The War on Love in Trinidad and Tobago

From gspott: t&t's trigger site for sogi passion and advocacy blog

October 23rd may have been the largest (and perhaps the first) GLBT protest in T&T’s history. Young people and a few older ones filled a “big maxi” and two cars, dressed in jerseys that announced “The homosexual agenda” of GLBT people in T&T and their allies to

1. Buy Crix
2. Spend time with family
3. Work for equality.

They almost outnumbered other attendees at the His Way Out Ministries/Hospital Christian Fellowship/Lawyers for Jesus/Emmanuel Community meeting in South, built around the visit of “reformed” gay pastor Phillip Lee. The event, titled “Sexual Health: Truth Revealed” and billed as a “sexual health seminar”, was moved at the last minute from Naparima Girls High School (did Naps reject them, and why?) to the pentecostal Prayer and Praise Open Bible Chapel in Cocoyea.

Henry and the groups behind the rally are trying to change attitudes, the Express story the Sunday after the event makes clear: they’re in a “war” against the love practised by some of their fellow citizens, for which they’ve imported a reformed gay American as field marshal.

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[If an item is not written by an IRMA member, it should not be construed that IRMA has taken a position on the article's content, whether in support or in opposition.]

UNICEF Unvails New Plan to Prevent Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV

From Daily Nation, by Daniel Otieno

Unicef on Saturday unveiled a new plan to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV/Aids.

While launching the plan in Kisumu, the fund’s executive director Antony Lake said it involved providing drugs to mothers diagnosed with HIV.

The programme will be rolled out in four other countries in African. In Kenya, Kisumu, Kisii, Eldoret and Nakuru have been selected.

Mr Lake said a pack of the drugs costs Sh6,700.

Nyanza provincial medical officer Dr Ojuang Lusi said despite the work to control mother-to-child transmission of HIV, not much had been achieved hence a shift in strategy was welcome.

He said that the packaging of the drugs for mothers to use at home would increase their chances of taking it as some avoid hospitals and health centres soon after being diagnosed with HIV.

“The rate of mother-to-child transmission is 37 per cent. Despite the availability of methods to halt infections of children at birth, there is little change. We need to change the ball game,” Dr Lusi said.

While HIV/Aids prevalence rate has been on a steady decline in Kenya, 22,000 children are infected with HIV annually through mother-to-child transmission.

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Read further coverage of UNICEF's plan from the Kaiser Family Foundation

[If an item is not written by an IRMA member, it should not be construed that IRMA has taken a position on the article's content, whether in support or in opposition.]

Chinese NGOs Important in Fighting Spread of AIDS

From China Daily

Among the Chinese gay community, non-governmental organizations play an indispensable role, fulfilling the role governments usually play, said Gao Yongjun, an official with Tianjin's disease prevention and control center.

"The volunteers, often gay themselves, are better than government workers at approaching and convincing gays to practice safe sex," said Gao.

In 2010 alone, the Shenlan group provided care for 160 HIV/AIDS-positive gays and extended their prevention network to over 5,000 male homosexuals.

The continuous efforts of these groups are credited with raising awareness levels of safe sex among the gay population.

Still, even as the NGOs boost condom-use and help save lives, contributing to a better society, its members still suffer discrimination. Most of the gay groups, fearing publicity, operate in secret.

Traditional Chinese culture is family-based, with emphasis on marriage and offspring, and so homosexuals remain an alienated group under constant pressure, according to Zhang.

For many of the volunteers, some of whom are "closet homosexuals" or HIV/AIDS-positive themselves, their biggest fear is the possibility of encountering family members or acquaintances when performing their group's work.

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[If an item is not written by an IRMA member, it should not be construed that IRMA has taken a position on the article's content, whether in support or in opposition.]

Rise in Husband-to-Wife HIV Infections Expected

From Myanmar Times, by Khin Myat

Experts from non-government organisations working in the HIV prevention field say the proportion of new HIV infections attributed to husband-to-wife transmission is likely to increase over the next five years. Dr Khin Zar Li Aye, a monitoring and evaluation officer at the United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), said that by 2015, nearly half of all new HIV infections would occur among women infected by their husbands.

UNAIDS estimates about two-fifths of all new infections in 2010 are the result of husband-to-wife transmission. However, while the number of new infections among sex worker clients and injecting drug users is expected to fall over the next five years, husband-to-wife transmission is expected to rise slightly, UNAIDS says.

Dr Sid Naing, country director of Marie Stopes International, said because Myanmar received relatively little funding to prevent new HIV infections from international donors, NGOs had to target only high-risk groups, such as sex workers and drug users. "Married women are a neglected group when it comes to HIV prevention activities," he said. He said it is also difficult to raise awareness among married women because most trusted their husbands and believed they would be always be faithful. "We see some cases of women who are about 40 years old contracting HIV -- women who have no history of drug use or having sex outside marriage," he said.

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Swiss Catholic Church Hands Out Condoms

From the BBC

A Catholic church in Switzerland is distributing condoms as part of an HIV/Aids awareness campaign.

That is contrary to the official stance of the Vatican, which does not condone the use of condoms under any circumstances.

This week the Swiss church has distributed more than 3,000 condoms, including to children.

Florian Flohr is the church's spokesman and Jack Valero is the press officer for Opus Dei and a member of Catholic Voices, which speaks to the media on Catholic issues.

Listen to the BBC broadcast here