title: A loss of moral experience: understanding HIV-related stigma in the New York City House and Ball Community.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  I incorporated qualitative methods to explore how HIV-related stigma functions in New York City's House and Ball Community (HBC).
  
  
  METHODS
  From January through March 2009, I conducted 20 in-depth 1-on-1 interviews with a diverse sample of New York City HBC members. Interviews addressed perceptions of HIV-related stigma, the treatment of HIV-positive members in the community, and the potential impact of HIV-related stigma on risk behaviors.
  
  
  RESULTS
  HIV-related stigma contributes to a loss of moral experience for HBC members. Moral experience (i.e., threats to what really matters in a community) disrupts established social connections and hinders the attainment of "ball status" (i.e., amassing social recognition) in the local world of these individuals.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  My recommendations address HIV-related stigma in the New York City HBC from the vantage of moral experience and highlight the need for longitudinal studies of individual house members and for the implementation of stigma-focused interventions in the community that utilize the unique ball status hierarchy and HBC network to influence social norms surrounding the treatment of HIV-positive community members.
authors.affiliation: Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University, Department of Sociomedical Sciences, New York, NY, USA. Gabriel.Galindo@ucsf.edu
authors.forename: Gabriel R
authors.initials: GR
authors.lastname: Galindo
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D044383:Black People; D005260:Female; D006679:HIV Seropositivity / Q000523:psychology*; D006630:Hispanic or Latino; D018451:Homosexuality, Male; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D008913:Minority Groups; D009519:New York City; D057545:Social Stigma; D055815:Young Adult; D001741:Black or African American