Closet Case: How Intolerance Fuels Africa’s AIDS Crisis
New research has challenged the long-standing belief that HIV and AIDS in Africa primarily affect heterosexuals. A study published on the website of the British medical journal Lancet found that men who have sex with other men are up to 10 times more likely than their heterosexual counterparts to be infected with the virus — which suggests that the fight against AIDS on the continent may be undermined by widespread homophobia.
Researchers from Oxford University, the Population Council of Ghana and the Kenya Medical Research Institute reviewed AIDS studies conducted over the past few years and concluded that male-male sex was a major blind spot in AIDS research and policy in Africa. Men having sex with other men is far more common in Africa than is socially acknowledged, owing to widespread hostility toward homosexuality, and the phenomenon there is underreported in research and largely ignored in public-health responses to the pandemic. The researchers compiled statistics from a small but growing number of studies conducted in various African countries in recent years that included estimates of HIV prevalence among men who have sex with other men. (See pictures from Africa’s AIDS crisis.)
See Closet Case: How Intolerance Fuels Africa’s AIDS Crisis
TIME
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WATCH In His Own Words: What Obama Promised Gay Americans
President Obama surprised and disappointed many this past week when his Department of Justice defended the Defense Of Marriage Act in court. Daily Kos’ Jed Lewison has compiled clips from the campaign in which Obama forcefully advocated equal rights for gay Americans and stated his support for strong civil unions with all the benefits of marriage. Watch:
WATCH In His Own Words: What Obama Promised Gay Americans
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Gay Twins Win Sexual Harassment Lawsuit
Jed and Wyatt Lorenzen, openly gay twins who were hired as servers by Los Feliz restaurant Vermont in 2005, today won their sexual harassment suit against the eatery’s owners, another pair of openly gay men, Manuel Mesta and Michael Gelzhiser. Following a nine-day trial, each of the twins was awarded a paltry $1,000 for damages, begging the question of whether anyone really came out of the suit a winner.
In interviews the twins have claimed that Jed was fired from his waitstaff position for turning down sexual advances, while Wyatt was forced to abandon his job when the instances of sexual harassment had gone too far. They claim that the harassment went on repeatedly for more than a year, consisting of not only sexually explicit language but inappropriate touching during a restaurant Halloween party. MORE
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Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/03/gay-twins-win…
