy is developed, and the depth of intimacy between the partners. Drawing on data collected through intensive, semi-structured interviews with nine HIV-negative partners of gay men living with HIV, this chapter explores the variety of intimacy-related uncertainties these men experience within those relationships, and discusses the tensions and behaviors considered when managing those uncertainties.
