MSM at ICAAP 2009 - special report and content review

Click here for A Special Report on MSM at ICAAP 9 from AIDS Projects Management Group. This content review provides detailed transcripts of speeches at main symposiums and oral presentations a well as reports on posters presented . The 9th International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific (ICAAP), was held in Bali, Indonesia from 9-13 August 2009. The theme for this ICAAP was 'Empowering People, Strengthening Networks".

MSM in most countries in this region are highly vulnerable. 20 of the countries here criminalize sex between men and that is a situation I grew up in, in Australia. I grew up in that situation and it makes you feel like you have second class status and it means marginalized groups can exist outside the messages of society and those messages that aim to protect them. So many will not put it [being MSM] out on the table and they will keep it to themselves. And yet by not bringing it out and by not being open about sexuality the reality is that MSM conspire in the attitudes of society toward them. If only every person who was gay identifying or MSM stood up in society – if they all stood up the whole shabby and dishonorable strategy to denigrate and put them outside the family would be over.

Read the entire post, and access related presentations.