MSM

Reflections on IAC- continued:

Still in airport- so a few more reflections to share on the week, and what is on my mind...

As I started to say: the issue of MSMs and the failure to date for the big agencies and the global community to really address the stigma of homophobia in Africa broke open at this conference. I haven't see Jorge Saavedra's presentation, but I understand the 'evidence' he provided of how little money has been given to programs for MSMs, compared to the brunt of infection and suffering suffered by MSMs in many countries has helped convince agencies and even govts that maybe they can approach this via a public health strategy, which seems to help them get over their deeply entrenched homophoia. I stopped by the Gay Africa booth in the global village to congraluate their group for leading this charge. I'm going to look at their work and their members and give profile to this in my own journalism in the coming months...  read more »

In the Frontier Province of Pakistan there is a tradition of marriage between prepubescent boys and older men, says Shivananda Khan who works in the region as the Executive Director of the Naz Foundation International. According to him, a boy marriage is arranged between the two families and lasts only until the boy reaches puberty. After the marriage is over, it is then the older man's responsibility to find the younger man a wife.

In 2005, one such boy marriage was wrongly reported by western media outlets, including the BBC, as "Pakistan first Gay Marriage." Khan, also a steering committee member for the Global Forum on MSM and HIV, says the construct of boy marriage is very different than gay marriage, something that members of the western media would not understand without proper investigating. As a result of the media attention, both the boy and the families were victims of family and shamed in their region.

It is assumptions and confusion like what happened in Pakistan that makes MSM and LGBT rights work in the global south difficult."Language and incorrect terminology", says Khan "can wreak havoc in local communities. Certain words are like red flags to a bull for many local governments and leaders around the world." Terms like gay and LGBT are western centric says Khan and tend only to resonate with middle and upper middle class people in low and middle income countries.  read more »

What is standing out for me at the conference is the need to focus on investment and programs for and research of the most at-risk groups – men who have sex with men, drug users, sex workers and prisoners.

Let’s be frank, this is no “save the children” kind of cause - generally people are afraid of these groups and don’t know much about them. I’ve had a lot of global experiences in my life, but I have never spoken directly with a sex worker or prisoner (to my knowledge). With so many sex workers here, I can surely change this soon.

Simple prejudices and impressions aside, the numbers tell a shocking story. Of global AIDS expenditures, only 1.2 percent is spent on specific responses to men who have sex with men. This totals $3 million out of the estimated $30 million needed according to UNAI

“Less than 10% of high risk populations are receiving appropriate prevention.” Alex Coutinho, Executive Director, Infectious Disease Institute Uganda. In Uganda, a prisoner is more likely to die of AIDS than any other cause.

Outside of Africa, drug users, sex workers and men who have sex with men make up the vast majority of those contracting HIV. It’s amazing after 25 years and billions of dollars, we are not able to better address these populations. There is research and success stories that document what works in these populations, especially in Mexico and Brazil.  read more »

For those who didn't make it out of bed at 5am, or whatever ungodly hour you might have to get up to make it to Banamex by 7am, you missed out on some of the best IAC swag available so far courtesy of the Saddleback Church and its leaders Rick and Kay Warren. You also missed out on some very pointed questions during the Q&A about the Church's HIV/AIDS work in Rwanda and its lack of emphasis on prevention, resistance to condom distribution, and narrow theology of sexuality.

The Warrens are the leaders of the Saddleback empire, which includes their 22,000 member church in Orange County, CA, numerous national and international programs, regular speaking tours, Rick's bestselling book, The Purpose Driven Life, and Kay's book, Dangerous Surrender. Rick will also be hosting both US Presidential candidates for a two hour "Compassion and Leadership" forum next week on network TV.  read more »

Remember a couple of years ago when the LA Gay and Lesbian Center ran ads like the one above?

Lot's of folks - gay and not - got their panties in a knot about this campaign.

"It´s not a gay disease anymore. The 'face of AIDS´has changed"

"A disease cannot have a sexuality."

"This campaing stigmatizes us even more."

And yadda yadda. Fact is - then and now - HIV is quite prevalent among gay men and men who have sex with men the world over, alarmingly so. In the United States and all over the place. Read previous blog posts right here that, sadly, tragically. back these claims up.

Pretending HIV is somehow a generalized epidemic just doesn´t sit with the facts in MOST of the world. Making believe that AIDS is everyone´s business, and that everyone is at risk, does no one a favor.  read more »

The last thing I expected to be doing at the World AIDS Conference was standing on a stage at the Zocalo, the central square of Mexico City, making a speech about justice and HIV treatment access for gay men/MSM in the global South, and accepting a large banner from a group of rainbow-suited Mexican gay activists in front of a cheering crowd.

I’m a reporter, not a presenter, for godsake. Let alone a celeb (two reporters wanted to interview me). The way it happened was this.

I’m on the steering committee of the Global Forum for MSM and HIV, the folks who put on the pre-conference satellite meeting (in fact a miniconference of about 450 gay activists from around the world). The conference was a great success and afterwards we went on the march against homophobia and stigma, a rainbow-bedecked celebration of gayness and general non-family-oriented sexuality (the sex workers’ satellite attended too).  read more »

Translated Document to Enhance Rectal Microbicide Advocacy in the Spanish-Speaking World

Friday, August 1, 2008

Mexico City, Mexico – International Rectal Microbicide Advocates (IRMA) released "Menos Silencio, Más Ciencia" in Mexico City yesterday at a presentation preceding the 17th International AIDS Conference.
 read more »

Hola companeros. This is my first blog of the conference, so I thought I'd open with a question. Not my question though...this one actually came from UNAIDS chief, Peter Piot during his keynote at the MSM pre-conference. In his remarks, Piot urged the audience not to forget HIV prevention activism, reminding us that it was the gay community in the 80s that invented it.

So what do you think folks? Has prevention activism been waning? Does it need a revival?

In my day job as a sexuality education advocate, I can report that in the US prevention advocacy around sexuality and HIV education is certainly alive and well. Advocacy is slightly different from activism, but the activism still pops up in local stories about students pinning condoms to their shirts in schools that teach abstinence-only-until-marriage programs or parents mounting a honk-and-wave campaign for responsible sex ed.

I should also give a hat tip here to CHAMP, who has been carrying the banner of prevention activism and prevention justice since it's inception.  read more »

It seems like the most straightforward of definitions.  We’re not talking about whether a man identifies as bisexual, gay, straight, etc., just men who have sex with men. 

But this question arose for me today at the MSM pre-conference.  I attended a session wherein results of a survey among MSM in Britain were presented.  Among criteria that had to have been met to have been included in the survey data, a man had to answer “yes” to one of the following two questions:  Have you had sex with a man in the last year? and/or Have you ever had sex with a man?  If the answer to one or both was “yes,”the data was admissible.  If the answer was “no” to both, the participant was excluded. 

Important to note that another criterion was that aparticipant be 18 years of age or older. Most of the participants hooked into the survey through the website Gaydar.  Others, to a significantly lesser extent, were found through clinics and community organizations.  read more »