Toward a Virulent Community Literacy: Constellating the Science, Technology, and Medicine of Queer Sexual Health is a qualitative study (informed by Indigenous and decolonial methodologies) of how queer and trans people of color generate and share knowledge about their sexual health on Twitter with regards to HIV/AIDS. With a Twitter archive of 15,000 discrete tweets built with the keywords “Truvada,” PrEP,” and “HIV,” three datasets were derived comprising general utterances from queer users... Show moreToward a Virulent Community Literacy: Constellating the Science, Technology, and Medicine of Queer Sexual Health is a qualitative study (informed by Indigenous and decolonial methodologies) of how queer and trans people of color generate and share knowledge about their sexual health on Twitter with regards to HIV/AIDS. With a Twitter archive of 15,000 discrete tweets built with the keywords “Truvada,” PrEP,” and “HIV,” three datasets were derived comprising general utterances from queer users of color, public health officials using social media for outreach, and organizations sharing research findings. Focusing on the data subset comprising 300 discrete users of color and relevant media (i.e., news articles, public health advertisements, other emergent artifacts from the data), this dissertation recounts three case studies focusing on: the rollout of HIV prevention advertisements within queer-centered media; the patent breaking of Truvada, a once-daily medication for preventing HIV; and the use of social media to take to task bad actors and misinformed healthcare providers. The data are used as part of an argument that the manner by which medicine and public health interface with queer and trans people of color hinges on ongoing colonization via the medical and outreach practices derived from colonial practices. Moreover, using a theoretical argument derived from Black and Native technology studies (as well as Black Feminist Thought, Anishinaabe cosmology, settler colonial studies, and digital rhetorical theory), the data was reviewed through a protocol for understanding identity construction amid technology use. The results revealed three rhetorical strategies: 1) continuing community-born public health practices created during the HIV/AIDS crisis of the 1980s and 90s by deploying descriptive hashtags to challenge stigma; 2) creating emergent whisper networks for sharing information about dealing with healthcare providers, navigating insurance networks, and communicating the symptoms of taking the medication; and 3) recognizing and countering the complex systems of late capitalist biomedicalization that prioritize profit over life. To contribute to ongoing commitments within writing and rhetoric studies to create equitable healthcare experiences, an HIV/AIDS health literacy framework follows the data results, which allows for outreach in non-clinical settings through relational design, or a participatory communication design process that incorporates community voices via an attunement to social media such as Twitter. This dissertation contributes to ongoing incursions within technical and professional communication, as well as the rhetoric of health and medicine, to upcycle disciplinary savvy into building better public health and clinical experiences for queer and trans people of color. Show less
