Just Call Me Dylan

by Mike Peters
IRMA Intern

 Recently on the highly-active IRMA listserv we discussed the issue of "gay shame" and the increased depression, substance abuse, and suicidal tendencies that go along with that notion.  The original posting had to do with a sense of internalized homophobia within the gay community.  While members of our listserv debated the accuracy of the author's claims we questioned the author's own sense of internalized homophobia, the systemic nature of addiction and mental health, and how sexual health is packaged to the gay community, I felt conflicted about my own feelings on this piece.

Heterosexism is a systemic reality in many of our various social settings that each of us faces from time-to-time, and I can understand the sense of internalized homophobia.  It stands to reason that if we are socialized in a society that is systemically heterosexist, then the coming out process is not only a social endeavor but it also has to do with deconstructing one's own understanding of their self within the heterosexist system.  Perhaps a story will best illustrate this complicated notion.

While my previous blog post had to do with openly discussing anal sex with the soon-to-be in-laws, I can admittedly say that I have not always been the "open, silence-breaking feminist" that I am today.  I grew up in a small, conservative Ohio city in a religious household.  My parents are Christians of the Protestant, evangelical variety so there was very little discussion of sexuality outside the realm of heterosexual procreative norms.  That is to say, my brother and I were raised to be manly, upstanding Christian men that would make faithful husbands, providers, and fathers.  While my brother was much more interested in the typically "male past times" like baseball and martial arts courses, I was much more interested in drawing, photography, cooking, and swimming – so most of my parents' time was spent invested in my brothers activities as I spent more time drawing alone in the basement.  I was certainly a quiet child and would occasionally confide in my mother about my feelings, but was very fearful of upsetting my father.  Yes, stark contrast to the talkative activist of today.

By the time I had reached adolescence, I knew that I liked guys.  I didn't quite understand it and certainly couldn't talk to my parents because I thought that it was wrong.  I had heard my father talk about gays and lesbians before, describing them as "disgusting" and people that "should be dragged out into the streets and shot", so my fears were well-founded.  Plus, the images of homosexual men that I had seen, as discussed by my father and the church, presented them as promiscuous drunks that were only interested in sex and nothing substantial – they were something to avoid and be afraid of.  Things got even more difficult for me as I started to have feelings for another boy.  He ran cross country, so I joined the team to be around him.  We became quick friends and soon I learned that his home environment was very similar to mine, so it was nice to have someone that I could relate to.  We started to hang out with each other outside of cross country practice and soon I found out that he had feelings for me as well.  Neither of us really knew what to do with these feelings, so we dated secretly as we tried to understand ourselves.  We were conflicted, our families and respective church bodies had certainly hammered a less-than-favorable image of homosexuals into our minds and we didn't want to be like those images.  In fact, neither of us could even vocalize a simple "I am gay" out loud, because we just couldn't bring ourselves to that.  We just liked each other, that's not "gay"… we were just two guys that liked each other, that's it – at least that was how we tried to understand ourselves.

Perhaps I was a more daring teenager than my boyfriend, but when I was nearing the end of my sophomore year of high school and on the verge of turning sixteen, I decided that I wanted to start to feel connected to the gay community.  The problem was that my and his understanding of the gay community was that they were all bar-hopping, promiscuous folks, but I wanted to experience that.  He wanted nothing to do with it, so without his knowing I obtained a fake ID that said I was eighteen and gave me the fake name "Dylan Sanders".  Immediately I started going to the hole-in-the-wall gay bar downtown so I could go and dance.  I was a terribly awkward teenager, and I know that I couldn't dance to save my life, but I wanted to be a part of the gay community, so I figured that I would learn.  Soon I found myself getting free drinks from all kinds of guys and dancing for tips and under-the-table payments.  Honestly, I didn't like that I was going out and drinking so much, but I felt like that is what I had to do to be a part of the gay community – so I kept going and drinking down my feelings.  During my junior year of high school I started showing up to school hung over and attempting to do assignments for classes in the class before it was due.  Obviously, my grades were slipping and I continued to get more distant from my family.  My relationship with my boyfriend was getting more strained because he wasn't interested in going out to the bar.  We both were unhealthily assuming that to be gay we had to go out and drink and engage in other illicit activities, I was drinking dangerous amounts of alcohol and he was bottling up all of his emotions.  Even though we were following different paths, both of us continued to feel more and more conflicted about who we were and therefore more and more depressed.

This story continues, and it continues to a much darker place which is perhaps a story for another day.  But the original point still remains – our understanding of the gay community was that of the commonly-used stereotype that portrays the gay community as promiscuous drunks that engage in risky behaviors.  Truly, I spent my teenage years engaging in some incredibly risky behaviors and hated nearly every second of it.  I engaged in these behaviors because I felt that that is who I had to be to be gay and assumed that all gay men were just like that.  Plenty of heterosexual people enjoy all those behaviors, but we don't assume that all heterosexuals are dangerous, promiscuous deviants.  Now, I am not saying that going out, having drinks, and dancing is wrong – if that's what you're into, then that's fine.  But that certainly wasn't for me.  However, when all people are cast into a light that portrays them all as deviant others, then those people are robbed of their subjectivity and become objects.  This is where the power of the systemic reality of heterosexism comes into play.  My own internalized sense of homophobia and stereotyping led me to believe that to be gay I had to be someone that I wasn't.  In an effort to become the proud gay man that I am today I had to deconstruct the notion that all gay men liked to drink and party and that was tough for me to do as that was the only image I ever had.  Did I feel ashamed of the behaviors I was engaging in?  Yes, but that's because it wasn't what I liked to do but what I felt that I had to do.  Perhaps the roots of "gay shame" weave a much more complicated relationship between the self and larger systemic heterosexism.  If the images of gay men that I had seen growing up had been different, even if my father and church continued to say such negative things, perhaps I would have known sooner that they were wrong about LGBT people and perhaps that would have spared me so much heartache that I, in turn, internalized as what being gay meant.

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*Join IRMA's robust, highly-active. moderated, global listserv addressing rectal microbicide research and advocacy as well as other interesting new HIV prevention technologies by contacting us at rectalmicro@gmail.com. Joining our listserv automatically makes you a member of IRMA - a network of more than 1,100 advocates, scientists, policy makers and funders from all over the world.

*Please look for us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/InternationalRectalMicrobicideAdvocates, and you can follow us on Twitter: @rectalmicro.

*Also, please note that shared news items from other sources posted on this blog do not necessarily mean IRMA has taken any position on the article's content.

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Legal barriers and stereotypes block care services for same sex couples

[Citizen News Service and IRMA are collaborating to amplify rectal microbicide research and advocacy, as well as IRMA-led initiatives, throughout AIDS 2012, and after.]

via Citizen News Service, by Jittima Jantanamalaka

Despite alarming HIV rates amongst the men who have sex with men (MSM) and transgender people, many countries, community leaders, media and society at large continue to hold discriminating stereotypes against them. "Punitive laws will drive MSM and transgender populations underground" rightly said Aradhana Johri of Department of AIDS Control, Government of India. In US alone, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report, although Black American MSM people represent only 13 percent of the US population but they account for about 44 percent of the new HIV infections particularly among those aged 13 -19.

Unless we protect the rights of same sex couples to live a life of dignity, and discourage those who are judgemental about their same sex behaviour, not only we will fail to reduce stigma and discrimination associated with HIV and same sex behaviour, but also fuel homophobia and negative perceptions about HIV testing. People will continue to choose to hide their high-risk behaviour and not seek counseling and testing for HIV and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs).

Read the rest.


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*Join IRMA's robust, highly-active. moderated, global listserv addressing rectal microbicide research and advocacy as well as other interesting new HIV prevention technologies by contacting us at rectalmicro@gmail.com. Joining our listserv automatically makes you a member of IRMA - a network of more than 1,100 advocates, scientists, policy makers and funders from all over the world.

*Please look for us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/InternationalRectalMicrobicideAdvocates, and you can follow us on Twitter: @rectalmicro.

*Also, please note that shared news items from other sources posted on this blog do not necessarily mean IRMA has taken any position on the article's content.
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Battling on Behalf of Gay, Lesbians and Other Sexual Minorities: A Frontline Experience from Uganda

by Anonymous (an IRMA member from Uganda)

Are you aware you are abetting “homosexuality” in Uganda?

Our grass-root takes us among “most at risk populations”-MARPs. The day dawned normally as a carry-over from the previous weekend spent visiting 7 scheduled gay men living with HIV.

Come 8th March 2012 and another anonymous phone call. This time a lady claiming she sells insurance policy calling to meet over a policy I need to have! This was the 17th anonymous phone call I had received since 1st March 2012. Others were of people calling from different parts of Uganda. One ominous one intimated on why am helping people who don’t deserve aiding. This one was at night. I dismissed it as a hoax.

But, on 8th March 2012 I get the call that changed the way I do my grass-root work. I was asked to report to CID (Criminal Investigation Directorate) headquarters for matters concerning our organisation.

I left Uganda and went to a next door country where I stayed up to end of April 2012. How I survived while there is another story too.

My argument is that we need to show the good in all. And this is the mission we pursue. I don’t deny being vocal and instrumental in bringing about visibility of issues of: MSM, Sexual minorities, Long Distance Truckers, substance users, Fisher folk, discordant couples, persons in long term relations and mobile populations. I have helped document this kind of work and it has been the basis of my presentations during consultative meetings on MARPs. This kind of work was first done privately and goes back to 2004. I took up positions with the Ministry of Health-Uganda and have been involved in planning programmes targeting MARPs. After applying and waiting for 4 years our NGO was finally registered in 2011 and have since mobilized grass-root groups to focus on vigilance/ resilience plans.

There has been so much talk on prevention but less on what works among/for MARPs. The Rights agenda has done so much to lay bear action points. With these groups it has been possible to show that MARPs face disproportionate treatment and access. We have improved on their competence and overall sensitivity to issues. They are trained to address issues and overcome them using small steps and participatory planning. It has been possible to disaggregate efforts according to various categories MARPs (MSM, other sexual minorities Sex-workers, Substance users, Fisher-folk, Truckers, PLHIV and couples).

 This is what I have written about consistently for past 3 years. And all this is shared on: www.marpsinuganda.org.

MEETING CID PEOPLE:

I wish to share with you my story as I gave it during the 2 sessions I had with the CID guys. I hope this case which is given as a narrative and retrospectively will help show what activists experience in Uganda. It is about my work and how much I endeavoured to posit the angle of health programming. It is not easy to provide services to those who need especially if they are labeled as undesirables. But, this is a calling that if unanswered may lead to further injustices. I fear for being outed as a “chief recruiter” as I go about my work of treating and doing anti-HIV programmes among at risk populations. There is this battle of egos. I see myself as a public health activist and yet my interrogators and officials from government see me as a “recruiter” climaxing into closure of meetings, denial of safe spaces, fear of de-licensing NGOs, arbitrary detentions and summons to police.

The experience of being hounded by security operatives is un-nerving, un-settling and demotivating. I was asked to go to the CID to report myself because am known to work with MARPs. I at first was scared and had to call two friends for advice: one is part of the high powered state security team and another is our organisation lawyer. These two told me to go and meet the CID but before doing that I first called the person who called me (a one Byakagaba). I told Byakagaba about the security person. This softened my landing immensely. I called him to ask to be given an orientation on what we had to meet about. We negotiated a safer neutral place and he obliged. We later met a bigger team of interrogators at 3 pm up to around 9.30 pm. I think I saw a face of one person we met in two meetings at Protea and during the Uganda Human Rights Commission public hearing on the Anti-Gay Bill.

I remember this person could be the face I recall of one who followed me to the Protea washrooms and asked me why I take time to “help” the homosexuals. I was asked so many questions and many of them repeatedly. I want to share them.

Below are some of the questions that were asked. I want to present to you the questions I recall being asked of me and perhaps that will also give you a perspective of things:

Are you aware you are abetting “homosexuality” in Uganda?

1. Why do you recruit?

2. Who do you recruit? ( In the car to check offices/ resource center)

3. Why do you help?

4. Is everything on these 2 desk tops?

5. Who provides money for all the equipments in your office?

6. Why is your office/resource center in a walled off perimeter?

7. Why did you pay rent, electricity, water bills for a full year? (After going through all filed reports in our filing cabinets)

8. Who else is helping you?

9. How come you have a website?

10. Why is there even any work done among the “homosexuals”?

11. How large are those networks?

12. Why do you help them organize?

13. How much commission do you get from facilitating them (actually said helping)?

14. Why do you treat them?

15. What age group is commonly seen?

16. Where do most meet for recreation?

17. Your neighbours complain of loud noise. Why?

18. Who pays for all the activities?

19. Who come to your resource center?

20. Are there some who spend nights?

21. How many weddings have you conducted here?

22. Why are your phone numbers always busy?

23. Who pays for your airtime?

24. Why do you make it a point to bring out issues of “homosexuals”?

25. Who are MARPs?

26. Why do you sacrifice so much for “them”? ( Towards end of first session at around 8.30 pm)

27. How many have you helped? ( This was another burly faced individual who was looking at me with a very mean and intimidating look).

28. Do you use your position to recruit?

I noticed the desire to label, I noticed the conclusions made around serving the marginalised and noticed the lackadaisical tendencies of the security personnel that already deny one due diligence and attendance even as one who is thought/perceived to be a ‘homosexual’.

In order to get out of this quandary, I asked to be let off with what I was told as we were in the car being driven back for interrogations from our organization offices. Our organisation has consistently been run using our own money. We have come so far and we do not want to stop this work. I did negotiate my temporary freedom and the next day had to leave Uganda. I still wonder at the fate of what they took from our offices. I believe they are now using our two new desk tops for their cafes or have sold them off. I did manage to talk to my captors. I was told to move somewhere for quite some time until issues cool off.

They had suggested 6 months and beyond as opposed to being exiled to a far away off place away from Kampala and my work. I left Uganda with only have a shirt, pair of trousers, a data USB with all sensitive information and my travel bag.

In all this I learnt one big lesson and that is: we need to have the argument of HIV broken down as resilience activities.

These are what we need to document further and share with panels be they the CID! We need to document vigilance and how we, in our efforts actually mobilise, trace, follow up people and that way we are able to identify those with HIV! HIV at grass-root means: being in position to conduct anti-HIV activities; identifying those suffering; remedying the suffering by talking to them to know their needs; integrating psyche-social, sexual health, mental health; preventing abuses, violations, discrimination and stigma and; economic empowerment of those in need.

The individuals, clubs, groups and organisations are an asset and not a liability. I risked lecturing my interrogators but I cannot know where that courage came from and talking reason humbles even the gun-strapping-hand-cuff swinging arms! The use of the word “recruitment” is so common among criminal systems it is also used to relate to the Al-Shabbab issues. People are imagining penetrating “cells” of recruitment with all connotations attached. There should be a clear action point on bringing out health, human rights and development matters of marginalized based on evidence. This is possible.

Let us discourage actions or events that are lacking in integration of health, human rights and development.

 

I FLEE UGANDA:

I approached a human rights defenders’ support organisation and was extended USD 1,000 and a return air ticket to a country of temporary refuge. I had a government salaried job which I had to to leave, home and organization built out of sweat. While in refuge I tried the refuge and asylum seeking procedures. I went to organisations which in turn referred me to other organisations. We had to wait for outcomes. I understand there were so much back and forth consultations and in the long run no support was provided for my further stay during refuge.

I LOOK FOR WORK TO SURVIVE:

After two weeks I run out of money. I decided to do some work pro-bono around treating “marginalized” or training them in health/vigilance/resilience planning integration skills. A friend introduced me to another friend who runs a chronic care center and there I did some volunteer work. I would stay in a nurses’ station and use the washrooms. This place is near the capital city of the country I had taken refuge in. I enrolled for volunteer work during weekends and was fortunate that there were health camps scheduled in the various peoples’ spaces. I was given short contracts in health counselling at the various stations and other activities. I would in turn get a meal and continued social interactions. However, on 27th April 2012, I developed severe malaria which I treated and with some little money I had saved decided to leave for Uganda. I stayed around a border town up to 25th May 2012. I later left under the cover of darkness for our organisation address. I met with friends who lived nearby and managed to get first had intelligence about the affairs of our organisation and the fate awaiting us.

LANDLORD EVICTS US:

Our offices were in a double house turned office and our landlord had got wind of the CID house search in May 2012. He immediately asked us to leave his premises because we were promoting homosexuality according to word going around. In order to get safe passage, I went to police and got two escorts to guard us as we were moving property. We had to get another place where it was safer.

COMMENTS FROM THE NEIGBOURHOOD:

We located our offices in a suburb where most Kampala population has their homes. The various families and residents ganged together and complained to local leaders to have us evicted. There was so much pressure towards our landlord to have us out of the place. We even had graffiti written all over our perimeter wall. We left the premises at night and managed to avoid media.

WHAT WE ARE DOING NOW:

This is July 2012 and we have a smaller place, have managed to attach 170 people living with HIV to Uganda government ARV-accredited facilities. We have approached 112 CBOs and referred all our clients to them for chronic care support. We have managed to conduct a major training for the leaders of 52 groups under our society to take on more organisational roles to avoid so much exposure as people drop into our resource center. We have closed down the transitory home where we would give refuge to evicted marginalised persons. We have had this since 2008. We have joined the bigger networks and have paid membership dues. Such bigger networks include: Uganda National AIDS network; Uganda Health Sciences Association; Uganda National Academy of Science and; Microbicide Trial Network under the Makerere-Johns Hopkins Collaboration. The idea is to engage more with policy. Programmes have been left with the groups which we shall monitor progressively. Another crucial issue is to mobilise resources to enable our organisation move on. We have established a resource mobilisation desk which I head.

APPEAL:

Friends, allies and well-wishers should realize that Africa has a vast number of activists, many of whom have not been exposed through meetings at local or international levels. There are activists bound by professional ethics not to disclose so much information about their work especially if it concerns health conditions. There are activists using music, dance and drama to convey messages of tolerance and interventions. Many have not been thanked nor are they supported by funds from external sources. These activists deserve our appreciation.

It is my hope that the Global North will one day reach out to these un-sung activists who are using all resources to make the life of many marginalised bearable.

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*Join IRMA's robust, highly-active. moderated, global listserv addressing rectal microbicide research and advocacy as well as other interesting new HIV prevention technologies by contacting us at rectalmicro@gmail.com. Joining our listserv automatically makes you a member of IRMA - a network of more than 1,100 advocates, scientists, policy makers and funders from all over the world.

*Please look for us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/InternationalRectalMicrobicideAdvocates, and you can follow us on Twitter: @rectalmicro.

*Also, please note that shared news items from other sources posted on this blog do not necessarily mean IRMA has taken any position on the article's content.

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Series of Policy Briefs Summarize the Impact Legal Environments Have on Equality

via Asia Pacific Coalition on Male Sexual Health

On this day, to commemorate the International Day Against Homo and Trans phobia (IDAHO), the Asia Pacific Coalition on Male Sexual Health (APCOM) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Asia-Pacific Regional Centre launch a series of policy briefs to provide a summary of how legal environments can actually be barriers to equality for men who have sex with men (MSM) and transgender people. A recent joint collaboration by APCOM and UNDP resulted in the ground-breaking study, Legal environments, human rights and HIV responses among men who sex with men and transgender people in Asia and the Pacific: An agenda for action, which looks at the impact of legal environments on HIV responses among MSM and transgender people in 48 countries and territories in Asia and the Pacific.

“APCOM is pleased to release these four papers today covering East Asia, Pacific, South Asia and Southeast Asia,” said Midnight Poonkasetwattana, Executive Director of APCOM, “The policy briefs highlight experiences that result in a range of negative consequences for example getting in the way of prevention work, reducing uptake and access to critical services, and increases in high-risk behaviours as well.”

The briefs detail the legality of male-to-male sex, punitive law enforcement practices, laws relating to discrimination, legality of transgender people and same sex relationships. For example, the legal environment in East Asia is generally more protective of human rights of MSM and transgender people, yet in the Pacific male-to-male sex is illegal in nine of the 24 countries and territories. Four countries in Southeast Asia (Brunei, Malaysia, Myanmar and Singapore) have criminal sanctions for consensual sex between adult men due to a laws keep on the books while each were under British colonial rule; in South Asia, however, in the National Capital Territory of India (Delhi) and Nepal, courts have taken decisions to decriminalise male to male sex between consenting adults.

“UNDP and APCOM recognise that urgent action is required as MSM and transgender people are critical populations in the response to HIV in Asia and the Pacific,” noted Edmund Settle, HIV Policy Specialist, UNDP Asia Pacific Regional Centre. “Legal environments comprise not just written laws, but also the actual practices of law enforcement and legal institutions with anecdotal evidence from the briefs demonstrating incidence of police harassment, blackmail, extortion and violence. Legal environments that are protective and empowering should be promoted.”


Read the Rest.


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*Join IRMA's robust, highly-active. moderated, global listserv addressing rectal microbicide research and advocacy as well as other interesting new HIV prevention technologies by contacting us at rectalmicro@gmail.com. Joining our listserv automatically makes you a member of IRMA - a network of more than 1,100 advocates, scientists, policy makers and funders from all over the world.

*Also, please note that shared news items from other sources posted on this blog do not necessarily mean IRMA has taken any position on the article's content.

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Ugandan Gay Rights Activists Take Action

via New York Times, by Laurie Goodstein

A Ugandan gay rights group filed suit against an American evangelist, Scott Lively, in federal court in Massachusetts on Wednesday, accusing him of violating international law by inciting the persecution of gay men and lesbians in Uganda.

The lawsuit maintains that beginning in 2002, Mr. Lively conspired with religious and political leaders in Uganda to whip up anti-gay hysteria with warnings that gay people would sodomize African children and corrupt their culture.

The Ugandan legislature considered a bill in 2009, proposed by one of Mr. Lively’s Ugandan contacts, that would have imposed the death sentence for the “offense of homosexuality.” That bill languished after an outcry from the United States and European nations that are among major aid donors to Uganda, but was reintroduced last month.

Mr. Lively is being sued by the organization Sexual Minorities Uganda under the alien tort statute, which allows foreigners to sue in American courts in situations asserting the violation of international law. The suit says that Mr. Lively’s actions resulted in the persecution, arrest, torture and murder of gay men and lesbians in Uganda.

Reached by telephone in Springfield, Mass., where he runs Holy Grounds Coffee House, a storefront mission and shop, Mr. Lively said he did not know about the lawsuit. Nevertheless, he said: “That’s about as ridiculous as it gets. I’ve never done anything in Uganda except preach the Gospel and speak my opinion about the homosexual issue.”

Mr. Lively is the founder and president of Abiding Truth Ministries. He is also the author of “The Pink Swastika: Homosexuality in the Nazi Party,” which says that Nazism was a movement inspired by homosexuals, and “Seven Steps to Recruit-Proof Your Child,” a guide to prevent what he calls “pro-homosexual indoctrination.”

He has traveled to Uganda, Latvia and Moldova to warn Christian clergy members to defend their countries against what he says is an onslaught by gay rights advocates based in the West.

Read the Rest.



[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.]

Activists Hopeful on Repealing Anti-Homosexuality Law in Jamaica

viaThe Guardian by Sarah Boseley

They are one of the world's most beleaguered gay communities, brutalised by violence, hounded by a law that makes homosexual acts a crime and driven into the shadows in a country where four in five people admit they are homophobic. But now gay people in Jamaica are cautiously optimistic that change may be in the air.

A new government has begun making noises about an end to discrimination and repealing an anti-gay law. Portia Simpson Miller, standing for election as prime minister in December, declared that "no one should be discriminated against because of their sexual orientation", and indicated she would be willing to have gay people in her cabinet. "I certainly do not pry or do not have any intention to pry into the private business of anyone," she said. She won by a landslide.

Maurice Tomlinson, a Jamaican law lecturer and legal adviser to the advocacy group Aids-Free World, says he is delighted by the change of mood – although it has yet to lift the sense of insecurity felt by Jamaica's gay community. Tomlinson, a prominent voice for gay rights on the island, has fled his home because of death threats that followed his marriage to his male partner in Canada after a picture was published in the Toronto Star.

"I was advised to go into hiding," said Tomlinson, in London to collect an award named after murdered Ugandan gay rights activist David Kato for his advocacy work. "I went into a safe house for about three days because my passport was with the UK high commission waiting for a visa to come here.

"Right now I'm not sure if I will be able to go back to teaching this semester."

Tomlinson says Jamaican police have told him that attitudes on the island are unfortunate but "will not change until the law changes".

Even so, he does not yet want the conscience vote on the sodomy law that the prime minister suggested during the election. "Over 80% of Jamaicans have identified as homophobic," he says. "We want more time to explain to the Jamaican people how harmful the law is."

He wants them to know that the law contributes to the spread of HIV, which has a 32% infection rate among gay men compared with 1.6% in Jamaica's general population. Fear of being attacked and murdered drives lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) people to hide their sexuality. The prevalence of HIV puts them at risk but they do not get help to stay safe. Some gay men marry in a bid to seem straight to the outside world and that puts their wives and children at risk of HIV, says Tomlinson.

Read the Rest.



[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.]

An interview with South African Constitutional Court Judge Edwin Cameron discussing homophobia in Africa

via BBC HARDtalk, Interview with Edwin Cameron

Living as an openly gay man in socially conservative Africa is hard enough, but Edwin Cameron went even further. He was the first public official in South Africa to reveal his HIV positive status. Nelson Mandela appointed him a judge and he now serves on South Africa's Constitutional Court. There remains high levels of homophobia on the continent - why are gay activists like Cameron losing the argument?



Watch Part 2 of the video here.


[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.]

Critical to fight stigma and discrimination faced by MSM

via Inside Story, by Gregory Trotter

The dream of the AIDS-free generation will never be realized as long as there remain countries in the world that kill and imprison people for being gay.

Same goes for countries that won’t even acknowledge homosexuality exists within their national boundaries and therefore fail to provide targeted HIV prevention and treatment services. Such are the realities underscored by a new report, “Achieving an AIDS-free Generation for Gay Men and Other MSM,” released by amfAR and Johns Hopkins University on Wednesday.

The report studied the funding and implementation of HIV services targeted for MSM (men who have sex with men) in eight countries where same-sex intercourse is criminalized or heavily stigmatized: China, Vietnam, Ethiopia, Guyana, Mozambique, India, Nigeria and Ukraine. Among other findings, the study concluded that MSM are “deprioritized and marginalized by national HIV programs.”

In the report’s own words: “It will be impossible to achieve an ‘AIDS-Free Generation’ if MSM are left behind.”

(For those who may not know, the phrase “AIDS-free generation” has been a sort of battle cry for people and organizations involved in the ongoing efforts to stop the 30-year-old AIDS epidemic, gaining momentum since Secretary of State Hillary Clinton used it in her historic November 2011 speech.)

The report rings true for Jim Pickett, director of prevention advocacy and gay men’s health for the AIDS Foundation of Chicago (AFC). Pickett is also chair of the International Rectal Microbicides Advocates, a group that does what its name suggests. His work takes him all over the world to advocate for microbicide research and other HIV prevention strategies.

“Sadly, it’s not new. It’s what we know. But … it’s really important for us to continue to put that message out there. It’s another way to have this discussion, to shine a light on these disparities and to move forward in the right direction,” Pickett said. “(This report) is a really important document.”
Pickett was in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, just last month for a meeting with advocates for the launch of Project ARM (stands for Africa for Rectal Microbicides). Project ARM is an IRMA initiative. The conference coincided with the 2011 International Conference on AIDS and STDs in Africa.

It was wrought with tension from the get-go, as anti-gay religious groups caught wind of an African gay men’s health pre-conference satellite and began mounting a protest. Eventually, they were silenced by the Ethiopian government, Pickett said. But it was an uncomfortable learning experience: IRMA and Project ARM kept their own agendas low-profile and encountered no problems.

At the Project ARM meeting, advocates from Malawi, Uganda and other countries talked about the fear of being discovered gay after receiving threats of bodily harm and death.

“We acknowledge that in our quest for developing these new HIV prevention strategies like rectal microbicides, they are for naught if people aren’t safe, if they can’t be who they are wherever they are,” Pickett said. “If you are so deeply stigmatized or demonized that you have to be hidden, you’re not going to come up and go to the counter and get a rectal microbicide. You’re not going to get any services.”

As an example, Pickett pointed to the arrests of nine gay men in Senegal following the 2008 ICASA. Word quickly rippled through the gay community in Senegal.

Read the rest.



[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.]

LGBTQ Discrimination Undermining HIV Prevention in Guatemala

via IPS News, by Danilo Valladares

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people "face discrimination in health centres due to homophobia and transphobia, and do not receive treatment tailored to our needs. That's why we still represent the largest number of cases of HIV," Valdez told IPS.

Among men who have sex with men in the country, 7.6 percent were HIV-positive in 2010, according to the study "Intensificación de las acciones de prevención y atención integral en VIH y sida en grupos vulnerables y áreas prioritarias de Guatemala" (The Intensification of Preventive Actions and Integral Attention to HIV/AIDS in Vulnerable Groups and Priority Areas of Guatemala), carried out by World Vision.

However, other organisations put the prevalence of HIV/AIDS among sexual minorities much higher.

A total of 22,647 cases of HIV/AIDS were officially reported in Guatemala between 1984 and 2010, according to the ministry of health and social assistance, although NGOs say that figure would grow considerably if it included the unregistered cases.

Meanwhile, the Pan-American Health Organisation (PAHO) estimates that more than 65,000 people in this Central American country of 14 million people are living with the disease, many of them without even knowing it.

Valdez said the country has taken "few steps" for preventing the spread of HIV among vulnerable groups.

But one of the advances made was the opening of five clinics catering to members of sexual minorities.

"This kind of service should be available in all hospitals, in order to eliminate homophobia, which is the biggest hurdle we face," he said.

Read the rest here.


[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.]

MSM living in hostile social environments more likely to have negative feelings about sexuality, less likely to test for HIV

via aidsmap, by Roger Pebody

The largest ever international study of the sexual health of men who have sex with men (MSM), which recruited men from across the European continent, has found clear links between the social environment men live in and their own internal acceptance of their sexuality. Furthermore, men with 'internalised homonegativity' were much less likely to test for HIV.

These European results are to some extent confirmed by a study from the United States, which found that men living in states that are hostile to gay issues were more likely to have internalised homonegativity than men living in more tolerant states. However the American researchers found that the relationship between men's feelings about their sexuality and unprotected sex was quite weak.

Preliminary results from both studies were presented to the Future of European Prevention among MSM (FEMP) conference in Stockholm last week.

While the term 'homophobia' is probably better known than 'homonegativity', a number of researchers prefer the latter as it does not suggest that negative attitudes to homosexuality and homosexuals are fundamentally driven by fear. Public expressions of homonegativity may include discriminatory laws, personal rejection by family and friends, violent attacks in public spaces, disapproval from religious authorities and hostile newspaper articles.

When gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men have negative or ambivalent feelings about their own sexuality, this is termed 'internalised homonegativity'. It has been defined as "the gay person's direction of negative social attitudes toward the self, leading to a devaluation of the self and poor self-regard".

While it may seem obvious that negative social environments can create negative psychological states, the link between social factors at a country level and men's internalised homonegativity has not been clearly demonstrated before.

Read the rest.


[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.]

Kenyan ex-pat (and IRMA Steering Committee Member) aims to help gay countrymen

[We are so proud of IRMA Steering Committee Larry Misedah - shown on the left in the pic below. His compelling story is a must-read. Of note, Larry will be joining a group of IRMA members in Addis Ababa this December for Project ARM - Africa for Rectal Microbicides organizing and strategizing activities taking place in advance of the ICASA 2011 conference.]


via Bay Area Reporter, by Heather Cassell

Excerpt:

Until recently, Kenyan LGBT individuals were isolated, believing they were the only ones in their community; some expressed the desire to take their own lives, said Misedah. Older gay and lesbian individuals were forced to marry people of the opposite sex. Younger queer Kenyans felt comfort from their problems with alcohol, said Misedah, who also felt the cold hand of isolation until he came out.

Coming out liberated Misedah, he no longer suffered from the isolation and instead became a beacon for others.

"I felt sort of obliged in order to speak for those who did not have a voice," said Misedah. "I just felt that we needed to speak more and let the society know the challenges that LGBTI people were facing."

He worked first with Ishtar MSM, one of Kenya's first organizations to provide health services to men who have sex with men. He served as the spokesman for Sexual Minorities Uganda's first media campaign. Misedah, in collaboration with IGLHRC, drafted the first Declaration on Transgender Rights for Central and East Africa in 2007 and continued to work on capacity building in Africa with IGLHRC. He spoke at the African AIDS conference in 2009.

Misedah, among others, risked the threat of up to 14 years of imprisonment under Kenya's penal codes sections 162 and 165 for attempted or homosexual behavior under "carnal knowledge against the order of nature."

Misedah, who came from a well-to-do family, found himself banished from his family and cut off from his educational support at the university, where he eventually obtained his bachelor's degree in environmental planning and management, he said.

Usually, families look the other way in regards to their LGBT family members who have financial resources and contribute to their families. Poor queer Kenyans, however, often find themselves in "deep trouble," said Misedah.

Read the rest.


[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.]

Persecuted for Being Gay

via The Guardian, stories compiled by Gay Middle East

Bisi Alimi, from Nigeria (an IRMA member!)

In 2002, I was at university in Nigeria and standing for election. A magazine wrote about me and exposed me as being gay. This led the university to set up a disciplinary committee. I was very nearly dismissed. When I did graduate, people wanted to refuse me my certificate on the grounds that I did not have good enough morals to be an alumnus of the university. While this was going on, the then-president, Olusegun Obasanjo, declared that there were no homosexuals in Nigeria, and that such a thing would not be allowed in the country.

I talked with a friend of mine, who is a famous Nigerian talkshow host, about challenging this opinion. Nobody had come out publicly before. So, in October 2004, I appeared on her breakfast show, New Dawn with Funmi Iyanda". I talked about my sexuality, the burden of the HIV epidemic in the gay community.

The reaction was immediate and violent. I was subjected to brutality from the police and the community. I was disowned by my family and lost many friends, including in the gay community. They were afraid to know me. I was isolated, with no support and no job. The TV show was taken off the air by the government. It led to the introduction of the Same Sex Prohibition bill of 2006. All I had done was say who I was. Three years later I appeared on the BBC World Service. I repeated what I had said on television in Nigeria and suggested my government was using attacks on homosexuality to help cover up its own corruption.

On my arrival back to Nigeria, I was arrested, detained and beaten by the police. For a month, until I fled back to the UK in April 2007, my life was in constant danger.

Read the rest.


 [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.]

Homophobia stymies HIV fight in Islamic countries

Via New Scientist, by Andy Coghlan.

Stigma and homophobia against gay men is hampering efforts to manage a growing epidemic of HIV in Islamic countries, warn epidemiologists this week.

"The stigma is a barrier to HIV prevention services," says Laith Abu-Raddad of the Weill Cornell Medical College-Qatar in Doha. He heads up a team that is assembling, for the first time, data from the Islamic world on the growing prevalence of HIV in practising gay men.

They report that the arrival of HIV in the gay community has been relatively recent compared with other regions of the world, but warn that it is on the rise. In Pakistan, for example, the prevalence of HIV in transgender male sex workers rose from 0.8 per cent in 2005 to 6.4 per cent just three years later.

Historically, HIV epidemics have often begun in minority, high-risk groups such as men who have sex with men or intravenous drug users, then spread to the general population. A problem in much of the Islamic world is that men having sex with men is illegal. That, coupled with homophobia, hampers efforts to contain the virus by making gay men too scared to seek treatment, a pattern that has been seen in eastern European countries, India and sub-Saharan Africa.

Read the rest here.

[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.]

Former Ex-Gay Ugandan Man Now Regrets Past Homophobic Comments

Via Behind the Mask.

A man who in 2009 renounced homosexuality at a public forum in Kampala has now told Behind the Mask that he regrets his previous actions and would like to be forgiven by the LGBTI community.

Saying that he felt “there is a fire in the belly saying gay is really who you are,” Mr George Oundo, known amongst Uganda’s LGBTI community as “Ms Georgina,” said that although he had renounced homosexuality on national media, at an opportune time he would ask the Kuchu community (Ugandan slang for LGBTI) to take him back.

Speaking on Wednesday July 27, 2011 to Behind the Mask outside the magistrate’s court in Kampala where three Christian evangelist preachers have been charged with making homophobic smears against a rival preacher, the now former ex-gay Oundo said he once again believed, “being gay is natural and inborn.”

The accused preachers, their lawyers, Henry Ddungu and David Kaggwa, together with David Mukalazi and Deborah Kyomuhendo (agents of the accused) face charges of conspiring to injure Pastor Robert Kayanja’s reputation by claiming that Kayanja sodomised boys in his church. The two lawyers are charged with allegedly commissioning false affidavits.

In March 2009 Oundo spoke at a Christian seminar and said he previously supported homophobic preacher Martin Sempa and legislator Mr David Bahati in their claims that homosexuals recruit children in schools and deserve the death penalty.

Speaking on Wednesday however, the now former ex-gay man said that he regrets the comments.

Looking sad, Mr Oundo, who once helped to establish an LGBTI human rights advocacy group in Kampala, said that although the preachers had given him some money and built him a house in Muyenga-Bukasa, a posh suburb of Kampala, he still had gay feelings. “I have never even become born again. I just do not want to be born again.”

Read the rest here.

[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.]

Homophobia in Ghana

Understanding the Drivers of Homophobia in Ghana

Via PlusNews.

Recent condemnation of homosexuality by religious and political leaders in Ghana has led to a climate of fear preventing men who have sex with men (MSM) from accessing vital health services, say local NGOs.

The minister of Ghana’s Western Region, Paul Evans Aidoo, publicly described homosexuality as “detestable and abominable” after media reports in late May that 8,000 homosexuals had registered with health NGOs in the country’s west (the information appears to come from records kept by the NGOs of people who accessed services for MSM). Aidoo has since called for increased security in the region and the arrest of all homosexuals. Other religious leaders and politicians have followed suit, condemning homosexual activity.

As a result, far fewer MSM are accessing safe sex education and support programmes run by the Centre for Popular Education and Human Rights (CEPEHRG) to prevent the spread of HIV, said MacDarling Cobbinah from the Coalition against Homophobia in Ghana and a member of CEPEHRG.

“It has brought about a lot of fear and stigma for the people. It is difficult to organize programmes,” Cobbinah said. “It is very difficult for people to walk freely on the street… The call for arrest has really pushed people down.”

He added that one of his colleagues was recently accused of being gay and beaten up by a group of men.

Cobbinah said numbers had dropped at a regular HIV peer education programme that once had more than 20 people attending; two weeks ago only half the people came, and last week no one came, he told IRIN on 27 July. “They said, ‘If we come, we might be arrested.'”

An estimated 25 percent of Ghanaian MSM were HIV-positive in 2006, according to the US Agency for International Development (USAID).

According to the UN World Health Organization, since the beginning of the epidemic in the early 1980s, MSM have been disproportionately affected by HIV. The organization said social discrimination of MSM led them to delay or avoid seeking HIV-related information, care and services.

Other organizations in Ghana are also facing obstacles to providing vital services. An NGO based in the Western Region’s capital Sekondi-Takoradi, which distributes condoms and safe sex information to MSM, told IRIN that since Aidoo increased security and called for arrests they have felt threatened.

Male-to-male sexual relations are a crime in Ghana. Considered a misdemeanor, it carries a maximum sentence of six months, according to Kissi Agyabeng, a law lecturer at the University of Ghana. However, despite Aidoo’s calls for a crackdown, arrests do not yet appear to be taking place.

A spokesperson for the Sekondi-Takoradi NGO, who did not want his name or the organization’s name published for security reasons, said the NGO was now coming under pressure from the government to stop their work on HIV prevention if they did not reveal the names of MSM who have registered to use their services.

Stopping this work would affect thousands of people. In 2008, 2,900 people accessed their services, and by this year numbers had quadrupled, the spokesperson said.

...

Read the rest of the article here. For a fascinating personal story from a gay Ghanaian, read Paula Stromberg's article A Good Day in Ghana here.

[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.]

Survey reveals gaps in HIV programming for MSM

Via PlusNews.

A new global survey of more than 5,000 men who have sex with men (MSM) reveals a marginalized group of people with little access to basic HIV prevention tools such as condoms and few means to learn about HIV.

Conducted by the Global Forum on MSM & HIV between 24 June and 17 August 2010, the survey sought to highlight key gaps in global efforts to provide MSM with evidence-informed HIV prevention services. More than 1,000 of the study participants - drawn from all over the world - were health workers; 22 percent reported being HIV-positive.

The authors recommend expanding access to HIV prevention services for MSM across the globe, more focus on promoting awareness of emerging HIV prevention interventions and more robust and sustained stigma-reduction efforts. Some of the major findings of the survey include:

Access to health services - Fifty-three percent of participants said they could easily access testing for sexually transmitted infections, while 51 percent said they had easy access to HIV counseling; 47 percent found STI treatment easily accessible.

Just 36 percent of MSM surveyed reported having easy access to HIV treatment, while 27 percent said it was available but difficult to access, was not available or had never heard of HIV treatment.

Access to HIV prevention - Free condoms were easily accessible only to 44 percent of participants, while just 29 percent could obtain lubricant.

Just 30 percent of participants reported easy access to each of the basic HIV prevention services, including behavioural HIV/AIDS interventions, HIV education materials, mental health services, free or low-cost medical care, media campaigns focused on reducing HIV, and laws/policies to ensure access to HIV prevention.

Just 25 percent said they had access to sex education.

Stigma - Africa reported the highest levels of stigma and external homophobia, followed by the Middle East, Asia-Pacific, Central/South America and the Caribbean, which all reported similar levels of stigma. Australia and New Zealand reported the lowest levels of stigma and external homophobia.

MSM from Africa and the Asia-Pacific region reported the highest levels of internalized homophobia.

Read the rest here.

[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.]

New Guidelines on HIV Programming for MSM

Via IRIN.

HIV and gay rights activists say new guidelines released by the UN World Health Organization (WHO) on HIV programming for men who have sex with men (MSM) will not only improve health service provision for MSM, but will also act as an advocacy tool in the fight for the rights of this marginalized population.

"The document provides well-researched and evidence-based recommendations for HIV prevention and treatment of MSM, which will be useful for clinicians," said Kevin Rebe, a doctor with Health4Men, a South African health service provider which caters specifically for MSM. "The language of the paper is couched in human rights, and makes a strong call for decriminalization of same sex sexual activity, so it will also be useful for activists seeking to end discrimination."

The guidelines are designed for use by national public health officials and managers of HIV/AIDS and STI (sexually transmitted infections) programmes, NGOs and health workers. They contain MSM-specific programme activities such as the use of water- and silicone-based lubricant for the correct functioning of condoms during anal sex.

The guidelines do not advise medical male circumcision - a measure WHO recommends for HIV prevention among heterosexual men - for HIV prevention among MSM due to the lack of sufficient research on its effect of its use in MSM sexual activity.

They further recommend that health services adhere to the principles of medical ethics and the right to health, and ensure that MSM feel comfortable enough to seek medical care, with MSM-specific health needs catered for within national health systems.

"Like many other African countries, all men in South Africa are assumed to be straight, so health workers are not aware of the need to identify people of different sexualities during consultations; outside of centres like ours, there is little competency in providing health care to MSM," said Rebe. "By availing this knowledge, the guidelines will empower health workers to provide better care to MSM."


Wake-up call

In countries like Uganda, where homophobia is deeply entrenched both within society and the law, gay rights groups hope the new guidelines will serve as a wake-up call to the government about the need to include MSM in HIV programming.

"I hope the new guidelines will be an eye-opener to the government, who have so far ignored MSM within HIV prevention, treatment and support; it should show them that MSM exist in Uganda and are at high risk," said Frank Mugisha, executive director of the NGO Sexual Minorities Uganda. "They therefore cannot be ignored and urgently require HIV interventions."
 
Read the rest here.

[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.]

Gay sex became legal in India two years ago, but attitudes change slowly

via guardian.co.uk

The day the high court in Delhi ruled that being gay was no longer a crime was the day that Krishna Gurram Kouda finally came out to his family.

Despite having set up a state-wide network for gay men in Andhra Pradesh, the 39-year-old had never told his relatives about his sexuality. "I live with my parents," he explains as the fan above whirs in an ineffectual attempt to stave off the 40C Hyderabadi heat. "I have a good relationship with my brothers and their children." He looks at me. "I thought they would accept me," he pauses, "but I was a little afraid."

I first met Kouda in 2008 when I was reporting on how discrimination puts gay men at greater risk of HIV in Andhra Pradesh (which has one of India's highest rates of the virus) for the Guardian's international development journalism competition. At that time, section 377 of the Indian penal code made gay sex illegal, and strong social stigma drove gay men underground. Now the law has changed, I wanted to know whether their lives had also altered course.

For Krishna, the answer is yes. On the day of decriminalisation – 2 July 2009 – Krishna went public, spending hours on local TV and radio, talking about gay issues and rebutting religious leaders. When he got home at 10 o'clock that night, his mother and brother congratulated him. "You speak about your community's problems so well," they said, recognising for the first time that they knew he was gay. Since then, Krishna and Avinash, his partner of seven years, have received joint invitations to family parties and an annual couples-only Puja [prayer].

Read the rest.


[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.]