New online tool launched to eradicate gay ‘cure’ therapies

Global LGBT rights organisation All Out has launched the online tool, ‘Gay Cure Watch.’ It aims to allow members and international partners to report and shut down gay “cures” in whatever form they take.

“No one should be told that their love is a disease,” said Leandro Ramos, Interim Executive Director of All Out: “The Gay ‘Cure’ Watch is a powerful tool, funded entirely by All Out members, which will allow our organisation to find out where these dangerous “treatments” are happening and get them shut down once and for all.”

All Out notes that the “outdated” and “medically unfounded” practices can cause harm to the subjects, including increasing the risk of depression and suicide.

In the UK earlier this month, Parliament debated banning the practice of gay ‘cure’ therapies for minors. UK Prime Minister David Cameron pledged that a future Conservative government would act to end so called “gay cure” therapy, which attempts to change the sexuality of a person, labelling the practice as “dangerous” and “profoundly wrong”. Read more via PinkNews 

Australia: This website will be a one stop shop for LGBTI health

A new website providing information on drug use in the LGBTI community has been launched, highlighting the specific experiences faced by sexual and gender diverse people. TouchBase, launched by the Victorian AIDS Council (VAC) in partnership with the Australian Federation of AIDS Organisations (AFAO) and the Australian Drug Foundation, was created as a resource on drugs and places them in the context of mental and sexual health by using personal stories from those in the community.

VAC chief executive Simon Ruth said there was information specific to the LGBTI community around drugs that the site aims to address: “There are specific things we need to be aware of, such as the interactions that drugs might have with HIV medications or hormones for gender diverse people."

The site provides targeted information on drug use, mental health, and sexual health, helping to address the gaps in information for LGBTI people.

Harm Reduction Victoria president Bill O’Loughlin believes TouchBase gives a much-needed voice to drug use in the community: “The beauty of this resource is that our community organisations have framed it in our terms, and it’s really comprehensive, from cigarettes and injecting to sex and support for people in trouble." Read more via Star Observer  

US: There’s a drug that prevents HIV. Let’s use it

An FDA-approved drug can prevent HIV infections, but critics have worried that having such a fallback pill can promote unsafe sex and cause HIV infections to rise. A new study proves them wrong. Reporting in JAMA Internal Medicine, researchers show that providing PrEP to men who have sex with men dropped their rates of HIV dramatically. In the study, conducted at two clinics treating sexually transmitted diseases and a community health center in three different cities, 437 men and transgender women took PrEP, which consists of emtricitabine and tenofovir (together called Truvada), for nearly a year. Only two became HIV positive, but both showed extremely low blood levels of the drug, suggesting that they took only about half of their required doses.

Rates of STIs, while high, did not increase during the study period while the participants were taking PrEP. In other words, the drug did not make users more promiscuous or more reckless about their risk.

But PrEP continues to suffer from an image problem. In the months and years after it was approved, even those in the gay community, perhaps skeptical of its too-good-to-be-true promise, began denigrating those who took advantage of the drugs, labeling them Truvada whores. Well respected and early pioneers in AIDS advocacy were equally leery, seeing PrEP as a dangerous cancer that could eventually undo all the laborious work they had put into educating people about the disease and warning them about the unsafe behaviors that promote HIV. Read more via Time

France: Greenlight for PrEP

In a historic move, France has become the first country outside the USA, and the first country with a centrally-organised, reimbursable health system, to approve no-expense pre-exposure prophylaxis for people who need it. The French Minister of Health, Marisol Touraine, announced that PrEP would be available from mid-December, and reimbursable through the French health system from the beginning of January.

The positive recommendation for Truvada comes via a uniquely French health measure called a Recommendation of Temporary Use (Recommandation Temporaire d'Utilisation – RTU). This provides for drugs to be made available to people in urgent need on an ‘off-label’ basis, i.e. without a full Marketing Authorisation. RTUs are used for drugs that already have Marketing Authorisation for other uses – in this case, for HIV treatment.

Mme. Touraine said: "Given the level of efficacy of this approach, which has been recognised by all national and international scientific experts in the battle against HIV/AIDS, I take the financial responsibility for this treatment, which can contribute to complete our global strategy against HIV and AIDS, so it can be available without financial restriction.”

She added, however: "We can never say often enough that condoms are the best protection against HIV and other STIs…PrEP does not stop other STIs and, as a medicine, is not without adverse events.”  Read more via AIDSmap 

China: Gay men hit hard by HIV/AIDS epidemic

China has reported nearly 110,000 HIV/AIDS cases so far this year, a slight increase over last year, said the nation's top AIDS specialist. The gay male population has been hit particularly hard, accounting for more than 25% of the total.

Wu Zunyou, head of the National Center for AIDS/STD Control and Prevention, made the remarks on the sidelines of the ongoing 2015 National Conference on HIV/AIDS. In worse-hit cities such as Beijing and Harbin, more than 70%  of the cases reported in 2015 involved gay men, he added. Worse, young students have been hit hard in recent years by the epidemic, he said, and 70-80% of the HIV/AIDS cases detected in 2015 among them involved gay sex.

Thanks to robust intervention efforts initiated in 2003, China has a low prevalence of HIV/AIDS (0.06 percent), according to Shen Jie, deputy director of the Chinese Association of STD and AIDS Prevention and Control, which hosted the conference. "But the rapid increase of HIV cases among gay men has hardly been curbed," she said. Read more via China Daily 

Uganda: Why are anti-gay laws contributing to HIV prevalence?

April 2009, the Parliament of Uganda passed a resolution to strengthen Laws on Homosexuality, this was a private member bill that was submitted by MP Bahati David, in October 2009.  It meant that same sex partnerships in Uganda was illegal, punishable and criminalises homosexual behaviour with prison sentences lasting up to 14 years.The offender may receive the death penalty if the person is HIV positive, that is deemed Aggravated homosexuality or the offender receives life imprisonment that is the offence of Homosexuality.

It has provisions for Ugandans who engage in same-sex relations outside of Uganda, asserting that they may be extradited for punishment back to Uganda, and includes penalties for individuals, companies, media organisations, or non-government organisations that support gays. However, Uganda’s constitutional court overturned the tough new anti-gay laws that had been branded “Kill the gay bill” saying they had been wrongly passed by parliament.  Read more via Africa Times

HIV crisis worsened by anti-gay laws in Commonwealth countries, report warns

The persecution of millions of people in Commonwealth countries where homosexuality is a criminal offence is worsening the AIDS crisis, warns a major report produced for David Cameron. In what the report describes as a “British colonial legacy”, 40 out of 53 Commonwealth countries criminalise same-sex relationships. The Prime Minister should demand that the countries scrap anti-gay laws and end the persecution and punishment of millions of people. The briefing was prepared ahead of the Commonwealth heads of government meeting in Malta next weekend. 

Not only are rates of HIV infection higher, but the proportion of people helped by health workers is lower, it says. The prevention of HIV among gay men in countries where homosexuality is illegal is “difficult to address due to ‘double stigmatisation’ ”. Lower awareness of HIV prevention leads to men “engaging in riskier sexual behaviours”, and health providers are less willing to offer their services because of fears they could be accused of abetting criminal activity, says the report. 

Jonathan Cooper, the chief executive of the Human Dignity Trust, said: “You will never ever get the Aids crisis under control while gay men are criminalised. It’s literally not possible while gay men are shamed and stigmatised.” 

Read more via the Independent
 

Watch HIV+ guys read messages they got on Grindr

Sluts like you deserve it.’
‘You’re a walking disease’.
‘I wouldn’t want anything to do with an ugly pile of HIV like you.’

These are just some of the messages that HIV positive men are sent on Grindr, and now, these men have a chance to respond. In this video created by the UK gay men’s health charity GMFA, several men respond to many ignorant messages that are sent on dating apps.

It was created as part of the campaign for World AIDS Day, commemorated on 1 December. The charity’s new campaign is intended to address the continued stigma around HIV. Read more 

Germany withdraws ‘homophobic’ Eurovision nomination

Xavier Naidoo will no longer represent Germany in next year’s competition after the public backlash led to a reevaluation of the nomination.  “It was certain that he’d polarise, but we were surprised by the forceful reactions. We misjudged this,” German broadcast coordinator said.   Read more 

Russia: A List Of “Gays We Respect”

In an article headlined “Gays We Respect,” the Russian edition of men’s magazine Maxim has “forgiven” a list of famous actors, authors and musicians for their sexual orientation, including Ian McKellen and Neal Patrick Harris.

“We, men, do not consider men who love men to be men. This is the rule,” the introduction to the post reads. “But there are exceptions. There are gays who have earned our respect and the right to remain real men in our eyes.” 

An editor at Maxim’s Russian edition told BuzzFeed News Nov. 26 “our position is clearly formulated in the introduction to the article.” Alexander Malenkov, the editor-in-chief of the Russian edition of Maxim, told the Russian News Service Nov. 30, “This is a joke article. It says so in it.” Nowhere in the text is it made clear that the article is meant to be a parody. The magazine has updated the post with a link added to the introduction, placed on the word “gays,” which leads to an article from 2013 about homosexuality.

“We are deeply disturbed by the article in Maxim Russia and fully condemn it,” a spokesperson for Maxim said. 

Read more via Buzzfeed
 

US: College sports officials will reconsider cities chosen to host championships

Amid a national debate over civil rights protections based on sexual orientation, the Indianapolis-based NCAA apparently will reconsider sites already chosen to host its championships — including Indianapolis, the NCAA announced.

“We’ll continue to review current events in all cities bidding on NCAA championships and events, as well as cities that have already been named as future host sites, such as Indianapolis,” Bob Williams, NCAA senior vice president for communications, wrote. Requests to speak to NCAA leaders for more information were denied.

Among the Indianapolis events that could be in jeopardy is the NCAA’s richest showcase — the men’s basketball Final Four — slated to return to the city in 2021. The same event held here this year pumped an estimated $71 million into the local economy, according to Visit Indy. Indianapolis also is scheduled to host first- and second-round games in the 2017 men’s basketball tournament.

The NCAA statement about future and scheduled sites comes after Houston voters this month repealed an ordinance that banned discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation.  Read more via IndyStar 

US: The cruel HIV stalking of Charlie Sheen takes us back to the ignorant 1980s

Charlie Sheen has officially come out as HIV positive. He was forced to do so in the wake of shrill tabloid reporting that harkened back to the worst HIV-related ignorance and bullying of the 1980s.

It feels like the 1980s, because of the nature of the speculation, which is purely prurient about Sheen basically being a man-slut, and how many people he has infected with HIV—and how knowingly has he done so, without disclosing his status to them. Suddenly, in my mind, Sheen seems like the kind of hunted man Rock Hudson became, as cameras followed him being shuttled on and off planes as he became sicker and sicker. The media likes nothing more than an ailing star—even better if HIV and AIDS means the story gets front-loaded with all kinds of judgment about their “lifestyle,” sexual and otherwise.

This obviously takes it as a given that Sheen’s right to privacy has been thoroughly trampled, and that this is somehow acceptable: He has been smoked out of the closet. The Enquirer, seeing their scoop slip through their fingers, has a feverish front page, the result of much investigation, which promises to expose the “Ex-Lovers’ Horror—Did He Infect Them?” Plus: “He’s Slept With Thousands of Women—And Men!”

The headline is a throwback too—to conflating HIV, a virus, and AIDS, the disease that it can lead to, although much less frequently today than it did back then because of advances in HIV drug treatment, which Sheen himself has reportedly started. Read more via The Daily Beast