Queer Expressions: Intersections of Sexuality, Identity and Healthcare for Irish Gay Men

This chapter offers an insight into how issues of identity, sexuality and healthcare interactions intersect for Irish Gay Men. Grounded in original research with twelve Irish Gay Men, their experiences of discussing sexuality in healthcare contexts offer an insight into how this group conceptualise and express their sexuality and how this steers the way they engage with healthcare practitioners. Irish Gay Men offer an expression of sexuality which is both a being and a doing, and contextually located to place, space and social encounters. Their encounters with healthcare professionals are scaffolded by expectations and observations and they carefully navigate how disclosure of their gayness and discussions of sexuality take place. This chapter not only allows insight into how these men make sense of their own experiences, but furthermore offers a conceptual insight into how healthcare encounters might be understood and responded to through practice.