I'm Dr. Paul Semugoma. I work in Uganda with KULHAS, which is Kuchus [gay men] Living With HIV/AIDS.
What is life like for HIV-positive gay men in Uganda? It's not easy, because they are living in a kind of double closet. Read More >>
In Uganda, gay men living with HIV/AIDS are very closeted. They have a double stigma, due to the fact that they are gay and to the fact that they are HIV positive. The community has discriminated against them, so they want to hide the fact that they are positive. They don't want anybody else to know, so it's kind of a tough life. When they get sick, they don't have anybody to help them. They can't fall on the community for help, and at the same time, when they go back to their family, their families can cast them away because they are gay.
It's a tough life, and they might reveal to their families that they are positive, but they don't reveal that they are gay. Sometimes they might reveal to their community that they are gay, but they don't reveal that they are HIV positive. So they lead a double- or triple-standard life, which has to be balanced somehow all the time. That is their kind of life.
We hope that it can be changed. We are working on changing that. But at the moment, that is what it is.
Ian McKnight, Jamaica
I'm Ian McKnight. My present job is with the Caribbean Vulnerable Communities Coalition, which is a Caribbean coalition of NGOs [non-governmental organizations] that do work with marginalized groups, among which we work with MSM [men who have sex with men].
In the Caribbean, men who have sex with men suffer extreme discrimination and stigmatization. We have seen where that has resulted in people being beaten, people being killed in Jamaica. We saw that recently in Nassau. We see, for example, where the violence is catching on in countries like Antigua and St. Lucia. We're also seeing deaths, and we're seeing people threatened. Read More >>
I think on a day-to-day basis, persons have to be very conscious of how they display their sexuality. Particularly, I'll narrow it down to Jamaica and say that Jamaican LGBT [lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender] individuals have to be constantly careful of how they live and how they manifest their sexuality. That is a very high-pressured psychological state to live under. Many people find themselves having to look over their shoulders, having to wonder if people are seeing them, wondering if people are knowing what their sexuality is about.
Thankfully, persons are able to rise above that very intense psychological pressure to do their own work, to execute their own lives on a day-to-day basis. People are living productive lives. They go to work on a daily basis. Some people live together as couples. Some people rear children together as couples. Some people are in very good positions. It is true, too, that even [for some of these people], people know that they're homosexuals. People in their immediate circle at work may know, respect and engage with them on that level. But the wider knowledge, the wider public knowledge, is what becomes a much more threatening situation.
I feel that it's also important to state that there is a community. People come together to just to hang out and chill. People come together for educational purposes, so there are programs in place for the LGBT community, predominantly around safer sex and HIV issues. People party, of course.
There's that level of community. There's a very intricate underground network. When something goes wrong or something goes well, the ripple effect is felt very quickly. If someone needs help, people know the sources to go to, to call, to get help, and to address some of these issues.
In many instances, there is a protective network. Something might happen -- for example, something happens where somebody is discriminated against in a particular place. There are individuals who can make strong representation at the very highest level. Sometimes, even though it's done behind the scenes, it is very, very powerfully felt. People experience the impact of discriminating against a member of the LGBT community.
I think it's important to talk about young people. There's a group of persons who are very young who don't give a damn about what people think or say, who live their lives in a much more open way than many older persons do. For them, it's really pushing, pushing and pushing it to another level.
We see guys who are cross-dressing, some of them in public, which is amazing. Some have been beaten as a result of it, but others continue, and many of them are even challenging their teachers in school.
One fantastic story that came to us was: A guy was discriminated against verbally in his high school, and he said to them, "If you don't apologize, I'm going to tell JFLAG [Jamaican Forum for Lesbians, All-Sexuals, and Gays] and let JFLAG come down on this school." He got an apology from the school because they felt that having the wrath of JFLAG on them was not going to be something that they would entertain.
JFLAG has a very powerful and public stance. I've heard radio announcers joke. They have a kind of semi-comedy slot. One morning I heard one of them [telling] a joke which had a gay character, and he said, "Oh, God. I don't know if I should do that because JFLAG is going to be on my case in a couple of days." Things like those, small though they be, are some indicators that things are happening, things are changing.
From a policy level, a higher level, we are in negotiations with health officials. We are in negotiations with the police, all to make this better. I think we have to also bring attention to bear on the church, Sunshine Cathedral, which is a safe place for LGBT members and their family members to come and worship. That's a fantastic thing that's happened, where we have worship services of up to 100 persons on a monthly basis. People travel for two and three hours to get to these services. It's just a beautiful thing. It has a blog going with LGBT Jamaican-specific spirituality posted on it. It's http://sunshinecathedraljamaica.blogspot.com/. It has a lot of powerful stuff on it. It actually uses a lot of local, cultural things and really is turning around, rewriting, the history for LGBT persons.
Venkatesan Chakrapani, M.D., India
I'm Dr. Venkatesan Chakrapani from India. I'm with the Indian Network for People Living With HIV.
A person who is a man who has sex with men as well as HIV positive has to face double discrimination from the society, meaning being both positive as well as being MSM, which is not accepted in the general public, as well as within the HIV-positive community. Sometimes an MSM living with HIV may not be affected by the mainstream positive people. In that way, they are facing discrimination, but from the general public, from the health care providers, as well as from the mainstream positive people. Read More >>
Also, when they go for treatment in the government hospitals, they also face discrimination from the health care provider, especially if [the provider is] going to ask their sexual history and find out that they are MSM as well as positive.
So there's discrimination from the health care system that will also mean that they may not even want to go to health care providers and talk about [being] positive [and] that they are MSM, which means that both the treatment as well as prevention messages are not being properly delivered to them.
Anita Radix, M.D., Grenada/New York
My name is Anita Radix and I'm originally from Grenada, which is in the Caribbean. I recently relocated to New York. I'm a physician. I work with HIV-positive patients.
Of course it's very different in New York, but when I was working in the Caribbean it was a very difficult situation to work as a physician with clients who were really not able to access care. Especially for MSM, there's a great deal of invisibility. A lot of people don't want to disclose their sexuality or what they're doing.
As one of the few "out" physicians -- I'm a lesbian physician -- I did get a lot of MSM clients who felt comfortable coming to me. But, for the majority of people, they don't [access care]. Read More >>
The other issue is access to medication. Even if you're diagnosed, the country you're in -- because I worked in several islands -- you can get tested, but they don't have rapid testing. It takes a long time to get the results. When you have the results, there's an issue with confidentiality. Often, people on the street will know your diagnosis before you're told the diagnosis. That's one of the first issues. There's a lot of stigma. People are seen in the hospital and everyone knows what they're there for.
Then, of course, there are other issues, like access to medications. If you need it, you may not get it. The medications are expensive. Even if you get the medications, maybe, in the country you're in, you may not be able to have your CD4 count or your viral load [tests].
None of the islands I worked with have resistance testing. They're probably, if you think about it, maybe 10 years behind where we are in New York, on all fronts.
Ruben del Prado, Guyana/Suriname
Hi, I'm Ruben del Prado. I'm the UNAIDS country coordinator working in two countries in South America. One is called Guyana and one is called Suriname.
Being gay in both countries is quite different. In Guyana, for instance, the laws of the land are still very much discriminatory of homosexuality. In Suriname, they're not. That immediately gives it a different perspective. In Guyana, being HIV positive and gay is a double jeopardy. It is very, very difficult. In Suriname, of course, being homosexual is a lot less repressed, but being HIV positive is not easy.
Joseph Akoro, Nigeria
My name is Joseph Akoro. I'm from Nigeria. My organization is The Independent Project for Equal Rights [TIP]. Basically, what we do is we work on human rights and also HIV/AIDS issues in the LGBT community in general.
Our special focus [is on] young people, because we know that these people are the most vulnerable to HIV infection and human rights violations based on sexual orientation, which affects sexual behaviors, whether protected or unprotected.
To be HIV positive as a young person and a gay man -- or a man who has sex with men, however you identify -- in Nigeria is bizarre because the law discriminates against you having sex with a man, so you do not have any access to health care as someone who has sex with a man. Also, the government does not even provide those services because they do not acknowledge men who have sex with men. Read More >>
As people with a great passion for young people and securing the future, TIP is actually working to set up a community center where LGBT people can meet and be themselves, get HIV prevention, care and treatment if there is [treatment available.]
We also think that HIV prevention is way beyond condoms and lubricants. We need to do something about the social welfare. We need to talk to them about their sexual identity, how to deal with their sexual identity, and how to observe protected sex, even despite their sexual behavior.
All of this we're looking at in Nigeria for young people -- in Lagos, where we are based and, of course, we could expand this as time goes and also as funding allows.
I'm going to be talking about the population that we serve because I know them better than every other population. Those are the young LGBT people. As a young person who is gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender in Nigeria, you cannot be open about your sexual orientation to your family. You're subjected to being ejected out from your family's home if you actually disclose this.
Young LGBT people live under this fear because once you're ejected from home, then you're subjected to every human rights violation, which includes health, your life, and everything like that. It's very risky to be open at home.
Michel De Groulard, Trinidad and Tobago
My name is Michel de Groulard. I am a UNAIDS regional program advisor in the regional office of Trinidad and Tobago for the Caribbean.
I have been living in Trinidad for a number of years in different capacities, so I know Trinidad pretty well and I know the gay community pretty well as well. I am really concerned about the young people, the young gay men in Trinidad and Tobago. Some of them have been infected at the age of 15 or 16. Most of the time they have been raped by older men, not knowing at that time what was really happening to them. But because of that, they got infected with HIV. Read More >>
Therefore, you have young guys at the age of 20 who have been HIV positive for the past four or five years. This has become all their life. All their life is centered around their HIV status, because it has impacted their life so much in terms of their studies, in terms of how they relate with their family, in terms of what could be their future professionally, that their life is only being HIV positive. Therefore, they commit themselves to helping others, which is a good thing. But I am a bit worried about these guys whose life will only be HIV. That's one aspect.
The second aspect is that there are a lot of networks that are developed through the Internet, in particular, to make contact among gay men, which makes things much easier than before to know each other. But all these networks are also a lot about sex. Those young guys who are 18 or 19 who don't know too much, they tend to trust the Internet people who are saying that they are HIV negative and ready to have, sometimes, their first sexual experience with somebody that they don't know. They tend to trust based on nothing -- only that the Internet is saying that they are HIV negative. That is a big worry.
Orchid Gowe Hunter, Jamaica
My name is Orchid Gowe Hunter and I'm a nurse working for Jamaica AIDS Support for Life for the past 12 years. I have been working with MSM, sex workers, heterosexuals and a wide cross-section of persons living with HIV/AIDS.
For MSM and their family members, from what I have observed, most families, most of these persons are not accepted by their family members -- just a few. For those who are not accepted, most of them are merely turned out on the streets, abandoned by their family, or are discriminated [against] in society, and family members also discriminate [against] these persons. Life is not so nice in Jamaica for MSM right now. Read More >>
For me, in this field, I accept persons for who they are, no matter what their sexuality or their lifestyle. I use prayer. [I know that] no matter what a person's sexual orientation is, they are still a human being. I know that God accepts each and every one. I'm hoping that one day the entire population -- or the world -- will see a person for who they are, not their sexuality or their lifestyle.
Caleb Orozco, Belize
Caleb Orozco. I'm from Belize. I am the president of the United Belize Advocacy Movement. We're the only MSM organization in the country. We were inspired by a multicentric study in development, and we've never looked back since 2006.
What's life like in Belize? It depends upon your age group and your class group. For [those in] the age group of 18 to 24 who are closeted or who are HIV positive, the experiences are different.
Read More >>
Right now I have a client who is 18 years old. He developed AIDS only three months [after testing HIV positive]. He also has herpes and the person he loved gave it to him deliberately.
He has to pretend with his mom that he got [HIV] from a woman because his mom is homophobic and so is his father. He has to pretend to be straight with his church group because they also have homophobic issues, being non-denominational and evangelical in nature.
But what's interesting about him is his character. He has been honest enough to tell all of his partners that he has slept with that they have been exposed, that they need to go get tested. That is an amazing accomplishment for somebody who's 18 years old! He also looks forward to staying in school. My organization is helping him with food support to ensure that he finishes school.
Of course, there are the other character issues. He tends to vomit to try and keep thin -- bulimic-type symptoms. He drinks [alcohol] once in a while, even on an empty stomach, or doesn't eat [in order] to keep his figure, as he would say. So all those issues we have to deal with in terms of that one person, as it is his life on the street.
I personally try to treat my relationship with each person as a partnership. You do your part, I do your part, and we'll be fine.
There's another person who is a client, but who also works with me as an educator. He got infected from a tattoo. Somebody was HIV positive and used a contaminated needle to infect him. He actually just [had his] sexual debut about a year ago.
What has happened is that even though he doesn't have his parents around, he has family -- his sisters -- and they're very supportive. He himself is taking it upon himself to seek out a PWHA [people with HIV/AIDS] support group to educate himself about what's going on. What I asked him to do was to be a peer educator for that other client we have. His commitment is to text him regularly and to keep him informed and to keep his hopes up, because they live in two separate parts of the country.
Olanrewaju Onigbogi, M.D., Nigeria
My name is Olanrewaju Onigbogi. I work as a public health physician at the University College Hospital in Ibadan, Nigeria.
I would like to start by giving people a perspective of Nigeria. Nigeria is such a big country, and I work as a researcher in Ibadan, which is in the southwestern part of the country. Many national HIV rates aren't really correct, so the best you can have are regional rates based on work that people have actually done in their region. So I'll be talking strictly about my work around the area where I live.
The HIV situation in Nigeria: I can say it's stabilizing. It was getting worse a few years ago, but now the rates are going down. The data also show that the infection rates are going down. Read More >>
However, the problems are still far from being over, because if education is not continued, people are likely to go back to high-risk behaviors. The greatest problem we have in Nigeria really is with high-risk behaviors, specifically among men who have sex with men, because many of them do not have access to HIV education. When they do, they don't have the resources to get condoms and lubes.
Most prevention services just target providing condoms, but with men who have sex with men, they actually need lubricants [lubes]. The lubes are still pretty expensive. That's the greatest problem I think we're having now with prevention services, especially with regards to MSM.
A few years ago, it was a lot worse. It was really difficult to get people to come out to say they were in the lesbian/gay/bisexual/transvestite community. Any kind of sexual orientation that was different from heterosexual, it was almost impossible to come out, to identify with it.
Initially it was like hardened resistance. It's gone to cynicism and discrimination. Like, OK, that's them, but we keep them at a distance. The laws are clear about it. The laws are still very strict and rigid. Sometimes people could go to prison for as long as 10 or 15 years. Because of the laws, the policemen can actually pick up people and harass them, even if they're not really keen about enforcing the laws. That's the other issue. The laws criminalize MSM, but enforcement is not really done. It's more harassment. That's a problem.
Like I said, it was a lot worse a few years ago. Now many more people are coming out. The government probably has greater problems to battle with, but the greatest problem people have is with their immediate families -- the parents and the siblings. That's the greatest problem they have. The government has other problems -- many other problems -- but the greatest problem that people really have is with their own families. That's where the discrimination really starts.
These people were interviewed at the XVII International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2008) in Mexico City. All interviews were conducted by Olivia Ford, with the exception of Venkatesan Chakrapani, M.D., who was interviewed by Terri Wilder.
Comment by: Augustine Komba Mends
(Banjul -The Gambia and Dakar-Senegal)
Fri., Oct. 24, 2008 at 12:55 pm EDT
Profound thanks to everyone at The Body for making it a reality for global AIDS awareness at all levels work just right. Specifically, I would like to add my viewpoints from of vagrant (possibly homeless) adolescents walking the streets of cities of the Mano River Union and those of Senegal and The Gambia -- as these are the pieces I can relate to very because of work or leisure. AIDS for a long time back had been taken for granted in many localities until some some four years ago when hard hitting consequences of this epidemic forced many at top leadership levels to reign in help from local and international CSOs/actors to combat this scourge. In The Gambia, UNV Mary Rose-Charles Santa Yalla org saved many an AIDS-orphaned or AIDS-ravaged child from premature death. In Sierra Leone, Guinea (Conakry), Liberia actors played a pivotal role in adequately sensitizing marginalized communities about the best practices in prevention, particularly focusing on former combattants and gang-rape victims who ended up as HIV/AIDS patients. In Dakar-Senegal, a careful observation observation at HIV/AIDS diagnosing and treatment centres like Institute Pasteur and Hopital Fahn will show that victim discrimination/stigmatisation is almost non-existent; far lower than the lowest in all these countries mentioned above.As recently as six weeks ago, an AIDS patients (name and gender withheld for obvious reasons) showed up at my home and after careful coaxing and cajoling,finally consented to be taken to Hopital Fahn were she presently receiving treatment.This patients condition has been medically tagged by authorities as stable.
One thing about the HIV/AIDS pandemic that demands a continual drive in every community is an unprecedented scaling down of stigmatization , especially of young girls or women.There is is still a belief among a vast number of youngmen that the females are not only the major carriers but are (proportionately) also the largest.
This misleading idea must be stopped!
Comment by: Lilbit
(Indianapolis,in)
Fri., Oct. 24, 2008 at 9:34 am EDT
HIV is not really talked about in my community. Ever since hearing about this disease I always got scared that I would catch it and die. I thought if I did catch it, I wouldn't tell anyone I wouldn't get tested. I just wouldn't want to know that type of news. But that was when I was very ignorant towards HIV. I figured I would pass it along so I wouldn't be an outcast. Yes, that sounds cruel but I'm sure I'm not the only one that has had that thought pass through my mind. Some even flirt with the thought and eventually do so. When I first got my HIV test, i was so scared. It was the most hardest experience I had ever had to deal with. It wasn't like I could run from it or make it go away with medicine like other std's. I knew once I had it I had it. I"m not gay or anything like that. But as a teen I was very promiscious. Thinking back on my sex partners and the risk I took not using protection was what frightened me the most. I mean I couldn't help but talk about it to my boyfriend, and sisters, my father and who ever listened to me. Everyone said it would never happen to me and GOD has plans for my life, and how that's the devil's disease. I believed only parts of that. I knew GOD had plans for my life but He has plans for everyone's life. He also gives us choices to. So if i make the choice to sleep around without protection and catch HIV that was my choice. Yes, he can heal me but I have to pay the consequences for my sinful acts. When I finally got tested, I had to wait two weeks for the results. In those two weeks my boyfriend got tested, so did my sisters and even my father and his girlfriend. That made me feel very good because I wasn't alone and I wasn't the only one who needed to know my status. I came back negative. It was a happy day for me. I still now get tested just to make sure I'm healthy, but I have a newfound love to help people with this disease.
Comment by: The Advocater
(New York,NY)
Sun., Oct. 5, 2008 at 12:20 am EDT
I am having a time trying to understand what is the point of identifying a persons who has been infected sexual preference/activity... Why is this always a question that has to be noted during the test session. IT DOESN'T MATTER AT THIS POINT. The real focus should be on identifying and making public the statistics of how close medical science is to finding a cure... I mean there is all this focus on "Know your Status, Prevention and Early Detection" and after that there isn't much more in terms of information. Where's the information America??? Information on progress to identify A CURE!!! All this attention addressing sexual activity and orientation is a needless distraction, who cares if the sex is MSW, WSW, MSM. I must ask - just what is this statistical finding supposed to demonstrate... The only information to be derived from this question is "Wow world look at the number of same sex -vs- oppisite sex activity thats really happening today". Well, I have news for all the people of the world today -- this sexual activity has been going on since people have drawn breath and existed on this rock we call earth. Now if you are that percentage of the ignorant people who are waiting -- hoping -- and wishing know this -- MSM & WSW ain't gonna ever change. It not an abomination, it ain't disappearing or dying out. No one can beat it out or kill it off. So please stop wasting time. Remember this issue was not ever a main concern before the HIV/AIDS epidemic (unless there was that percentage of people who just had to point out that someone was Gay/Lesbain to throw attention away from themselves). In closing, I must stress the real concern should be on what is the latest progress is in identifing A CURE.
Comment by: Moses
(North York, ON)
Sun., Sep. 7, 2008 at 1:50 pm EDT
Great work Dr. Paul from Uganda and the like from Nigeria, Jamaica, Grenada and the rest that make a difference in this fight against HIV/AIDS. I am from Uganda and know the kuchu (Gay) community well. It saddens me that the efforts within the community are stifled by the governments and cultures that still believe that no attention should be given to the individuals with this sexual orientation deeming it "foreign influence and immoral habit". We will fight with you...
Comment by: Peter John SaSellu
(New York City, USA)
Sun., Aug. 31, 2008 at 5:10 am EDT
First, great and many thanks to The Body for creating such an opportunity where people of all class, age, sex, national and historical background, and sexual orientation or race or culture, can share their plights concerning the HIV/AIDS pandemic.
However, as an international AIDS activists, it is really a very sad to understand that HIV positive people, in particular those in poor or resource limited setting, to face excessive discrinimation. I strongly believe, and I will continue to carry this believe with me, that the HIV epidemic either in industralized nations or poor countries or communities, is being driven my an institutionalized "culture of silence". To break this culture of silence many factors, such as public education, community advocacy, lobbying for policy and public practice change, etc. come into play.
Also, it is not very strange to hear about countries like Nigeria, Uganda or Jamaica to discriminate against people living with the epidemic. There are many contributing factors to this attitude. That’s why strong community advocacy and public education are some of the remedies to some of the challenges facing people living with, and communities affected by the epidemic.
We must continue this effort and especially holding our political, community and religious leaders accountable. They must act to bring about change in our respective communities. Only through this that AIDS/HIV shall be a history and not another pandemic legacy for future generations.
My emails addresses: jpsaselluno@africanaidsfund.org, jpsaselluno@americanaidsfoundation.org, and jpsaselluno@aidsfundgroup.org.
Thanks for your own individual contribution towards making AIDS/HIV a history.
Jean Pierre SaSelluno
a.k.a. "Peter John SaSellu"
"Whatever the mind conceive and believe the mind can achieve" - Napoleon Hill
Comment by: m4_m2002@yahoo.com
(top)
Sat., Aug. 30, 2008 at 7:04 am EDT
Hello. How are you? I am Aminu From Ghana. I am 20. Yes, I'm Gay. And you?
Comment by: Ken
(Indianapolis, IN)
Fri., Aug. 29, 2008 at 7:53 pm EDT
Being HIV is not the meaning of Death, its the meaning of a new life to serve the community in this crisis. As the Founder of Positive Faith Ministries and Hope Center Ministries here in Indianapolis, In. currently an online ministry, and now a church service. Brings others in all walks of life to come together and except others for who they are, not what they have. Excepting your status was the hardest thing in my life, who knew God would use what I know about him and about myself to continue the work Christ first started here on earth. Being positive to me is not my death sentence its a reality check to help others like myself looking for answers to many questions and continueing the work set forth for us to do as PozChristians all over the World. Ministries and Missionaries spend their entire life helping others all over the World for the Aids Crisis and these individuals have been working for Christ for many years. Why don't we here about what they have been doing? Pozitive Faith for Positive People! Thats what Positive Faith Ministries used to stand for, and today, we continue to reach out to the Pozitive Community and show them a more Positive and full filling meaning through their life through the Word of God and teaching, preaching and Healing through prayer of Jesus Christ. Yes, God still loves everyone, whether they are infected or affected by HIV/AIDS. Jesus healed a women with a blood condition, who is it to say that she wasn't HIV+ or had AIDS? The bible doesn't say what she had, just that she had a blood condition? And Jesus touched and healed her! Who isn't to say that the Lord can't heal you, uplift your CD4 cell counts or lower your viral loads by faith. I have been positive for 13 years and as of today still maintain a healthy lifestyle and in the Lord, when its time for me to be put on meds; I'll except them just as I would except the lord in my life and the continued blessings that he has held on my life this far.
Comment by: scooby
(Texas)
Fri., Aug. 22, 2008 at 10:16 am EDT
I am glad to finally see that people are seeing AIDS/HIV as being a killer and there are those caring people out there willing to step forward and let it be known (the truth about HIV/AIDS). Thank goodness for the International AIDS conference. My hat off to all of you
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