Introduction: Young Black sexual minority men represent a high priority population for HIV prevention research yet the existing literature is not proportional to the current health disparity observed. The challenge of engaging this intersectional population in research on a stigmatized topic likely contributes to the dearth of literature. Methods: This brief report examines the current recruitment strategies for engaging sexual minority men in HIV-related research and identiies individual and system-level barriers that contribute to the underrepresentation of Black sexual minority men in HIV-related research. Qualitative data is integrated from Project HATCH (Helping African American Teens Combat HIV), an ongoing recruitment effort of 14-21-year-old Black sexual minority men in Washington D.C., United States. Results: Identiied barriers to recruiting young Black sexual minority men include cultural stigma, mistrust of research institutions, the 'coming out' process for queer youth, assent procedures for youth, and others. Conclusions: We propose several solutions for recruitment including geospatial technology, social media, and community spaces of trust (i.e., churches and schools). Additional larger scale solutions include destigmatizing youths' sexuality and prioritizing the advancement of Black scholars in academia and research endeavors.Young Black sexual minority men (i.e., non-heterosexual adolescents and young adults) face a disproportionate HIV risk (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2019;Pellowski et al., 2013) and the relative dearth of research on these men contributes to this disparity (Barnett et al., 2019). The methodological challenges to recruiting this population are complex and underdiscussed (Fields et al., 2016). In this brief report we summarize current recruitment strategies for sexual minority men and discuss barriers and solutions to recruiting young Black sexual minority men in the United States.
Recruitment strategies for sexual minority menTraditional venue-based sampling (i.e., gay bars and organizations) and snowball sampling methods have been common strategies to recruit sexual minority men, but often obtain samples with an over-representation of adult white sexual minority men. More recent * Corresponding author.