Traditional Leaders challenged to actively participate in the fight against HIV

Via Safaids.net

Traditional leaders from southern Africa have been challenged to play an active role in the fight against HIV for the region to achieve zero new infections, zero discrimination and zero AIDS related deaths.

This was said by the Executive Director of SAfAIDS, Mrs Lois Chingandu at the Regional Traditional Leadership Rock Indaba-50 x 15 Prevention Movement being held in Johannesburg from 12-14 April 2011.

Mrs Chingandu challenged traditional leaders to move from being actors where they are often invited to officially open HIV events and be actively involved in the fight against the epidemic.

Excerpt:

“As chiefs, you must tell yourself that I want zero new infections in my village. This can only happen if you know the epidemic, start to openly talk about sex and encourage your community members to go for HIV tests. This should start with you.....We found that the African epidemic had something to do with our culture. As much as we love our culture, it is important for our culture to protect us. We found some practices that were not protecting us but putting us at risk, for example wife inheritance. We are therefore working with traditional leaders to find ways of how we can practice our culture, without exposing ourselves to HIV infection”.

She stressed the importance for traditional leaders to model the behaviours they are promoting as they can’t encourage others to change their behaviour whilst they are having multiple partners.


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[If an item is not written by an IRMA member, it should not be construed that IRMA has taken a position on the article's content, whether in support or in opposition.]

UN pushes for de-criminalization of sexual orientations

via UN News Centre

“No one, regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity, should be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. No one should be prosecuted for their ideas or beliefs. No one should be punished for exercising their right to freedom of expression.”

Top United Nations officials today appealed to all countries that criminalize people on the basis of their sexual orientation or gender identity to reform such laws and to ensure the protection of basic human rights for all.

“No doubt deeply-rooted cultural sensitivities can be aroused when we talk about sexual orientation. Social attitudes run deep and take time to change. But cultural considerations should not stand in the way of basic human rights,” said Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

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Sexual variation in India: A view from the west

via Indian Journal of Psychiatry, by Gurvinder Kalra, Susham Gupta and Dinesh Bhugra

Sexual variation has been reported across cultures for millenia. Sexual variation deals with those facets of sexual behavior which are not necessarily pathological. It is any given culture that defines what is abnormal and what is deviant. In scriptures, literature and poetry in India same sex love has been described and explained in a number of ways. In this paper we highlight homosexual behavior and the role of hijras in the Indian society, amont other variations. These are not mental illnesses and these individuals are not mentally ill. Hence the role of psychiatry and psychiatrists has to be re-evaluated. Attitudes of the society and the individual clinicians may stigmatize these individuals and their behavior patterns. Indian psychiatry in recent time has made some progress in this field in challenging attitudes, but more needs to be done itn the 21st century. We review the evidence and the existing literature.

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Nigeria: HIV - Stakeholders Want Prevention to Take Centre Stage

via VANGUARD, by Chinyere Amalu

"If we don't have correct information to prevent the spread of the virus, there is no way the nation could move forward in tackling the scourge. If we do not do something urgent about taking messages of prevention to the rural communities, we are wasting our time", -Prof. John Idoko

The 4-day conference, which was organized by Network for HIV & AIDS Research in Nigeria (NARN) in partnership with the National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA), with support from the United Nations system, the US Government, other developmental partners and civil society organisations believed that if prevention is prioritised, the spread of HIV would be controlled to the barest minimum.

According to Prof. Dennis Ityavyar, "Cultural practices have a fundamental role to play in HIV prevention, Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission (PMTCT) and male involvement in reproductive health services. A number of commonly observed traditional practices are now recognized as being directly responsible for the spread of HIV & AIDS".

 

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Catholics and Condoms: Why What the Pope Says Matters

via The Body, by Jon O'Brien

During his 2009 trip to Cameroon, a country with an HIV prevalence rate of over 5%, Pope Benedict XVI made a shocking assertion on condom use to prevent HIV. He told reporters, "You can't resolve it with the distribution of condoms. On the contrary, it increases the problem."

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Should we care about MSMs?

via Jamaica BSERVER, by Patricia Watson

"The threats of criminal indictment and socio-religious discrimination against man-to-man sexual relationships have contributed to the increased vulnerability of MSMs to HIV," said Cruickshank.

 "Consequent to such discrimination, many MSMs are afraid of going to a pharmacy to purchase condoms and personal lubricant which are sometimes so precariously placed close to the cashier, in full view of other customers. Hence, negotiation of safe sex becomes seriously compromised."

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Hostility, not homosexuality, flies in the face of true Koranic teachings

via Fridae, by Bramantyo Prijosusilo

The recent cancellation of a planned Asian-wide conference of gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender people in Surabaya reveals how far our society is from respecting human rights — and how close it is to slipping into religious fascism, writes Bramantyo Prijosusilo.

The police, who had earlier issued a permit — which is not really required by law — chose to bow down to Islamo-fascist groups such as the notorious thugs known as the Islam Defenders Front (FPI), who stormed hotels where they thought delegates of the conference were staying on Friday and demanded that all non-heterosexuals leave Surabaya. Reading journalists’ reports on the commotion and comments on news Web sites and on Facebook walls, it is obvious that any sexual orientation other than hetero is widely believed to be an illness that is contagious and immoral. Homophobia is alive and well in Indonesia.

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Right-Wingers Give Limbaugh's Anal Sex References A Pass

via Huffington Post, by Terry Krepel

Media Research Center chief Brent Bozell is, to put it succinctly, not a fan of anal sex:

-- In 2006, he complained that at a Comedy Central roast for William Shatner, "the audience was buried in man-on-man anal-sex and oral-sex jokes."

-- In 2008, he was offended that the ABC show "Ugly Betty" includes "catty references" to, among other things, "anal sex."

-- On March 13, he bashed "Family Guy": "This Jesus-bashing is offensive, but it isn't so surprising - it's a 'Family Guy' staple. Now add the allusions to anal penetration and we're on another trip down Grossout Lane."

WorldNetDaily feels much the same way on the issue. It has criticized Wikipedia for including a "photo of two nude men having anal sex on a bed," bashed Spencer Gifts for carrying "pornaments" that "graphically depict anal intercourse between a snowman and a bare-breasted 'snowwoman,'" disapproved of the Wal-Mart website selling a book that "gives explicit instructions for engaging in oral or anal sexual acts," and denounced the movie "Brokeback Mountain" for depicting characters who "awkwardly and violently engage in anal sex." WND founder and editor Joseph Farah even asks: "Isn't it time to make anal sex taboo, again?"

Bozell and WND have thus clearly established their opposition to references to anal sex in the media and popular culture. So why do they give Rush Limbaugh a pass for making those very same "allusions to anal penetration"?

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The ever-evolving sexual revolution

A brief cultural
history of sex
via The Independent

Some things never change but sex isn't one of them. Marcus Field looks back on some surprising episodes in the centuries-long evolution of Western sexual attitudes, from the ancient Greeks to the present day

Let's start with the Greeks

Aphrodisiac, eroticism, homosexuality, narcissism, nymphomania, pederasty all these terms are derived from the language of ancient Greece which tells you something about its society. The myths of Homer and Plutarch told stories such as that of Aphrodite, goddess of sexual intercourse, who emerged from the foaming semen of her father's castrated testicles. Then there were the mortal heroes such as Hercules, who it is said ravished 50 virgins in a single night, but who also had an affair with his nephew Iolaus and fell in love with "sweet Hylas, he of the curling locks".

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"What’s in a name? Working with male-male sexualities, masculinities"

Save the date: IRMA's Next Global Teleconference

You are invited to join IRMA for:

What’s in a name? Working with male-male sexualities, masculinities and genders in South Asia

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

with Shivananda Khan
Chief Executive, Naz Foundation International

Location/Time:
Kuala Lumpur - 10:00 PM
New Delhi, Lucknow - 7:30 PM
Kampala - 4:00 PM
Brussels - 3:00 PM
UTC (GMT) - 2:00 PM
Chicago, Lima - 9:00 AM
Los Angeles, Seattle - 7:00 AM

You must RSVP for this call. Please RSVP by e-mailing Liudmyla Dmytriieva. We will send out dial-in instructions to all RSVPs in advance of the call.Many thanks to IRMA Secretariat AIDS Foundation of Chicago for providing resources for this call. Presentation slides will be made available here.

Description:
Naz Foundation International provides technical support and assistance to low income “MSM” groups, networks and collectivities in the South Asia region to enable them to develop their own self-help organising around HIV prevention, treatment, care and support services.

The socio-cultural frameworks of male-male sexualities in this region and amongst low income populations are primarily based on gender and penetrative performance rather than sexual orientation and a “gay” identity. That is, the penetrating partner perceives himself as a ‘normative’ man, while the person he is penetrating is perceived as a “not-man”. This gendered system is also often internalised by the penetrated partner. In this we have a trinary system of gender: man, ‘not-man’ and woman. Those that fall into the category of ‘not-man’ are so called “beardless youth” primarily in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and feminised males who identify with their feminisation.Further in this region, religion (particularly Islam) and socially compulsory marriage are major factors in the dynamics, risks and vulnerabilities of self-identified MSM and their partners.

Another point to recognise is that for many males/men in the region, male-to-male sex is not defined as sex, but as “mischief”. Sex is only vaginal sex. Stigma, discrimination and violence then is directed as those feminised males, not so much because of their sexual practices, but because of their femininity. At the same time sexual debut of feminised males tends towards an earlier than masculine males.

There are emerging networks of gay-identified men (in the Western sense), but these are primarily in major urban areas among English speaking, middle class populations, and are a minority amongst the diversity of male-to-male sexualities in the region.Developing appropriate HIV services then is dependent on a better understanding of male-male sexualities based on gender performance and age structure, and a recognition that their partners tend to be men from the general male population.

For more info on Naz Foundation International, please visit their website.

Aids Sutra: Untold Stories from India

Some of India's best-known writers have come together in a unique anthology of writing which tells the human stories behind HIV/Aids in the country.

India has one of the largest numbers of HIV-positive people in the world and they suffer serious social stigma.

Aids Sutra: Untold Stories from India has been published in collaboration with Avahan, the India Aids initiative of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, a leading HIV prevention project.

Roughly $2 from the proceeds of each book sold will go to support children affected by HIV/Aids in cities which have a high prevalence of the disease.

For the project, 16 writers travelled across the country to talk to housewives, vigilantes, homosexuals, drug addicts, policemen and sex workers - and served up engaging essays on the disease and its fallout in India.

They include Booker Prize-winners Sir Salman Rushdie and Kiran Desai; Vikram Seth, the celebrated author of A Suitable Boy; and internationally-acclaimed writer and historian William Dalrymple.

Other contributors include novelist Amit Chaudhuri, leading Bengali writer Sunil Gangopadhyay, historian-writer Mukul Kesavan and popular novelist Shobhaa De.

"This [anthology] is a huge achievement... it is critically important to recognise that the Aids epidemic is primarily a crisis of human lives... We are in it together," says Nobel Prize-winning economist Amartya Sen in the foreword.

The range of essays is truly impressive.

Sir Salman, for example, spends a day with eunuchs in the western city of Mumbai (Bombay) to write up a piece called The Half-Woman God.

"India has always understood androgyny, the man in the woman's body, the woman in the man's. Yet... the third gender of India still need our understanding, and our help," he says.

Read the rest on the BBC.

Aids Sutra is published in the US and UK by Anchor Books and Vintage respectively, and in India by Random House India.