University of Central Florida STARS HIM 1990-2015 2015 Homophobia and HIV Transmission: A Six-Country Comparative Analysis Tiernan Middleton University of Central Florida Part of the Medicine and Health Sciences Commons Find similar works at: https://stars.library.ucf.edu/honorstheses1990-2015 University of Central Florida Libraries http://library.ucf.edu This Open Access is brought to you for free and open access by STARS. It has been accepted for inclusion in HIM 1990-2015 by an authorized administrator of STARS. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Recommended Citation Middleton, Tiernan, "Homophobia and HIV Transmission: A Six-Country Comparative Analysis" (2015). HIM 1990-2015. 1726. https://stars.library.ucf.edu/honorstheses1990-2015/1726 HOMOPHOBIA AND HIV TRANSMISSION: A SIX-COUNTRY COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS by TIERNAN C. MIDDLETON A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Honors in the Major Program in Biomedical Sciences in the College of Medicine and in the Burnett Honors College at the University of Central Florida Orlando, Florida Spring Term 2015 Thesis Chairs: Dr. Joanna Mishtal, Dr. Kenneth Teter Abstract This interdisciplinary study combines epidemiological data with anthropological theory to investigate the relationship between HIV transmission rates and systemic homophobia. Previous research has illustrated the link between high levels of structural violence and structural stigma to increased risk of diseases such as the link between African-Americans and heart disease. This study investigates the relationship between systemic homophobia and HIV transmission rates. Through operationalizing homophobia into seven distinct factors, I evaluated systemic homophobia in six countries, assigning a score 1-10 to each factor using secondary source aggregation.