• "Oppressed" African fudgepackers now face loss of HIV aid

    From Coonologist@21:1/5 to All on Thu Feb 9 05:21:32 2017
    XPost: rec.scouting.usa, alt.politics.homosexuality, alt.california
    XPost: sac.politics

    DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania - East African nations have launched
    some of the world's most vicious campaigns against gay men and
    women, outlawing same-sex liaisons and threatening to punish
    these with years in jail.

    But in a move that has alarmed health workers, Tanzania is
    turning its anti-homosexual fury in a new direction - targeting
    HIV/AIDS programs that have helped tame a disease that once
    ravaged the region.

    Last month, the minister of health announced that Tanzania will
    ban HIV/AIDS outreach projects aimed at gay men, pending a
    review. That forced the closure, at least temporarily, of U.S.-
    funded programs that provide testing, condoms and medical care
    to gays. About 30 percent of gay men in Tanzania are HIV-
    positive; now health workers say that figure could rise.

    Tanzania's actions appear to mark the first time that a country
    has suspended parts of the United States' hugely successful
    foreign HIV/AIDS initiative in an attempt to crack down on the
    gay community. The U.S. PEPFAR campaign, backed by $65 billion
    since it was founded in 2003, has been credited with saving
    millions of lives.

    The ban comes after months of bitter speeches and threats from
    Tanzanian officials aimed at the gay community and at
    organizations treating its HIV/AIDS patients. This year, police
    raided two U.S.-funded HIV/AIDS organizations and seized
    confidential patient information and supplies, officials said.
    In September, the deputy minister of health, Hamisi Kigwangalla,
    accused HIV treatment organizations of "promoting homosexuality."

    "Any attempt to commit unnatural offenses is illegal and
    severely punished by law," Kigwangalla said in the statement.
    People convicted of same-sex liaisons in Tanzania can be jailed
    for up to 30 years.

    The health minister, Ummy Mwalimu, explained in a statement last
    month that officials had suspended HIV/AIDS outreach programs
    for gay patients to review whether they promoted same-sex
    relationships.

    The move has sent a shock wave through a community still
    grappling with the virus, even as modern medicine and treatment
    have dramatically improved victims' chances of survival.

    "In the short term, there are people who won't go to [health]
    service centers, and if they aren't on antiretrovirals, what
    happens? It's a major concern," said Warren Naamara, a doctor
    who is the director of the U.N. program on HIV/AIDS in Tanzania,
    referring to the drugs that suppress the virus.

    - - -

    PEPFAR, or the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief,
    launched by George W. Bush with bipartisan support, has become
    one of the most important U.S. assistance programs ever in
    Africa. Tanzania is an example of its success. Since 2002, the
    overall HIV/AIDS rate in the country has declined from 12
    percent to 5 percent. The number of people receiving treatment
    has grown in the past five years from 289,000 to over 700,000.

    Other organizations, such as the Global Fund to Fight AIDS,
    Tuberculosis and Malaria, also have spent billions of dollars on
    HIV treatment on the continent.

    But even as assistance programs have sharply reduced the death
    toll from AIDS, some countries in eastern Africa have been
    escalating their campaigns against homosexuality.

    In 2014, Uganda's parliament passed a law, later annulled, that
    imposed the death penalty on those found guilty of "aggravated
    homosexuality." This year, a Kenyan high court ruled that "anal
    tests" aimed at determining people's sexual orientation were
    legal.

    Even though Tanzania's penal code refers to homosexuality as a
    "gross indecency," the government had long permitted
    organizations to help gay men who had AIDS or who were at risk
    of contracting it.

    But since John Magufuli was elected president last year, the
    government's tolerance on the issue has disintegrated. Although
    Magufuli has not said anything publicly about homosexuality, a
    number of his appointees have made harsh remarks. Critics of gay
    rights say this nation - which has large numbers of Muslims and
    Christians - must protect traditional values.

    In an August speech, Paul Makonda, the regional commissioner of
    Dar es Salaam, the capital, threatened to arrest people who were
    linked to gay men on social-networking sites.


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    "If there's a homosexual who has a Facebook account, or with an
    Instagram account, all those who 'follow' him - it is very clear
    that they are just as guilty as the homosexual," said Makonda,
    who is the equivalent of a governor.

    The government also banned the distribution of lubricants that
    help ensure that condoms do not tear. Condoms are considered
    highly effective in preventing HIV transmission.

    - - -

    The U.S. government has hired health organizations such as
    Jhpiego, which is affiliated with Johns Hopkins University, to
    provide HIV tests, condoms and doctor referrals for gay men, sex
    workers and other vulnerable Tanzanians who are afraid to visit
    a public hospital. Those visits often take place in homes and
    informal community centers. The Jhpiego project was awarded $73
    million over five years beginning in 2015. But such groups have
    had to cease their outreach efforts in gay communities.

    "PEPFAR recognizes the importance of these key populations,"
    said a U.S. official who spoke on the condition of anonymity
    because of the sensitive situation in Tanzania. "And in order to
    reach many of them, you have to go where they are."

    Without access to those vulnerable communities, "it prolongs the
    epidemic in the end," the official said.

    U.S. officials said they are hopeful that the outreach programs
    will soon be restored, noting that the health minister has said
    the government is considering which HIV services would be
    appropriate for the gay community. But members of that community
    are pessimistic.

    "It's clear that the government doesn't care whether we live or
    die," said one 22-year-old gay man who spoke on the condition of
    anonymity because of fear of punishment.

    A 29-year-old gay man in Dar es Salaam who is HIV-positive said
    that he was diagnosed four years ago. Since then, antiretroviral
    drugs have helped him stay relatively healthy and health workers
    have provided him with condoms, lubricants and information about
    safe sex so he does not infect his partners.

    But now he had gone two weeks without medication. To get it, he
    would have to go to a public hospital, and he said he fears
    retribution.

    "In this environment, it's not safe to be a known gay man in the
    open," he said.

    Each week a patient is off his antiretroviral drugs, the virus
    grows more crippling - what doctors call a "viral rebound."

    "These interruptions in treatment are very dangerous," said
    Naamara of the U.N. program, known as UNAIDS.

    Boris Dittrich, the advocacy director of Human Rights Watch's
    LGBT division, said that "homophobic rhetoric from government
    officials will only drive already vulnerable populations
    underground. The government should reassure all Tanzanians they
    are protected from harm."

    Homosexuality is criminalized in at least 76 countries, and at
    least 33 of them are in Africa, according to the U.N. Free &
    Equal campaign for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender
    rights. In many African countries, homosexuality is seen as a
    Western phenomenon, imported by aid groups. The U.S. government
    has dissuaded political leaders from interfering with HIV/AIDS
    treatment, but American condemnation of anti-gay practices often
    has fallen on deaf ears.

    In Tanzania, the 29-year-old man recalled his first thought when
    he received his AIDS diagnosis: "This is the end of me." But
    medical treatment subsequently restored his health.

    In recent weeks, however, he has returned to a sense of doom, he
    said. "Under this pressure, what can we do now?"

    You stop fucking each other up the asshole and sucking dicks is
    what you do you stupid shit hut dwellers.

    http://napavalleyregister.com/news/nation-and-world/oppressed- african-gays-now-face-loss-of-hiv-aid/article_3049c4b3-6eb7-5ba0- 9243-e04aee31bc4f.html
     

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