New HIV infections increasing among international, US gays
(New York) New HIV infections are increasing among gays, drug users and prostitutes who don’t seek help because of laws that criminalize them, the head of the U.N. AIDS agency said Monday.
Michel Sidibe, the head of UNAIDS, said “it is unacceptable” that 85 countries still have laws criminalizing same-sex relations among adults, including seven that impose the death penalty for homosexual practices.
He called a proposed Ugandan law that would impose the death penalty for some gays “very unfortunate” and expressed hope it will never be approved.
At a time when UNAIDS is scaling up its program and seeking universal access to HIV treatment, Sidibe said he was “very scared” because bad laws are being introduced by countries making it impossible for these at risk groups to have access to services.
“You have also a growing conservatism which is making me very scared,” Sidibe added.
“We must insist that the rights of the minorities are upheld. If we don’t do that … I think the epidemic will grow again,” he warned. “We cannot accept the tyranny of the majority.”
Sidibe told a group of journalists at a luncheon hosted by the United Nations Foundation that in countries from China to Kenya and Malawi, about 33 percent of new HIV infections are in men having sex with men, a significant increase.
By contrast, he said that in the Caribbean where most countries don’t have repressive laws, only between 3 and 6 percent of HIV infections are in male homosexuals.
Even in the United States, where laws are not restrictive and the gay community was the first to tackle AIDS, Sidibe said it is “shocking” that more than 50 percent of new HIV infections last year occurred among homosexuals. And he said in the 19-25 age bracket the infection rate was even higher.
“It seems like we have come full circle” in the United States, he said. “After almost no cases a few years ago we are seeing again this new peak among people who are not having access to all the information, the protection that is needed.”
In addition to failing to adequately deliver the right messages about AIDS prevention, Sidibe blamed complacency in a new generation that has access to treatment.
He added that this was not just a problem in the U.S. but in Europe and in Africa as well.
Sidibe said drug users are also getting the HIV virus that causes AIDS in high numbers.
“You have 70 percent of new infections occurring in Eastern Europe and Central Asia among drug users, but they are criminalized,” he said. “They don’t have access to services. They have to hide themselves and go underground.”
Of the 16 million people in the world who are injecting drugs, almost 3 million are HIV positive, and among them less than 4 percent have access to treatment and less than 8 percent have access to services, Sidibe said.
“It’s the same for men having sex with men,” he said.
In Nigeria, where there are 1,000 new HIV infections every day, over 30 percent are in vulnerable groups – drug users, sex workers and homosexuals, he said.
Sidibe called for “a prevention revolution” including a campaign in major cities around the world like the anti-smoking campaigns launched in recent years.
MSM 44 times more likely to get HIV
New CDC analysis says that men who have sex with men are also 46 times more likely to get syphilis.
Vanasco: Mike Rogers outs conservative lt. gov.
Super-activist Mike Rogers reports that South Carolina Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer has sex with men – despite his conservative, pro-Christian stance.
Why does a lt. governor matter? Because he will replace Gov. Mark Sanford if the governor resigns or is impeached (very possible, since the governor is currently dealing with a …
bout 17 percent of gay men in Chicago are…
bout 17 percent of gay men in Chicago are HIV-positive — and half of them don’t know it.
That’s according to authorititative new estimates from the Chicago Public Health Department.
In particular, black men who have sex with men have double the HIV infection rates of white and Hispanic men, even though they don’t appear to engage in riskier behavior, Chicago health officials said today.
Their report was based on data collected last year from 570 Chicago men in the National HIV Behavioral Surveillance system.
It’s the first time Chicago health officials have used blood-testing to determine HIV infection rates in this high-risk population, said Christopher Brown, assistant commissioner of the health department’s STD, HIV and AIDS division.
Past estimates have relied solely on interviews with gay and bisexual men about their HIV status.
“What we found out pretty much confirms what we’ve known for a while,” Brown said.
See Study: Half of HIV-positive men in Chicago don’t know it
Chicago Sun-Times
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Aids: Role of Gay Men in Spreading Virus Is Ignored in Africa, Study Finds
The role of gay sex in the transmission of the virus that causes AIDS in Africa has been long ignored, say the authors of a new study in the medical journal Lancet.
While most transmission of the virus in Africa is heterosexual, 19 recent studies of African men who have sex with men show that they have “considerably higher” infection rates than other adult men in their respective countries, said the authors, who were from Oxford University and research institutions in Ghana and Kenya.
These men also have less access to prevention and care; most African countries have allocated no money to gay men, and homosexual sex is illegal in 31 African countries, in four of which men risk the death penalty.
See Aids: Role of Gay Men in Spreading Virus Is Ignored in Africa, Study Finds
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In India, Homosexuals can now hope for better healthcare Daily News & Analysis
The National Aids Control Organisation (NACO) feels that the Delhi high court verdict on legalising homosexuality will have a far reaching impact on its intervention programmes against HIV/AIDS.”From the public health point of view this is a very positive step as it will help us reach out more and more men having sex with men (MSMs) in our endeavour against HIV/AIDS. Since homosexuality is illegal under IPC 377, not only the MSMs but many of our health workers are also arrested by the police for abetment of crime. As I result a lot of MSMs go underground and are reluctant to seek medical intervention. The HC verdict will help MSMs come out in open and access healthcare,” said K Sujatha Rao, director general of NACO. MSM is a medical term used for the gay. See Homosexuals can now hope for better healthcare Daily News & Analysis
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Real Housewives’ Simon: Stop Asking Me if I’m Gay!
Get it straight, says Real Housewives of New York City Simon van Kempen: He’s not gay.
“If I was gay, I would be gay, but I’m not!” he told Usmagazine.com Wednesday at the AWRT Gracie Awards Gala in NYC. “I don’t want to have sex with men!”
Meow! Check out reality TV’s biggest catfights of all time
The stars of the hit Bravo show have long poked fun at Simon’s love for shopping and pampering. On the recent reunion show, Jill Zarin even told Simon’s wife Alex McCord that Simon is gay – he just doesn’t know it yet. See Real Housewives’ Simon: Stop Asking Me if I’m Gay!
Us Magazine
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Indiana removes gay white men from HIV/AIDS funding priorities
The Indiana State Department of Health recently cut gay white men as an HIV/AIDS funding priority. African-American and Hispanic men who have sex with men are still included as priority populations. The decision was made by the department’s advisory Community Planning Group (CPG).
The CPG is a Center for Disease Control (CDC) mandated process for funding HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment programs in the states; it aims to be politics-free and representative of the community. The Indiana State Department of Health (ISDH) administers CDC HIV/AIDS prevention funds. Indiana health activists charge that the Group ignored the CDC’s criteria for defining community priorities.
See Indiana removes gay white men from HIV/AIDS funding priorities
Huffington Post
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New UN plan to boost HIV services targets gay men and transgender people
Two United Nations agencies are launching a plan to provide increased HIV-related information and health services to men who have sex with men and transgender populations, while stressing the need to make universal access to treatment, care and support a reality for all.
The initiative, spearheaded by the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and the UN Development Programme (UNDP), comes ahead of the International Day Against Homophobia, observed on 17 May.
“The case is clear and urgent,” said Jeffery O’Malley, Director of UNDP’s HIV group. “If we are going to make universal access for sexual minorities a meaningful reality, we must work towards ending homophobia and transphobia. We must address the legal and policy barriers.”
In a news release issued today, the agencies noted that in many parts of the world, HIV prevalence among men who have sex with men is more than 20 times higher than in the general population.
In addition, studies show that HIV prevention services reach only one tenth to one third of people who engage in male homosexual activity. At the same time, there is growing evidence that the majority of new infections in many urban areas are among men who have sex with men.
“Yet, these same groups have limited access to HIV-related information and health services due to discrimination, violence, marginalization and other human rights violations,” the agencies stated. “In many countries, they still face criminal sanctions and lack access to justice.”
Paul De Lay, acting Deputy Executive Director at UNAIDS, stressed the need for rigorous monitoring by countries of the evolution of their epidemics, and for tailoring national responses to the needs of those most at risk.
“In many settings this will be men who have sex with men,” he said, adding that responses must be based on local epidemiological and social realities to be effective.
The plan being launched – the UNAIDS Action Framework: Universal Access for Men who have Sex with Men and Transgender People – outlines several factors that impede access to HIV services, such as unwillingness on the part of governments and donors to invest in the sexual health of sexual minorities.
It also sets out how UNAIDS will work towards achieving universal access through three main objectives – improving human rights, strengthening the evidence base through better data, and reinforcing capacity and promoting partnerships to ensure broader and better responses.
In a message to mark the International Day, UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibé called for greater efforts to end homophobia and ensure the barriers that stop access to HIV services are removed.
“I urge all governments to take steps to eliminate stigma and discrimination faced by men who have sex with men, lesbians and transgender populations. They must also create social and legal environments that ensure respect for human rights and enable universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support,” he stated.
Mr. Sidibé added that while governments committed in the 2006 UN Political Declaration on HIV/AIDS to removing legal barriers and passing laws to protect vulnerable populations, more than 80 countries still have legislation that prohibits same sex behaviour.
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BURUNDI: 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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