That CHAPS should work with bisexual men is still clearly acknowledged.
The Field Guide is the CHAPS manual on applying Making It Count, the strategic overview of CHAPS, to health promotion activity with homosexually active men. Both are now in their third editions.
It distinguishes (p64) "between those who are exclusively homosexually active men (ExHAM), that is, have sex exclusively with men in the previous year, and behavioural bisexuals (BBs), that is men who had sex with both men and women in that time."
It sets out some of the differences, based on the annual Sigma surveys:
- "BBs have UAI [unprotected anal intercourse] with more partners than ExHAM and are more likely to do so with partners of unknown HIV concordancy [i.e. with men they don't know have the same HIV status as them] (1999)."
- "BBs are also more likely to engage in UAI with a casual partner (2000)."
- It suggests "little difference in the probability of involvement in sdUAI [sero-discordant unprotected anal intercourse, i.e. an HIV+ and an HIV- man fucking without using condoms] between ExHAM and BB men (1999)."
- "BBs are more likely to expect a positive man to disclose prior to sex and to assume a man is HIV negative if he does not disclose he is positive (2001)."
- "They are also more likely to experience problems getting hold of condoms (1998) and condom failure is more common among this group (1999, 2001)."
- "BBs are also in more need of basic HIV knowledge (1998, 1999) and information on other STIs (1998, 2000)."
- Based on the 2001 survey, it says that while BBs are just as likely to have gone to a gym or their GP, they are half as likely to have gone to a sexual health clinic in the past month (ExHAM: 12.9%, BBs 6.1%) or phoned an HIV/AIDS helpline (7.0%, 2.5%).
- Similarly, they are less than a third as likely to have been to an AIDS organisation (6.8%, 2.1%), half as likely to have seen any of the gay press (72.4%, 36.4%), and less likely to have any contact with the commercial scene (pub or club: 76.2%, 46.2%).
So bisexual men are acknowledged to be a population at risk and in need. They're also less likely to see ads and other health promotion material placed in the gay press or on the scene.
The full document is here. (A better, shorter, link was broken with a recent redesign of the THT website.)
Let's go through some of THT's publications to see if these needs are met or not.
