Closeted men were less likely to get the Mpox vaccine for a very surprising reason

Closeted men who have sex with men were less likely to get vaccinated or treated for Mpox than those who were out, according to a new study. Contrary to the researchers’ hypothesis, however, the findings suggested that the difference in vaccination rates had more to do with a lack of knowledge than with concerns about being outed.

“The resource knowledge and community-connected piece seems to be implicated in that process, not outing concerns, and that was a surprise to me,” said Joel Le Forestier, a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Communication at Cornell University and the lead author of the study, which published earlier this month in the journal Psychological Science.

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During the 2022 Mpox (formerly known as “monkeypox”) outbreak, which primarily affected men who have sex with men, Le Forestier and his colleagues recruited hundreds of “sexual-minority men” in Australia, Canada, the U.K, and the U.S. to complete online surveys at two points: first around the peak of the outbreak in August 2022 and then several months later after the Mpox vaccine became widely available and the outbreak waned.  

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In a press release from Cornell, Le Forestier explained that the research was inspired by a friend’s observation that closeted men who may not be connected to the broader LGBTQ+ community might not even know about the vaccine or where to get it. Le Forestier said that he had observed long lines of men who appeared to present as sexual minorities outside of a Toronto clinic offering Mpox vaccinations.

“I’m thinking, if you’re in this long line of identifiably sexual minority men, and your friend walks by, you’ve just been outed to your friend,” he said.

His friend, however, countered that closeted men might not even know those lines existed.

“The only places that my friend had seen ads for Mpox vaccine clinics were in gay bars, and in the local gay village community center,” Le Forestier explained. “So if you’re not engaging in the community in these sort of public ways, then these resources just aren’t getting to you.”

Le Forestier and his team predicted that men who conceal their sexuality would report concerns of being outed if they sought the Mpox vaccine, and they were right. But those concerns did not necessarily correlate to lower intentions to get the vaccine.  

“What that suggests,” Le Forestier explained, “is that people who are in the closet and afraid of being outed are nonetheless saying, ‘This is important enough to me that I’m going to do it anyway.’”

Le Forestier said that the study’s findings indicate both the benefits of being enmeshed in a community and also that more work needs to be done by public health departments to get information to marginalized groups.

“Affiliating with that community and becoming a part of that community can confer some real benefits to you,” he explained. “Knowing about public health resources is not the only thing but it’s definitely one of them.”