Who Gets to Be a #TruvadaWhore

In 2012 the FDA’s approval of Truvada as a type of HIV preventative health care (PrEP) generated a considerable amount of criticism. This discourse was exemplified by the #TruvadaWhore campaign, in which gay men used the hashtag to reclaim this derogatory term and made information on PrEP more accessible. Although this campaign is queer in its rejection of heteronormative logics, it also highlights the limitations of queer identity politics. The #TruvadaWhore campaign masks differences of power and privilege among MSM. It presumed that a critique of slut shaming could function universally across race, despite the racial myths about Black hypersexuality that have existed throughout modernity, and undergird the ongoing regulation of Black bodies, both queer and straight. Ultimately, this article calls for a queering and reimagining of such activism as an intersectional and coalitional project through an exploration of the question: who gets to be a #TruvadaWhore?