Fwd: MSMs (Men who have Sex with Men)

Thu Dec 23 05:47:58 UTC 2004

from a friend who took up the antedating challenge...

Begin forwarded message:

> Social Engineers Confront AIDS (in News & Comment)
> William Booth
> Science, New Series, Vol. 242, No. 4883. (Dec. 2, 1988), pp. 1237-1238.
> http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0036
> -8075%2819881202%293%3A242%3A4883%3C1237%3ASECA%3E2.0.CO%3B2-Z
>
> p. 1238, second column: "The matter is further confused
> by the fact that many men who have sex with men don't consider
> themselves ``homosexual.''"

the *concept* has been around for a long time (note, for example, Laud
Humphries, Tearoom Trade (1970)), and even this *description*.  the
question is when "MSM" started being used as technical term.

> The earliest citation I can get for "MSM" and "men who have sex with
> men" is 1994, in the title (and presumably the body) of the article
> "Contrasting types of Puerto Rican men who have sex with men (MSM)",
> _The Journal of Psychology and Human Sexuality, 6(4), 41-67.

not quite as good as Ben Zimmer's Jan. 1993, but close.

arnold