Table 3.

Illustrative quotations that demonstrate the structural, social, and individual level motivators of HIV testing

Level	Motivator	Illustrative Quotes from participants
Structural	Increased access to HIV Testing (Convenient testing locations)	“I would say location, because my location where I live is pretty much close to a clinic, so with me being so close to there it was like, aye, why not? If I’m right there, you know, this close to a clinic, why not go and make sure that I’m ok. I have no excuse. I’m literally this close. So, just go get checked.” (Antonio, age 19, HIV negative, using PrEP)
	(Free or low-cost services)	“I like to go to like the gay club as well on the weekends and I get a lot of that information while I’m there. That’s probably the number one source, but a lot of testing at the gay club is free as well. And I will take advantage of that free testing especially around Pride month.” (Lawrence, age 32, HIV negative, on PrEP)
Social	Social Support (informational support)	“My friend is a peer educator when he was in college and he worked with a HIV and AIDS program in Virginia. So a lot of the information that I have with reference to HIV and AIDS comes from him.” (Chris, age 29, HIV negative, not using PrEP)
	(instrumental support)	“I had a friend of mine who actually kind of showed me how to do the rapid mouth swab HIV testing, and he was very charismatic. He’s very friendly and very approachable. And even people who I had heard, oh yeah, I’d rather not know. He would test them and they would get tested just because it’s like, okay.” (Ricky, age 22, HIV-negative, not using PrEP)
Individual	Health Maintenance	“I just like to stay up to date on my status. I go every 3 months. Um, that’s usually what I do. I just like to stay in the know. And I like to know the community. I like to know the stats for the gay Black men. It’s so drastic, so I’m just trying to do whatever I need to do.” (Preston, age 23, HIV negative, using PrEP)
	Signs and symptoms of infection	“The discharge, and the sh*t burning when I pee. That was the biggest thing right there, and just knowing that I got something that’s not right. Like I got discharge going on, I need to go get tested, I need to go get treated. You know a lot of times people, I feel like ignorant people they may have discharge and they kind of just say “oh yea that’s just that.” Not realizing that you probably just contracted something and you need to go get tested. So that was my main motive.” (Will, age 27, HIV negative, not using PrEP)
	High risk sexual risk behaviors	“So I guess it goes back to that unsafe practices when I would probably 21 or 22. I did get tested a lot because I wasn’t having safe sex, for lack of a better word. And now I only get tested maybe once or twice a year, the twice being at those different prides or different big club events with the LBGT community where they are giving out free testing. I do it because my friend is going to be doing it. There’s just the support then.” (Tyus, age 33, HIV negative, not using PrEP)
	Fear of not knowing HIV status	“I get tested because of the symptoms and what it can do to your body in the future. And, uh, it would just be to prevent it. Because you know I don’t want to have any of the symptoms that come with HIV and other STDs, you know, when it comes to relationships, I don’t want to have that extra baggage. I think about the long-term rather than the short-term.”