Maurice Tomlinson consultant to UNAIDS, Board Member of Jamaica AIDS Support for Life and a one man public activist calling for the decriminalization of Buggery who also frequently writes to the various newspapers responds to a letter published in the Jamaica Observer posted here:
Starting with a "scientific" denial of global warming, W West's letter published September 9, 2010 seems to suggest that MSM advocates have similarly "misled" the UN by misrepresenting the fact that HIV incidence is increasing among MSM even in countries that have decriminalised same-sex intimacy. Once again I find West's letter disingenuous at best or representative of sloppy research at worst.
The fact is internalised homophobia is a powerful force even in countries with decriminalisation, because while laws and policies change, stigmatising attitudes and actions don't. This leads to unsafe sex and the spread of HIV as found by Theo Sandfort, PhD & Vasu Reddy, PhD of the Institute for Women's and Gender Studies & The Centre for the Study of AIDS, University of Pretoria, in February 2010.
Decriminalisation is therefore only the first step called for by UNAIDS to address the HIV epidemic among MSM. They also call for the removal of stigmatising and discriminatory policies and practices which drive people underground away from effective HIV prevention, treatment, care and support interventions.
There is also evidence that since the advent of anti-retrovirals to treat HIV, more people (not only MSM) are once again "enjoying" unsafe condom-less sex. AIDS is no longer viewed as a death sentence and is seen to be as treatable as gonorrhoea and syphilis. In fact, heterosexual women are now the largest population of HIV-infected individuals (UNAIDS report 2009).
There is also an alarming rise in new infections among older South African heterosexual couples. HIV is no longer a "gay" disease as it was in the 80s. Following West's reasoning, therefore, governments should label heterosexual sex (like cigarette smoking) dangerous and perhaps criminalise it as it represents a threat to public health!
The relation between human sexuality and HIV is complex. Criminalisation of any adult consensual activity will not stop people from engaging in it. What criminalisation of MSM activity does, however, is, among other things, restrict targeted MSM-specific HIV prevention messaging, forces MSM into heterosexual unions from which they periodically "escape" to engage in risky same-sex activity, and forbids the distribution of condoms in prisons. HIV therefore becomes entrenched in our population.
Maurice Tomlinson
Montego Bay, St James
maurice_tomlinson@yahoo.com
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