Acronyms, sex and viruses

I’m your basic garden-variety married heterosexual woman with children, living in Africa. And living with the fear and panic that too many governments on this continent are putting me — and many women like me, and our children — at risk.

My print colleague Ruth Pollard, whom I met in Sydney last year at the journalist-to-journalist programme of the US’s National Press Foundation, this week wrote, ”Government-led discrimination against men who have sex with men has long been one of the main impediments to preventing HIV transmission in this group.”

It’s a clunky, boring phrase, this ”men who have sex with men.” Gay is shorter. Homo is faster. And I’m allergic to all and any acronyms, including MSM. But I’m the reason why this MSM phrase is used, because there is no dividing line between men who have sex with men, and men who go home to have sex with their wives and girlfriends.

Ever been to Senegal? I love Dakar. Stylish, vibrant, musical, funny, beautiful people. (Good food too.) But the country’s state-sponsored discrimination and stigma against men who have sex with men had all but destroyed HIV programmes aimed at that risk group, according to a “>report from Johannesburg-based journalist Stephanie Nolen in Canada’s Globe and Mail newspaper.

Studies conducted by researchers at a university in the capital of Dakar show about 20% of Senegalese MSM have HIV, compared with 0,7% of the general population. And most of those men are also having sex with women like me — their wives, the mothers of their children, their cover, their protection, their safety net. But does President Abdoulaye Wade see this as a reason to protect those women, those children? No.

So out of pure unadulterated self-interest, I’d like the citizens of Senegal (and South Africa, and elsewhere) to protect families by protecting gay men, because most of them are husbands and fathers.

I agree with Ruth that Stephanie Nolen’s book 28: Stories of Aids in Africa is a great way of introducing the uninitiated to the scope of the HIV pandemic. But I disagree with Ruth’s focus on African governments. It is up to African citizens to do this. The recent outbreak of xenophobia in South Africa showed this: ordinary people whipped into action like Formula One racing cars. Government structures responded like one of those lumbering US aircraft carriers that need a whole ocean in which to turn around.

Ever been to Uganda? Another fantastic place, with fantastic people, allowing their political leader Yoweri Museveni to encourage infection.

Earlier this month, at the “>HIV Implementers Meeting, three gay activists were “>arrested when they protested the government’s lack of action on HIV amongst MSM.
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The three Ugandans have been released on bail. The charges against them have not been dropped. They have been charged with Criminal Trespass, under Section 302 of the Uganda Penal Code , which I think dates back to colonial days.

All have pleaded not guilty and were released on bail of 500 000 Ugandan shillings ($310). The case comes up again on the 20 June 2008.

Their peaceful protest was prompted by an outrageous statement from Kihumuro Apuuli, the director general of the Uganda Aids Commission, who said: “Gays are one of the drivers of HIV in Uganda, but because of meagre resources we cannot direct our programmes at them at this time.” Later on, Museveni complained that money spent protecting men through circumcision should be spent on yet more years of research for a HIV/Aids vaccine, like the search for the Holy Grail. What about what works now, as well as working towards the future?

At the same time, Jack Beck of the Global Forum on MSM and HIV sent me a “>link to a story on how many of Uganda’s religious leaders, some of whom have held ”condom-burning” ceremonies, continue to criticise all efforts to accept gays.

Ruth reckons that when “public morality” gets in the way of HIV prevention, it’s time for the United Nations, the World Health Organisation, the Global Fund and other leaders in civil society to draw the line and demand that funding is targeted where it is most needed. I reckon any organisation with an acronym hasn’t got a hope in hell of succeeding if ordinary people are willing to sacrifice their gay uncles, fathers, and colleagues.

And here again, the evidence is clear that protecting my gay brothers protects me and my sisters, as well as any children to be borne out of our relationships. Studies have shown that gay men in Uganda have an HIV prevalence level of 26%, but are not a target for HIV prevention programmes, according to AIDSmap.

The International Aids Society’s criticism of homophobic legislation in Africa and elsewhere, hampering HIV prevention, has been reported on Africa Science News by Kenyan science journalist Henry Neondo

I’ve been paying attention to these stories because they show up in my own work as a science journalist, as in the time Miriam Were of the Kenya Aids Council called for the government to target at-risk groups like gay men.

But is anyone listening? Gambian President Yahya Jammeh threatened to behead gay people at a political rally recently and said they had 24 hours to leave the country. This, from a man who claims to have found a ”cure” for Aids.

We don’t have a cure. We only have each other. Taking care of each other might be a good start.