India: Kerala becomes first state to unveil transgender policy

State Chief Secretary Jiji Thomson unveiled the much awaited ‘State Policy for Transgenders in Kerala 2015’ by handing over its copy to noted transsexual-gender minority activist Akkai Padmashali during the inaugural ceremony of the first International Conference on Gender Equality.

During the inaugural ceremony, state Minister for Social Justice M K Muneer said it is for the first time that any state government is framing out a policy for transgenders. “We assure the transgenders in the state that your freedom and movement will be taken care of by the Kerala Government,” he said adding that the state has set a model for the entire country by formulating such a policy.

The policy covers all the categories of TGs, including male to female TGs and intersex people. It also emphasises the rights of the minority group to self identify themselves as man, woman or TG as stated in the Supreme Court judgement. It also ensures them equal access to social and economic opportunities, resources and services, right to equal treatment under the law, right to live life without violence and equitable right in all decision making bodies. Read more via The Indian Express

Vietnam: Law change introduces transgender rights

Vietnam passed a law enshrining rights for transgender people in a move advocacy groups say paves the way for gender reassignment surgery in the authoritarian communist nation. People who want the operation, which is illegal, tend to have it done in nearby Thailand.

The new legislation will allow those who have undergone reassignment to register under their new gender. The law will come into effect early in 2017 after 282 of 366 lawmakers voted in favour.

“Individuals who undergo transgender change will have the right to register” under their new gender with “personal rights in accordance with their new sex”, reported the state-controlled VnExpress website, citing a national assembly report.

The law is an attempt to “meet the demands of a part of society … in accordance with international practice, without countering the nation’s traditions”, said the report from the Vietnamese parliament. Read more via the Guardian 

Kenya: MPs throw out proposal to punish gays with death

A parliamentary team has thrown out a proposal to have a law prescribing death by public stoning to anybody found participating in homosexual acts. The Justice and Legal Affairs Committee said it does not agree with the law proposed by the Republican Liberty Party through its legal secretary, Mr Edward Onwong’a Nyakeriga.

The committee argued that the Constitution not only establishes that the family is the natural and fundamental unit of society, but is forthright that Article 45 provides that every adult has the right to marry a person of the opposite sex.

It, however, left the window open for the matter to be determined by the larger House, saying: “The petitioner is, however, at liberty to approach any willing member or committee of the House to sponsor the proposed legislation on his behalf.” Read more via Daily Nation 

Uganda: Controversial NGO bill passed on eve of pope's arrival

Ugandan lawmakers unanimously passed a bill that would give authorities sweeping powers to regulate civil society, which rights groups say will "strangle" criticism of the government, just before Pope Francis arrived on a visit.

Civil society groups say the legislation gives the government unprecedented powers, including the ability to shut down non-governmental organisations and jail their members. Activist and lawyer Nicholas Opiyo said the passing of the law "strikes at the heart of civic forms of organising, restricts civic space and association rights."

Gay rights groups are particularly worried that if the bill is passed they might be targeted in a country that has previously passed tough anti-homosexuality legislation, which was later overturned on a technicality. Groups working on sensitive issues such as oil, land ownership and corruption also fear it could stifle their efforts.

But the government says the law is aimed at supporting rights groups and aid agencies.

Under the bill, Uganda's internal affairs minister and national board for NGOs have powers to supervise, approve, inspect and dissolve an organisation if "it is in the public interest to do so."   Read more via AFP 

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