MEXICO CITY, Aug. 9, 2008
AIDS Prevention Gives Short Shrift To Gays
HIV Infection Rates Among Gay, Bisexual Men Rising; Less Than 1 Percent OF Spending Targets Gay Men
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Jorge Saavedra, a Mexican federal official, reads a gay magazine in Mexico City, Aug. 9, 2008. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)
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The Mexican federal official paused, then said publicly for the first time that he was gay.
As he held up a photo of himself with his partner, the crowd applauded wildly. Afterward, men from Africa and India congratulated him with tears in their eyes.
"They told me that I was a hero, and that they wished they could do the same in their countries," said Saavedra, who is infected with HIV and also heads the AIDS prevention program in a country where many gay men live in denial.
Saavedra's coming out on Tuesday at the International AIDS Conference sent a powerful message to the world: Homophobia must be stamped out if AIDS is to be controlled.
Fewer people are dying from AIDS, but new HIV infections among gay and bisexual men in many countries are rising at alarming rates.
Yet less than 1 percent of the $669 million reported in global prevention spending targets men who have sex with men, according to UNAIDS figures from 2006, the latest available data.
UNAIDS says these men receive the lowest coverage of HIV prevention services of any at-risk population. And experts say discrimination has driven gay and bisexual men in developing nations underground - turning them into one of the epidemic's hardest groups to reach. From Mexico to India, a surprising number of men who have sex with men insist they are not gay, and in many countries, governments still refuse to admit homosexuality exists.
"It's very difficult to provide services to men who have sex with men in countries that don't acknowledge they exist or criminalize them if they do exist," said Craig McClure, executive director of International AIDS Society, which organized the conference.
In 86 nations, homosexual sex is considered a crime, and in seven countries it is punishable by death, according to the Foundation for AIDS Research, known as Amfar.
During the conference's inauguration, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon urged nations "to follow Mexico's bold example and pass laws against homophobia."
In 2003, Mexico banned discrimination based on sexual orientation, and it has opened what it calls homophobic-free health clinics. The government has a national campaign that includes radio spots with mothers accepting their gay sons. Saavedra's program has earmarked 10 percent of its $12 million budget toward prevention among gay and bisexual men.
Worldwide, few developing nations check the rates of HIV infection among men who have sex with men, but researchers who have surveyed some of these countries say they are finding the rates are nearly twice that of the general adult population.
"This fight needs to be driven by epidemiologists" who urge making this high-risk group a priority, not only for the human rights argument, but for the public health argument, said Chris Beyrer, director of the Center for Public Health and Human Rights at Johns Hopkins University. "It's a virus so you need to put the money where the virus is."
Gay and bisexual men are 19 times more likely to become infected with HIV than the general adult population, according to Amfar, which collected data on these men in 128 countries. In Mexico, this group is 109 times more likely to acquire HIV. To date, 57 percent of the HIV diagnoses in Mexico are from unprotected sex between men.
Thailand is seeing "an emerging epidemic of really unbelievable proportions" among its gay and bisexual men after being held up as an example for its success with a massive condom campaign that curbed HIV's spread among sex workers, drug users and migrants, said Kevin Frost, Amfar's chief executive officer.
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Prevalence of HIV among gay and bisexual Thai men was more than 15 percent this year compared to 1.4 percent for the general adult population, according to Amfar. Frost said the country's prevention programs ignored one of its most vulnerable groups.It's very difficult to provide services to men who have sex with men in countries that don't acknowledge they exist or criminalize them if they do exist.
Craig McClure, executive director of International AIDS Society"These men believed they were not at risk because they were not having sex with sex workers or women, which is what the campaign focused on," Frost said. "That scenario is being played out across the developing world."
Complicating matters is that in countries from Latin America to Southeast Asia, many men who have sex with men, insist they are not gay. More than 30 percent of Latin American men who reported having sex with men said they also had unprotected sex with women, according to UNAIDS. Many are married.
"Everybody knows somebody like that," Saavedra, 48, said. "Instead of saying they are gay, it's easier for them to justify their behavior. They say they were drunk and they were really sexually excited and willing to have sex with whomever."
Some have beaten up transvestites after having sex with them because they are ashamed of themselves, experts say.
Even governments deny these men exist. Last year, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said at Columbia University in New York, "In Iran we don't have homosexuals like in your country."
In Malawi, that country's first organization working on behalf of gay men was created in 2006 with the backing of World Bank officials and other international agencies.
Called the Centre for the Development of People, the group surveyed 100 gay men about discrimination to prove to the government that such men existed in Malawi. Homosexual sex is punishable up to 14 years in prison in the African country.
The organization also found through testing 200 gay men that about 21 percent carried HIV compared with 12 percent for the general adult population.
"This means that we are not moving ahead with the fight against AIDS," said Gift Trapence, the organization's director who has received e-mails threatening hanging.
AIDS activists say they avoid using words like "homosexual" or "gay" and instead use the label "men who have sex with men," or MSM, so their work is not impeded by the stigma.
Ashok Row Kavi said he has learned the importance of carefully choosing his words in India, where he started one of the country's first organizations to work with gay and bisexual men.
The Humsafar Trust found nearly 14 percent of the gay and bisexual men it surveyed in 1999 were infected with HIV. Kavi said when he told India's AIDS officials they "totally panicked because until now they believed these men did not exist."
But last year they added a definition of men who have sex with men to their health planning program to start prevention campaigns. The definition includes married men.
Kavi has been training health workers how to ask men if they have had gay sex and not scare them away.
"I tell them to say things like, 'There are many cultures where men are very close to men. Are you one of these men?"' he said. "These questions have to be sensitive," especially in India, where sodomy is illegal.
"That's why the word homosexual is not used," he said. "If anyone asks a man that, he will slap you."
© MMVIII The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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The bible bangers aren''t too far behind I suppose.
Posted by IRLiberal at 06:15 PM : Aug 09, 2008
But why can''t you call evil evil?
Posted by Obamanation at 06:17 PM
Oh, I could, but that would be somewhat rude to you (though truthful.)
They forget (or wish to obscure) that being g.ay isn''t about s.ex. It isn''t about labels or religion or politics or laws. It''s about who you are capable of loving, body and soul, and being loved by in return. It defines a culture that has existed as long as mankind itself has existed.
Some people really hate g.ay and lesbian people. I can''t say for sure why. Is it because we''re not 100% like them? Is it because we may not share their religion? Is it because they don''t personally share the same feelings? I don''t know. But it is because of that hatred, exemplified in posts here, a g.ay man or woman might get shot, robbed, beaten or staked out on a fence in Wyoming and left to die. That''s what it means to hate.
Most g.ay and lesbian people have the courage to stand up to that hate, and we do. Some give into it, and begin to hate themselves. All I know is that I know who I love, and why, and there isn''t enough hatred, bigotry, rhetoric or ignorance in all the world to change that.
As time passes, civil rights are being recognized for g.ay and lesbian people, and many of the old bigotries tend to fade. But there will always be a few, like some who post here, that will seek to destroy instead of understand.
Posted by Obamanation at 06:17 PM
Oh, I could, but that would be somewhat rude to you (though truthful.)
Posted by IRLiberal at 06:19 PM : Aug 09, 2008
Why would you in this forum? Is there any sin in you? If you cannot admit to it in your own life you would not be able to spot it in other peoples lives!
Good.
Even in countries where *** are generally excepted AIDS are on the upswing.
How many people who recently got AIDS in the USA didn''t know that AIDS are out there and/or that AIDS are potentially lethal?
AIDS is preventable.
Use a condom or keep it zipped.
I have heard that one thing most of the first world AIDS victims have in common is that they practice irresponsible life styles.
Do the responsible thing.
As time passes, civil rights are being recognized for g.ay and lesbian people, and many of the old bigotries tend to fade. But there will always be a few, like some who post here, that will seek to destroy instead of understand.
Posted by IRLiberal at 06:21 PM : Aug 09, 2008
Yeah, and most ****''s dying from aids realize too late that all those "bigots" were right,and wish they had listened. Millions have learned the hard and fatefull way and still many millions more, refuse and ignore the warnings, thinking they know better.
This disease can be wiped out in one generation, but only with self-control. How come no one has any?
Posted by Obamanation at 06:17 PM
Oh, I could, but that would be somewhat rude to you (though truthful.)
Posted by IRLiberal at 06:19 PM : Aug 09, 2008
Why would you in this forum? Is there any sin in you? If you cannot admit to it in your own life you would not be able to spot it in other peoples lives!
-Ya think? Duuuh. Immoral lifestyle = disease spreading. God doesn''t play around with this stuff.
This includes any sort of behavior that resembles Russian Roulette.
2 Timothy 3
GOD''S WORD. Translation ()1995)
"... People will be selfish and love money. They will brag, be arrogant, and use abusive language. They will curse their parents, show no gratitude, have no respect for what is holy, and lack normal affection for their families. They will refuse to make peace with anyone. They will be slanderous, lack self-control, be brutal, and have no love for what is good. They will be traitors. They will be reckless and conceited. They will love pleasure rather than God..."
The g.a.y lobby sure has a lot of powerful friends.
Yeah, maybe. It just seems to me the amount of publicity g.a.y issues receive isn''t in direct proportion to the g.a.y population.
Even in countries where g.a.y.s are generally excepted AIDS are on the upswing.
How many people who recently got AIDS in the USA didn''''t know that AIDS are out there and/or that AIDS are potentially lethal?
AIDS is preventable.
Use a condom or keep it zipped.
I have heard that one thing most of the first world AIDS victims have in common is that they practice irresponsible life styles.
Do the responsible thing.
Hm.hmm.
Guess what group HIV is LOWEST in? Lesbians. MUCH lower than straight men or women, especially worldwide.
What does that make lesbians? The chosen few?
The silliness of this argument simply illustrates the silliness of the bigotry that still prevails these days, and the importance inherent in combating it.
Illness does not discriminate. In that way, it is more human than the bigots.
However, your lifestyle does not grant you minority status.
The Jesse Jackson/Al Sharpton school of "Ima Victim U" has tried to equate lifestyle with minority status.
You have a right to your lifestyle choice. However, you are also responsible for the consequence of that choice-you are not a victim of it.
You have a right to your lifestyle choice. However, you are also responsible for the consequence of that choice-you are not a victim of it.
Posted by wl7bzh at 01:27 PM
Really? Interesting.
You have kids? No tax breaks for you. You are not a victim of your lifestyle, you chose it.
You have skin cancer? Must have stayed out in the sun too much. You are not a victim of your lifestyle, you chose it.
Lost both legs in Iraq? No health care for you. You are not a victim of your lifestyle, you chose it.
You can call anything a lifestyle choice. The point is, is people are the way they are. Being gay or white or black or anything else immutable is NOT a lifestyle choice. It''s simply who you are, REGARDLESS of what you DO.
Most people do not understand this, either because they do not want to, or they simply don''t care. It''s important to recognize the difference.
You have kids? No tax breaks for you. You are not a victim of your lifestyle, you chose it.
You have skin cancer? Must have stayed out in the sun too much. You are not a victim of your lifestyle, you chose it.
Lost both legs in Iraq? No health care for you. You are not a victim of your lifestyle, you chose it.
You can call anything a lifestyle choice. The point is, is people are the way they are. Being gay or white or black or anything else immutable is NOT a lifestyle choice. It''''s simply who you are, REGARDLESS of what you DO.
Most people do not understand this, either because they do not want to, or they simply don''''t care. It''''s important to recognize the difference.
Posted by IRLiberal at 03:12 PM : Aug 10, 2008
----------------------------------------------
And if you will bother to re-read the article you will see that the HIV epidemic is due to unsafe ***-not homosexuality.
Unsafe *** is a lifestyle choice, which if practiced can lead to HIV-Play Russian Roulette and you run the risk of dying. This does not make you a victim, it makes you a fool.
Your apparent homosexuality is not the cause of HIV.
Homosexuals should quit crying that they are HIV victims, like practically anyone else acquiring HIV, it was a lifestyle choice.
posted by IRLiberal
-So you''re equating a person''s skin color to sexual perversion? So do pedaphiles have choice or were they just "born that way?" Do rapists have NO CHOICE? What about those guilty of INCEST? Do they have NO CHOICE? Are they born this way as well? What about murderers and theives? Do they have NO CHOICE according to your logic(actually the lack thereof)??
Being WHITE, BLACK, ASIAN, EUROPEAN, etc...is not a choice, of course.
But CHOOSING sexual preference IS.
There have been HUNDREDS if not THOUSANDS of cases of FORMER homosexuals in the world who have become heterosexual.
For you to compare being a homosexual to a person''s skin color is beyond absurd.
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Posted by RandyNason at 11:41 PM : Aug 09, 2008
What you don''t see in your very own post is that YOU JUST PASSED JUDGMENT ON PEOPLE...
Oh and by the way, rapists should be judged as well. All immoral sexual lifestyle comes with consequences.
*** is supposed to be for man and woman IN MARRIAGE, as God intended.
But mankind has perverted it and rebelled against God, because of SIN, SIN , SIN, SIN...and MORE SIN.
Homosexuality is only one of many sexually perverse sins.
And scratch your eyes out!.
It is ridiculous to continue calling homosexuality a lifestyle or a choice. I sure don''t claim to be an expert, but I prefer to accept people for who they are, not what they are.
Get over it!
Is possible that everyone screaming, ho.mophobe, bigot, and hate monger might be just a little bit ga.y?
Sounds like the spoiled brat in the supermarket seen kicking his heels trying to justify what he wants.
Keep this in mind. That love that homosexuals are so concerned about may be some sort of physical attraction rather than real love.
If so,as the homosexual gets older he or she may find that "love and affection" fading. When and if that does happen,remember just one thing, if you have to pay for it in some way, it ain''t really love.
Grow old gracefully and have a great day!
There have been HUNDREDS if not THOUSANDS of cases of FORMER homosexuals in the world who have become heterosexual.
For you to compare being a homosexual to a person''''s skin color is beyond absurd.
Posted by BeBoldin09
So when did you choose to be STRAIGHT?
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*** it democrat122,
if yur gonna you use logic and statistics you should post somewhere else-this blog is restricted to name calling and sociopathic reasoning only.
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by rf35
August 12, 2008 9:20 PM EDT
- What about men having butt-seks with women? Married couples having butt-seks? What do the haters say about that (like I don''t already know)? Oral seks?
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Reply to this comment
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See all 50 CommentsI have a theory that those who are most vocal in their hatred for g.ay men are themselves repressed homosexuals.