Uganda LGBTI HIV/AIDS Activists Acquitted of Trespass Charges

*15th August 2008: Uganda LGBTI HIV/AIDS Activists Acquitted of Trespass Charges*

Today 15th August 2008 at Buganda road court before grade I magistrate Olive Kanyange Mukwaya and a fully packed court room that included LGBTI activists from Uganda, Rwanda, Kenya and around the world.

The prosecution told court that the Director of Public Prosecution – DPP has dropped the charges of trespass against Pepe Juliana Onziema, Valentine Kalende and Usaam Mukwaya.

The magistrate court therefore dismissed the charges against the three and acquitted them.

It was a moment of joy and happiness for the LGBTI community of Uganda who were flocked by the media out side the court room.

Background:
On 4th June 2008 , three Human Rights Defenders were arrested during the just concluded HIV/AIDS Implementers meeting in Kampala. They were objecting to the exclusion of Sexual Minorities from the HIV/AIDS Prevention programmes in the country.

After two days and nights of detention in police cells, the three: Pepe Julian Onziema, Valentine Kalende and Usaam Mukwaya were charged with Criminal Trespass, a charge that carries a one year jail term according to section 302 of the Penal Code of Uganda. They were released on bail on the 6th of June 2008. They appeared in court for several hearings, today court acquitted them of the above charges.

SMUG and the entire LGBTI community of Uganda would like to express our gratitude to you all for the love and support.

Thank you,

Frank Mugisha
Human Rights Defender
Co-Chairperson
Sexual Minorities Uganda – SMUG
P.O. Box 70208, Clock Tower
Kampala – Uganda.
Tel: +256 312 294 859
Cell: +256 772 616 062
Email:fmugisha@sexualminoritiesuganda.org
www.sexualminoritiesuganda.org

"Justice and equality".

International Conference Announcement

*ANNOUNCEMENT INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE RIGHTS AND REALITIES IN PROMOTING SEXUAL AND REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH AND RIGHTS*

Dear colleague,

Are you struggling with implementing sexual and reproductive health and rights projects using a Rights Based Approach? Do you sometimes feel squeezed in between international rights and local realities? Do you wonder how we can truly hold people accountable for protecting and safeguarding rights? Then you should attend our conference!

World Population Foundation (WPF) and Youth Incentives (YI), international programme on sexuality of the Rutgers Nisso Groep, are proud to inform you on our upcoming two-day "International Conference on Rights and Realities in promoting sexual and reproductive health and rights" on 10 and 11 November 2008 in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.

Please see the attached announcement for more information on the objectives, background and organizers of the conference.

Formal invitation and registration will be sent in the coming months but please already make a reservation in your agenda!

Warm regards,

Yvonne Bogaarts
Senior Advocacy Officer
World Population Foundation
the Netherlands
www.wpf.org

Marijke Priester
Head of Youth Incentives - International Programme on Sexuality
Rutgers Nisso Groep
the Netherlands
www.youthincentives.org

Uganda: LGBT Arrested at International HIV/AIDS Meeting

http://allafrica.com/stories/200806051051.html

International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (New York)
PRESS RELEASE5 June 2008Posted to the web 5 June 2008

Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG) and the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) today condemned the arrests of three Ugandan LGBT activists and called for their immediate and unconditional release. The three -- Onziema Patience, (an FTM transgender, 28), Valentine Kalende (female, age 27) and Auf (male, age 26) -- were arrested yesterday morning by the Uganda Police Force at the 2008 HIV/AIDS Implementers' Meeting currently taking place in Kampala, Uganda.
Along with other LGBT and HIV and AIDS activists, they were peacefully protesting statements made by a Ugandan government official that no funds would be directed toward HIV programs targeting men who have sex with men. SMUG and IGLHRC have fears for the safety of the three activists.
On 2 May, 2008, Kihumuro Apuuli, Director General of the Uganda AIDS Commission, stated that, "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." The SMUG activists staged a peaceful protest at the HIV Implementers meeting to protest the Minister's statements and gross neglect on the part of the Ugandan government in responding to a growing HIV epidemic among the country's LGBT community. They were arrested and detained at the Jinja Road Police Station immediately after taking the stage at the meeting, distributing leaflets and holding up small placards demanding attention to HIV vulnerability among LGBT.
"Today I realized how dangerous it is for us LGBTI people to express our constitutional rights," said Frank Mugisha, Co-Chairperson of SMUG. "I am worried about my comrades who are in police custody."
According to a recent report by the University of Nairobi and the Population Council, gay men in neighboring Kenya have a sero prevalence rate of 26%. Twenty-six years since the beginning of the epidemic, Uganda hasn't implemented a single program to prevent transmission of HIV among men who have sex with men in the East African nation.
"The remarks made by the head of the AIDS Commission were very disturbing to members of the LGBT community," said Kasha Jacqueline, Chairperson of Freedom and Roam Uganda, a lesbian organization in Uganda. "If they want us to die, let them ask themselves if they wish themselves the same. Excluding us is just going to make the situation worse."
The HIV Implementer's Meeting is an annual event described as an opportunity for HIV program implementers to share lessons learned and best practices in the scale-up of HIV/AIDS programs. It is co-sponsored by the President's Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), UNAIDS, the World Bank, the Global Fund, UNICEF, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Global Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS (GNP+). IGLHRC is also requesting that the co-sponsors of the Implementers' Meeting contact the Ugandan Government to demand the release of these activists.
"Gay men and lesbians are not 'drivers of disease'," said Paula Ettelbrick, Executive Director of IGLHRC. "Homophobia drives HIV. Silence drives HIV."
In November 2004, the Ugandan government fined a local broadcaster, Radio Simba for airing a program that discussed anti-gay discrimination and the need for HIV/AIDS services for lesbians and gay men. The government claimed that Radio Simba had violated federal law promoting broadcasting that is contrary to "public morality."

Anti-HIV gel for women fails in African trial

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/02/19/MNH9V2LUT.DTL

Sabin Russell, Chronicle Medical Writer
Tuesday, February 19, 2008

An experimental gel meant to protect women against HIV failed to do so in a large-scale trial in Africa, the latest in a string of setbacks in testing new ways to stem the spread of AIDS.
Results of the trial were released Monday afternoon in South Africa, where the study was carried out among 6,200 volunteers living in three regions of the country.
Half the women were assigned the active ingredient, Carraguard, a gel-like substance derived from seaweed; the other half received an inert material of the same look and texture. Laboratory studies had shown that Carraguard, inserted vaginally, could protect against HIV, but the latest test showed it did not work in the real world.
In tests that lasted up to three years, there were 134 infections in the Carraguard group, and 151 in the group that received the placebo - statistically a dead heat.
Researchers will look at possible reasons for the disappointing results, including the failure of the women in the test to use the gel during most of their sexual encounters.
"Carraguard was safe, but not effective against HIV transmission," said Khatija Ahmed, principal investigator for the study.
This was the first major trial of a so-called microbicide to be completed, as earlier or smaller studies of such products had to be halted when evidence emerged that they not only were not working, but may have increased the risk of HIV infection.
Because Carraguard was proved safe, it might be reused in future studies that add antiviral drugs to the gel. "We will be developing the next generation of products using Carraguard as a base," said Robin Maguire, director of product development for the Population Council, a New York nonprofit.
The Population Council carried out the study with financial support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the federal government's U.S. Agency for International Development.
All three organizations have pumped millions of dollars into research to find a microbicide. The long-term goal is to develop a gel or cream that could be inserted vaginally or rectally to block HIV infection.
In Africa, where many women have little control over whether their husband or partner will wear a condom, the development of female-controlled HIV-prevention technologies is a high priority that so far has yielded disappointing results.
In 2000, a study among South African prostitutes showed an alarming increase in HIV infections among those assigned to Nonoxynol-9, an already approved contraceptive gel that blocked the AIDS virus in the test tube. But it apparently also irritated vaginal tissues, providing more routes for HIV to invade the bloodstream.
In January 2007, two trials of an experimental microbicide, cellulose sulfate, were abruptly halted in Africa and India after an initial analysis showed it could be increasing the risk of HIV infection.
In July, a three-year African study testing whether simple use of a diaphragm might protect women from HIV found that it did not.
Two weeks ago, a major study exploring whether treating genital herpes infection with a common drug, acyclovir, could also reduce the risk of HIV infection in gay men and African women reported there was no protective effect.
In the Carraguard study, there are already strong indications that it might have failed because the women in the study were not able to use it consistently. Women typically utilized the product once a week, but sometimes up to 10 times a week. But during the course of the experiment, results showed women used it only 44 percent of the time they had sex.
"That overall number is low, and it could have had an impact," said Barbara Friedland, a Population Council researcher who coordinated behavioral studies in the trial.
Female participants in the trial did not know whether they received the active ingredient, Carraguard, or the placebo. Both groups were given condoms and counseled extensively to use them. It will take further analysis of the study results to determine whether patterns of condom use or failure to use the microbicide played any part in the outcome.
Carraguard had been considered a possible microbicide since 1994. Earlier, smaller studies had indicated it was safe, and that women found the feel, scent and texture of the product acceptable.
According to Population Council researcher Maguire, studies showed that Carraguard could withstand storage in the hot environmental conditions found in Africa for at least four years. The organization is now conducting early studies to determine whether Carraguard might work better if it was mixed with an antiviral drug normally used to treat HIV infection.

China launches first anti-AIDS drive for gay men: state media

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5gpx3jjAiPxAWXDnzg0EIWO_5N-nA

Men in the bathroom of a department store, which has become a hangout for Shanghai's emerging homosexual population

BEIJING (AFP) — Chinese authorities have launched their first anti-AIDS programme focused on gay men, amid rising concern that the disease is becoming more prevalent among homosexuals, state press reported Thursday.
The programme has begun with efforts to learn more about gay lifestyles, the health ministry said, according to the China Daily, after decades of disbelief from the government that homosexuality was anything but a mental problem.
"The programme aims to strengthen measures to prevent and control the deadly disease among the homosexual community," the China Daily quoted Wang Weizhen, a senior official with the ministry's HIV/AIDS prevention department, as saying.
"By learning more about gay people, we can better protect them against this incurable disease. Studies are under way in several cities to collect information on gay men, such as their... behavioural patterns."
The programme will also deliver special funding and technical support to gay men, Wang said, without giving further details.
China's communist rulers for years deemed homosexuality as a psychological problem, and it was only in 2001 that being gay was removed from the official list of mental disorders.
Even now, the official estimate of gay men in China is between five and 10 million people, a tally that activists have previously said is far lower than reality.
What is certain is that HIV/AIDS is killing more and more gay men.
Of the 700,000 Chinese people living with HIV-AIDS, sex between men accounted for 12.2 percent of the infections, according to data compiled by the government, the United Nations and the World Health Organisation last year.
Meanwhile, as the state-run press highlighted the government's new campaign to tackle the disease, one of the nation's most prominent anti-AIDS campaigners remained in jail on charges of subversion.
Hu Jia, who also sought to raise awareness about a wide range of human rights issues, was arrested in December last year and is awaiting trial.
Chinese and international rights groups have said authorities arrested Hu as part of their long-running campaign to silence any voices of dissent.

U.S. State Dept. lifts ban on hiring HIV-positive foreign service officers

http://www.washblade.com/thelatest/thelatest.cfm?blog_id=16661

WASHINGTON Feb 15, 3:59 PM

The U.S. State Department has lifted the ban on hiring people with HIV to be foreign service officers, according to a press release from Lambda Legal.New guidelines will be put in place, and the State Department will evaluate people living with HIV on a case-by-case basis."At long last,the State Department is taking down its sign that read 'People with HIV need not apply,'" said Lambda Legal's HIV Project Director, Bebe Anderson.Lambda Legal has been fighting this case on behalf of client Lorenzo Taylor for the past five and a half years. Partly due to the new guidelines, Taylor has decided to settle his lawsuit."Now people like me who apply to the foreign service will not have to go through what I did. They and others with HIV will know that they do not have to surrender to stigma, ignorance, fear or the efforts of anyone, even the federal government, to impose second-class citizenship on them. They can fight back,"Taylor said.

Cry for Help from Refugee Sheds Light on Desperation of Gays in Iran

http://www.pinknews.co.uk/news/view.php?id=6926

President Ahmadinejad claims there are no gays in Iran

22nd February 2008 11:08

A poignant plea for help from a gay Iranian refugee in Malaysia is shedding light on the desperation and fear experienced by homosexuals in Iran and those who have fled their home country to seek refugee status in other countries.The letter, penned by a young gay man calling himself Sepehr, contains a heartbreaking tale of life as a homosexual in Iran and the suffering caused by the necessity of fleeing to another land to escape persecution and possible death. The cry for help from another gay Iranian refugee echoes the plight of other gays & lesbians who remain trapped in Iran under threat of death because of their sexual orientation—as well as the fear and desperation faced by Iranian refugees attempting to escape from the country's harsh anti-gay regime.Just this week, Mehdi, a 19-year-old gay Iranian who fled from the United Kingdom last year to prevent deportation back to Iran went on a hunger strike in protest of the decision by a Netherlands court to return him to the UK. If he is forced back to the United Kingdom, he will likely be sent back to Iran immediately and he fears he will end up with a death sentence if that occurs. Mehdi lived in England for two years while studying on a student visa. While in the UK, he learned his former boyfriend had been executed as a suspected homosexual and is believed to have revealed his relationship with Mehdi under torture before being killed.In another related story, members of the Union of Students in Ireland called on the Iranian government this week to halt the planned executions of two men suspected of being homosexuals. The two young men, identified as Tayyeb Karimi and Yazdan (surname unknown), have been condemned under Article 110 of Iran's Penal Code stating that men who have gay sex "will be executed."Last September, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in a speech at New York's Columbia University that "In our country we don't have homosexuals like in your country. This does not exist in our country."In 2005, Iran faced public outcry after the public hanging execution of two gay teenagers. According to the Times, the two teen boys were held in prison for 14 months prior to being killed and were tortured and beaten repeatedly.Below is the text of the letter published this week from a gay Iranian who fled his country for fear of being tortured or executed. The man, going only by the alias of Sepehr, ended up in Malaysia where he applied for asylum and registered with the Office of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees. The letter was sent to the Iranian Queer Organization in Toronto, which published it on Thursday. My name is Sepehr [alias used]. I was born and raised in Iran, a country that kills people for falling in love. My government kills homosexuals by asserting we are an enemy of God. My president denied us, even our existence as human beings, when he claimed there are no homosexuals in Iran during his speech at Columbia University. If he can say there are no homosexuals in Iran, it is because we cannot show ourselves. We stay hidden because if we are visible they will lash us; they will hang us; they will kill us. They tell us that we are fighting with God by falling in love with the same sex. I want to understand that if this is the case, then why has God created us like this? I have had great difficulty in Iran and have never felt attracted to the opposite sex and my whole life I have been confronting insecurity about this. I have always felt like an outsider and friends and acquaintances have often discussed my difference but I could never change how I feel. When I began high school, the abuse started. This left emotional scars. Then I met someone from school who changed my life. The feeling that existed between us finally gave new meaning to my life. But this came at the cost of handcuffs and the hard punches of the Basiji. My period of dejection began from there. I understood that my feelings are sinful. I was afraid of everyone and everything. I tried to straighten my life. I went to University and learned English and this kept my thoughts occupied for a while, in a new place and with new people who didn’t know me. I eventually went to see a doctor and realised that this is my nature and not a virus of some sort. But still I was looking for answers to so many questions. I read books to understand how I should relate to myself and my feelings. It was at this point that I realized that I have a right to a life of my own. I met a friend and together we tried to put the past behind us. In a new town and with a new life, I finally entered into a few good years. But the effects of my sexual identity had me trapped again and this good period of my life came to an end. Again sadness; again loneliness. Am I sick? Do I have a disease? My family abandoned me, and just because I love people of the same sex as me. I left Iran by bus to Pakistan because I was being threatened. If arrested, I risked being killed in a public execution with no trial. From Pakistan I went to Zimbabwe and finally ended up in Malaysia in May 2007 where I applied for asylum and registered with the Office of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees. Almost a year later, I have completed my second interview and am now awaiting the results of this process. For about eight months I have been suffering here in Malaysia. In order to get money to eat, I went to the hospital to sell one of my kidneys but they told me that it is illegal to sell body parts in Malaysia. However, I have few options as I am not allowed to work, so acquiring those basic needs for survival are therefore difficult. I am staying in a small town 45 kilometres from the capital city with no money to eat, and living accommodations that leave me vulnerable to millions of insects that suck my blood every night. I do not know what to do. I don’t even have money to buy soap to wash my clothes. I sit here now in this dying body to write this letter to you. I am praying. I am crying. I am begging my God to help me. I am planning to commit suicide but if I do that I will lose so much, over 10 years of study, hard work and self-reflection to figure out who I am. I had plans. I wanted to write books. I wanted to share my experiences. I wanted to help gay men to better understand who they are. I wanted to speak with people to help them to understand that I deserve to live too. But this is my life now and as I am writing this letter my life is over. But what I can't understand is what I have done so wrong that I deserve to have my body burnt by cigarettes. I can’t understand what I did wrong that I must be beaten with a gun. But this is life. I cannot make my plans with an empty stomach. I cannot continue this life. I need your help now. Please help to show me a more just life. I am still young. I want to be alive but I don't know how. Please contact me and show me the way. Help me now, tomorrow is too late. I beg you.I am tired.