HIV/AIDS activist dies at 45
Tags: aids, Aids Activist, Aids Hiv, hiv, Hiv AidsChina hushes up first gay pride week
Beijing - Organizers of China’s first gay pride week were struggling Thursday to find new venues for their events after police in Shanghai warned clubs and bars against joining the planned festival.
The crackdown came even as China’s state-run English-language daily was hailing the celebration as “a good showcase of the country’s social progress” and “an event of profound significance.”
Police and commercial bureau officials warned a local restaurant of “very severe” consequences if it screened films as part of the festival, says an organizer who asked not to be identified. A photo studio called off a theater performance after a similar visit.
Gay activists said the official interference illustrated official Chinese policy toward homosexual gatherings: low-key events in private spaces are tolerated; public activities are banned.
“If you attract a lot of attention and media reports, the government will intervene,” says Wan Yanhai, an AIDS activist in Beijing.
The two American women who organized Shanghai Pride week deliberately avoided scheduling any public events that would have required official permission, for fear of being banned. The festival of film, theater, literary readings, and panel discussions, however, has drawn considerable international media attention, even if the Chinese-language press in Shanghai has made no mention of the event. Most of the 500 or so people who have attended events so far have been foreigners.
There are thought to be around 35 million homosexuals in China, who face considerable discrimination in the workplace and elsewhere if they are courageous enough to come out. Homosexuality was a crime here until 1997, and classed as a mental disorder until 2001. Some government-funded medical institutes are still trying to find a “cure” for homosexuality.
Although gay websites, clubs, and tea rooms have sprung up in cities such as Beijing and Shanghai, there is still a taboo on gay culture in Chinese cinema and television. At the same time, adds Mr. Wan, “the traditional Chinese concept of the family is very conservative, and families put heavy pressure on gays to get married.” China hushes up first gay pride week
Christian Science Monitor * Tags = gay men gay news lesbian news transgender bisexual
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Gay rights advocate, AIDS activist McFarlane dies
(Denver, Colorado) Rodger McFarlane, a Denver-based advocate for gay rights and HIV-AIDS treatment and education, has died while traveling in New Mexico. He was 54.
The New Mexico Office of the Medical Investigator confirmed Monday that McFarlane died Friday in Truth or Consequences but didn’t immediately release the cause.
A statement released …
Tags: aids, Aids Activist, Aids Education, Aids Treatment, Denver Colorado, gay rights, hiv, Hiv Aids, Hiv Treatment, Medical Investigator, New Mexico Office, Rights Advocate, Rodger Mcfarlane, Truth Or ConsequencesBURUNDI: AIDS activists condemn new anti-gay law
The Burundian Senate overwhelmingly voted against the draft bill in February, but in March the lower house of parliament reversed this decision, and President Pierre Nkurunziza signed it into law on 22 April.
“We regret that the law will hamper Burundi’s attempts to fight AIDS by further marginalizing an at-risk population,” said a statement by international rights groups, including the New York-based Human Rights Watch, local rights group Ligue Iteka and local AIDS NGO, Association Nationale de Soutien aux séropositifs et Malades du Sida (ANSS). “We urge the Government of Burundi to act promptly to decriminalize homosexual conduct.”
People found guilty of engaging in consensual same-sex relations risk imprisonment of two to three years and a fine of up to US$84. “Our activities will be hampered by this law,” said Georges Kanuma, chairman of the Association pour le Respect et les Droits des Homosexuels (ARDHO), a local gay rights movement.
“Our organization is now closing down its offices [in the capital, Bujumbura] because we are afraid that with the new law we may be arrested.” ARDHO has been in existence since 2003 but has never managed to gain legal recognition as an NGO.
The association distributes water-based lubricants and condoms, and raises awareness of HIV/AIDS among men who have sex with men. According to Kanuma, most Burundians are not even aware of the existence of men who have sex with men in their society.
“We are hoping to meet CNLS [Burundi’s national AIDS control council] officials to see if they will also stop the activities they were planning for men who have sex with men,” he added.
In its latest national strategic plan, CNLS lists men who have sex with men among the groups vulnerable to HIV, and recognizes the need for targeted prevention activities in this community. MORE
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SENEGAL SCARE: Gay Witch Hunts & Lynchings Queerty
In Uganda, anti-gay hatred is manifested by newspapers printing of the names and faces of “gay suspects” and activists “storming Parliament” with their message to rid the nation of gays. But across the continent in Senegal, things aren’t any better for the gays. They’re being hunted down Jim Crow-style, with threats of lynchings.
Even though nine AIDS activists were just released from prison after their attorneys successfully argued the evidence for “unnatural acts” charges was insufficient, the climate is anything but tolerant. Rather, you have youth leaders calling for the lynching of gay men: “The homosexuals will not escape lynching. They will be fish food,” one told Dakar newspaper L’Observeur, according to GlobalPost.
See SENEGAL SCARE: Gay Witch Hunts & Lynchings
Queerty * Tags = gay men gay news lesbian news transgender bisexual
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Gays under threat in Senegal
DAKAR, Senegal — A mob gathered near a mosque outside Dakar. They were there to hunt down and kill nine men accused of homosexual acts.
Earlier this week the nine Senegalese AIDS activists were freed from eight-year-prison terms for alleged homosexual acts, but they went into hiding because of death threats from Muslim religious leaders and the general population.
“The homosexuals will not escape lynching. They will be fish food,” Dakar newspaper L’Observeur quoted a local youth leader as saying.
“Gay men will never be free in Senegal. They expose us all to danger,” said Imam Mbaye Niang, a prominent religious leader and member of parliament. “The judges should understand that Senegalese people need to protect their children, their families from homosexuality.”
In Senegal — where 95 percent of the population is Muslim — homosexual acts are punishable by fines and up to five years in prison. In January, the nine men received the harshest sentence yet for such an offense in Senegal, getting the maximum of five years and an additional three for criminal conspiracy.
Though widely supported in Senegal, the conviction was condemned by international human rights groups and foreign governments, most notably France.
“They were judged and condemned very severely, surely on the basis of public outcry, therefore the justice was neither objective nor founded in law,” said lead defense attorney Barim Sassoum Sy, who called the initial ruling hasty and emotional.
A Dakar appeals court overturned that decision Monday, citing violations of legal protocol.
Acting on an anonymous tip, police had arrested the men — most of whom do HIV prevention work in the “men having sex with men” community — in December at the home of a prominent gay activist. But the police did not have a search warrant, nor did they catch the men in the act, which is required by the Senegalese law prohibiting “indecent acts against nature.” The judge hearing the appeal therefore declared their convictions null and void, Sy said.
Yet even as smiling attorneys and supporters celebrated in the packed courtroom Monday and exchanged congratulations, plans were already in place to get the freed men into hiding outside Dakar.
“The first judge sentenced them to eight years,” said Imam Niang. “He had the courage to say it. The judge that let them go was much less courageous. He yielded to international pressure.”
See
Gays under threat in Senegal
GlobalPost * Tags = gay men gay news lesbian news transgender bisexual
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AIDS activist Delaney dies
Tags: aids, Aids Activist, DelaneyHIV/AIDS activist Martin Delaney dies
(San Francisco, California) Martin Delaney, a longtime activist for the HIV/AIDS community, has died at his home in San Rafael, California.
Delaney, the founder and longtime director of the HIV advocacy/education organization Project Inform, was recently presented with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director’s Special Recognition Award for …
Tags: Advocacy Education, aids, Aids Activist, Aids Community, Allergy, Education Organization, hiv, Hiv Advocacy, Hiv Aids, Infectious Diseases, Longtime Activist, Longtime Director, Martin Delaney, National Institute Of Allergy And Infectious Diseases, Organization Project, Recognition Award, San Francisco California, San Martin, San Rafael CaliforniaSENEGAL: Jailing of gay activists sets back AIDS fight
The men, who were involved in providing HIV prevention, care and treatment services to Senegal’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community, have been sentenced to eight years in prison.
Homosexuality is punishable by up to five years in prison, according to the Senegalese penal code. In this case, the judge added three years for criminal conspiracy.
In a statement released last week, the International AIDS Society, which promotes new HIV research and best practice and is the custodian of the International AIDS Conference, and the Society for AIDS in Africa (SAA), which works to slow the spread of HIV, said criminalising and discriminating against any group of individuals only served to fuel the HIV epidemic by denying services and relevant prevention messages.
“The arrest of these men, based purely on their sexual orientation represents a major setback for the Senegalese response to HIV, which is widely viewed as a model in Africa,” said Joanna Mangueira, President of the SAA.
Cheikh Niang, professor of anthropology at Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar, the Senegalese capital, and author of studies on AIDS and sexuality in the country, agreed that jailing the activists was “counterproductive”.
“The severity of the sentence has created an atmosphere of panic amongst the associations that are working on HIV prevention and treatment with men who have sex with men (MSM),” he told IRIN/PlusNews.
Michel Bourelly of AIDES, an international organisation working with men who have sex with men in Senegal, said gay activists had gone into hiding or fled the country since the judgement. “Everything has stopped. The associations that provide HIV/AIDS services for homosexuals and MSM are too scared to work.”
Contradictions
According to Bourelly, the men were arrested while attending a meeting on HIV prevention. Brochures, condoms and model penises were confiscated as pornographic material.
“The condoms that were considered pornographic material during the trial were provided by the Senegalese government,” he pointed out.
A young gay member of an HIV/AIDS organisation serving MSM in Senegal, who did not want to be named, confirmed that intolerance of homosexuality had risen.
“Physical violence is more common now. Before we had groups which helped us – they gave us the courage to meet. We would do work on prevention, but now it’s too dangerous,” he said.
The jailed men were detained just two weeks after Senegal hosted the International Conference on AIDS and STIs in Africa (ICASA), where speakers emphasised the importance of addressing the needs of sexual minorities in African AIDS programming. Over 50 gay activists attended.
In an interview with IRIN/PlusNews in November 2008, Souleymane Mboup, President of ICASA, said MSM were a reality in Africa that could not be ignored.
“This is a question that we cannot run away from if we want to advance [the fight against HIV],” he said. “Many countries, including Senegal, must open their eyes and learn. We must think about which strategies to adopt.”
In 2007 the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria granted Senegal US$32 million to strengthen its HIV/AIDS response. Part of the grant was earmarked for targeting “vulnerable groups”, including MSM, with prevention campaigns, condoms and MSM-friendly clinics over the next five years.
“Senegal has been given considerable sums of money to address the needs of MSM in its national AIDS programme,” said Bourelly. “But now they are jailing the people they are supposed to be targeting.”
No one from the National AIDS Committee, one of the two principal recipients of the Global Fund grant, was available for comment. Abdoulaye Wade, director of the AIDS division at the Ministry of Health, told IRIN/PlusNews that the government continued to provide HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment services for MSM, but did not elaborate on what those services were.
Regressive
Joel Nana, advocacy director at the South African office of the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC), said Senegal had been praised for its progressive and inclusive HIV/AIDS programmes in the past.
“Senegal was the first country in Africa to address MSM in HIV programming, so this [judgment] is really a step backwards,” he told IRIN/PlusNews.
While Senegal has maintained a low HIV prevalence of about one percent in the general population, official data and studies conducted at Cheikh Anta Diop University suggest that about 21.5 percent of MSM were HIV positive in 2005. The studies also found that over 80 percent of MSM had female as well as male partners.
“It is a considerable error to think that this is just a homosexual problem,” said Bourelly. “Most MSM have had, or continue to have, sex with women, so the impact of effectively shutting down MSM programmes will be considerable on the general population.”
Human rights groups and AIDS organisations are calling for the immediate release of the nine imprisoned men, and for a change in Senegal’s penal code. Niang agreed that it was time to debate the merits of the law.
“There is no point in saying that men who have sex with men do not exist in our societies,” he said. “It exists and it is an ancient phenomenon. By ignoring its existence we will not respond appropriately [to the HIV epidemic].”
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Visits Curbed To Chinese AIDS activist
(Beijing) Chinese authorities have curbed visits to an imprisoned dissident who was awarded the European Parliament’s top human rights award, his wife said.
Zeng Jinyan said she was told of the restriction during a telephone call Thursday from the Beijing Municipal Prison, where her husband, Hu Jia, is being held on …
Tags: aids, Aids Activist, Beijing, Chinese Authorities, European Parliament, Hu Jia, Human Rights, Parliament, Restriction, Telephone Call
