New Survey Examines HIV, Health, and Human Rights of Gay Men Worldwide

MPact, in collaboration with our community partners from around the world, is thrilled to announce the official launch of the 2019 Global Men's Health and Rights Survey (GMHR 2019)!

MPact Global Action for Gay Men's Health and Rights has announced the launch of its fourth global survey on the health and human rights of gay men, bisexual men and other men who have sex with men.

The 2019 Global Men's Health and Rights Survey (GMHR 2019) focuses on factors that impact the health of gay and bisexual men around the world including discrimination, access to services, and the criminalization of homosexuality. The survey also addresses issues of mental health, freedom of gender identity and expression, and social connection and wellbeing which have all shown to be indicators of broader sexual health.

"We are very excited to launch the GMHR 2019 and to continue to collect information that allows us to advocate for the needs of community members," said Sonya Arreola, Senior Research Advisor at MPact. "It is critical that we are amplifying the voices of those most marginalized in the global response to sexual health and human rights. We anticipate that this survey will provide insight into the lived realities of key populations locally and globally, including gay and bisexual men, transgender people, people living with HIV, sex workers, and people who use drugs."

Last launched in 2014, the previous iterations of the GMHR survey yielded more than 10,000 responses from around the world, revealing vital information about the state of homophobia, human rights, and access to health services worldwide. As in the past, this year's survey is designed to support knowledge generation, policy development, program implementation, and advocacy linked to the issues that matter most to community members at the local and global level.

The survey was developed in collaboration with a global network of community organizations from around the world including Action for Access! research partners ISHTAR in Kenya and East Africa, and Lighthouse in Vietnam and Southeast Asia; as well as RCF SHAG Consortium members ECOM in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, M-Coalition in the Middle East and North Africa, SOMOSGAY in Latin America, AGCS PLUS in West Africa.

"This new version of the GMHR builds on our previous efforts by having deepened and expanded our global partners' involvement in the development of the survey," said Sonya Arreola. "We collaborated directly with community members to build upon the previous surveys. This involved identifying which questions remained most relevant, as well as creating new questions about topics such as the criminalization of homosexuality and the relative importance of different health services among men who have sex with men."

The online survey is now available in ten languages including the new addition of Indonesian, Swahili, and Vietnamese to the previous iteration's list of English, Arabic, Chinese, French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Russian translations.