Objectives. To synthesize discussions among sexual minority men and gender diverse (SMMGD) individuals on mpox, given limited representation of SMMGD voices in existing mpox literature. Methods. BERTopic (a topic modeling technique) was employed with human validations to analyze mpox-related tweets (n = 8,688; October 2020-September 2022) from 2,326 self-identified SMMGD individuals in the U.S.; followed by content analysis and geographic analysis. Results. BERTopic identified 11 topics: health activism (29.81%); mpox vaccination (25.81%) and adverse events (0.98%); sarcasm, jokes, emotional expressions (14.04%); COVID-19 and mpox (7.32%); government/public health response (6.12%); mpox symptoms (2.74%); case reports (2.21%); puns on the virus' naming (i.e., monkeypox; 0.86%); media publicity (0.68%); mpox in children (0.67%). Mpox health activism negatively correlated with LGB social climate index at U.S. state level, ρ = -0.322, p = 0.031. Conclusions. SMMGD discussions on mpox encompassed utilitarian (e.g., vaccine access, case reports, mpox symptoms) and emotionally-charged themes, advocating against homophobia, misinformation, and stigma. Mpox health activism was more prevalent in states with lower LGB social acceptance. Public Health Implications. Findings illuminate SMMGD engagement with mpox discourse, underscoring the need for more inclusive health communication strategies in infectious disease outbreaks to control associated stigma.

Dr. Graciela Gonzalez-Hernandez is a consultant for F. Hoffmann-La Roche AG (Basel, Switzerland), where she mentors a postdoctoral researcher affiliated with Roche. Dr. Robin Stevens is a consultant for Meta, where she works with the product team in advising and training. Dr. Carl Berdahl has received consulting fees and/or salary support from VisualDx and Infotechsoft, Inc. Other authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Research reported in this work was partially supported by the National Library of Medicine of the National Institutes of Health under award number R01LM011176. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

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