Is it enough to ‘add homosexual men and stir’? The significance of materialism in HIV prevention in the Global South.

Abstract: Given the HIV/AIDS peak in the 1980s, Uganda has been hailed as a success story after having dramatically decreased the infection rate in the 2000s. However, the country’s HIV/AIDS rate has started to increase again in recent years. At the same time, homosexual males represent a key population whose needs must be taken into account if the pandemic is to be eradicated. Therefore, the thesis focuses on the material HIV prevention needs and establishes how material-redistributive justice regarding HIV prevention for homosexual males in Uganda can be comprehended and framed. The research will apply a basic content analysis of four current HIV/AIDS strategies affecting Uganda. The thesis applies theoretical concepts from the field of feminist materialism, queer studies and postcolonialism and provides three main arguments. Firstly, it is argued that the four HIV/AIDS strategies are highly heteronormative since they disregard homosexuals’ particular HIV prevention needs. Secondly, it follows that these strategies perpetuate the existence of homosexual males as bare life according to Agamben’s theory of the space of exception. And thirdly, the theoretical concept of sexual citizenship can be conceptualised as a useful advocacy tool to campaign for justice in terms of both sexual rights and material sexual health tools.