AIDS: Anger flares at homophobic laws

(AFP) – Campaigners at the world AIDS
conference are taking aim at countries with
anti-gay laws, accusing them of creating
conditions that let HIV spread like poison.
Powerfully mixing concerns over human rights
and health, the issue threatens to divide
western donor countries where gay equality is
making strides from poor beneficiary nations
where anti-gay laws persist or have been
newly passed, say some.
Nobel laureate Francoise Barre-Sinoussi, who
co-discovered HIV and co-chairs the six-day
conference, seized Sunday’s opening ceremony
to lay down a barrage of fire at laws targeting
minorities who bear a disproportionate share
of the global pandemic.
“The cruel reality is that in every region of the
world, stigma and discrimination continue to
be the main barriers to effective access to
health,” she said.
“We need again to shout out loud that we will
not stand idly by when governments, in
violation of all human rights principles, are
enforcing monstrous laws that only
marginalise populations that are already the
most vulnerable in society.”
Experts point to bitterly-won experience in the
war on AIDS, which has claimed 39 million
lives in 33 years: HIV spreads stealthily from
stigmatised minorities and into the
mainstream population, where it then can
spread like wildfire.
If gays or bisexuals are jailed or persecuted,
this discourages them from taking an HIV test
or seeking treatment if they are infected. It
creates a toxic atmosphere of silence and fear
— a perfect breeding ground for HIV.
The scenario is similar, say specialists, when
sex workers and intravenous drug users are
criminalised.
The 12,000 delegates attending the 20th
International AIDS Conference are being urged
to sign a “Melbourne Declaration” which
insists that all gay, lesbian and transgender
people “are entitled to equal rights and to
equal access to HIV prevention, care and
treatment information and services”.
But just as more and more western countries
have passed laws enshrining equal rights to
marriage, health care and pensions for gays,
other countries have pushed through
legislation to prosecute them.
According to a report issued last week by the
UN agency UNAIDS, 79 countries have laws
that criminalise same-sex practices, and seven
of them have the death penalty for it.
Recent adopters of anti-gay legislation include
Uganda and Nigeria. India has restored
colonial-era anti-sodomy laws. Russia has
passed legislation banning even the
distribution of information about homosexual
orientation.
Kene Esom, a Nigerian who works in South
Africa for a gay campaign group, the African
Men for Sexual Health and Rights, said these
laws sometimes crippled efforts to spread the
word about safe sex and expand access to
life-saving HIV drugs.
“Some laws ban freedom of assembly and
freedom of association” for gays, he said.
“That means groups can’t meet or even
receive funds.”
- Donor anger -
In a keynote speech, former Australian high
court justice and human rights advocate
Michael Kirby said patience was wearing thin
among western countries which donated
roughly half of the $19 billion (14 billion
euros) in funds to fight AIDS in developing
economies last year.
Most of the money is spent buying drugs that
keep millions of infected people alive.
“Someone must tell those who will not act the
practical facts of life in our world,” Kirby said
acidly.
“They cannot expect taxpayers in other
countries to shell out, indefinitely, huge funds
for antiretroviral drugs if they simply refuse to
reform their own laws and policies to help
their own citizens.”
Jean-Francois Delfraissy, head of France’s
National Agency for AIDS Research (ANRS),
said he feared the medical consequences if the
money stopped flowing.
Donor frustrations at repressive laws were
best voiced through the Global Fund to Fight
AIDS, TB and Malaria to avoid charges of
interference by rich countries in the domestic
politics of poor ones, he told AFP.
“I’m a doctor, so my reflex is to think that
these countries need antiretrovirals like
everyone, and we should not be punishing
patients in the hope of getting a government
to shift its position.
“However, the Fund is not just a bank, it’s a
moral entity,” he said. “It can set general lines
(for disbursement), so funding can be
conditional.”