China: Homosexuality called ‘a psychological disorder’

A Chinese lesbian took the government to court over textbooks describing homosexuality as a “psychological disorder”, a landmark case in a country where discrimination remains common. Qiu Bai, 21, a student at Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, brought the action against the ministry of education, demanding that it give her details of how it approved materials and how they could be changed.

Qiu's team showed AFP a manual, “Student Psychological Health”, published in 2015 by the prestigious Renmin University and distributed to students nationwide: “The most commonly encountered forms of sexual deviance are homosexuality and the sick addictions of transvestism, transsexuality, fetishism, sadism, voyeurism and exhibitionism,” it read. Other psychology textbooks had similar content.

Holding a large rainbow flag, she said she was “excited” by her “first opportunity to have a face-to-face dialogue with the ministry of education”. Supporters brandished signs outside the Fengtai district court in Beijing reading: “We want a fair judgement” and “Homosexuals must gain visibility”. Read more via AFP

Kenya: Two men sue State for forced HIV testing and anal examination

The National Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission have helped two men who were forced to undergo anal exams and testing to sue Chief Magistrate of Kwale Law Courts and DCIO, Msambweni Police Station, under whose direction the testing was done. The two men were tested at the Coast General Hospital, Mombasa, for " H.I.V., Hepatitis B and other blood works" without their consent, while undergoing police investigations.

"The forced blood testing and anal testing sought to establish whether the two male adults might have engaged in consensual adult carnal knowledge against the order of nature at the privacy of their residences in Ukunda."

According to the petition, the victims were allegedly arrested on suspicion of being gay and remanded by police at Msambweni for four days. They claimed police escorted them to the hospital where "they were forced to strip naked, lie facing upwards, lift legs into the air and cough while doctors inserted metallic objects up their rectum".

Gitari wants the court to declare that forced anal examination violates human dignity and has a "disparate impact on sexual minorities". He said the court should also declare forced medical exam a violation of the human and constitutional rights of the petitioners. Read more via the Star 

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
 

Grindr and other hook-up apps offer free adverts to HIV testing service

Three dating apps popular with gay and bisexual men – Grindr, Hornet and Planet Romeo – have announced that they are to host free advertising to promote a new, mobile-optimized  European HIV Test Finder. 

The test finder was devised by Aidsmap and lists over 2,000 HIV testing centers and clinics in all 28 EU countries. The initiative has been organized by a pan-country group of HIV organizations, including Terrence Higgins Trust in the UK, Soak Aids in the Netherlands and RSFL (Sweden), the European Centre of Disease Prevention, among others.

Dr Andrew Amato-Gauci, Head of the ECDC Programme on HIV/AIDS, STI and viral hepatitis said in a statement: ‘Across Europe, 47 per cent of newly reported HIV cases are diagnosed late although we know that those tested early are a lot less likely to pass the virus on to others because of both lower infectivity when on treatment and changes in sexual and drug injecting behavior.

‘Whether on your computer or on your mobile phone, with the European HIV Test Finder it will only take you a few seconds to locate a testing site near you – wherever you are in Europe.” Read more via Gay Star News 

US: STIs are skyrocketing among gay and bi men. Is an HIV-prevention pill to blame?

The CDC announced some deeply disconcerting news: Sexually transmitted infection rates have skyrocketed over the last year, particularly among gay and bisexual men. Syphilis transmission rates are especially alarming: The CDC reports a 15.1% increase in new infections nationwide since 2013, with a stunning 83% of male cases affecting men who have sex with men.

What’s going on here? One obvious explanation could be the rise of PrEP (or Truvada), a daily pill, which, all available data indicate, fully protects against HIV infection. Early studies of PrEP showed no evidence that those who took the drug would stop using condoms. But recent surveys suggest that at least some PrEP users do indeed use condoms less regularly once they’re on the pill. Most notably, a fairly small-scale study in San Francisco found a 30% instance in STIs among PrEP users after six months—which rose to a 50% after one year.* Just as troublingly, 41% of subjects admitted to using condoms less frequently while on PrEP.

The San Francisco study was too small to prove that PrEP is closely correlated to decreased condom use. But combined with the new CDC report, its findings should set off alarm bells. Is San Francisco our first preview of a dangerous new PrEP culture, where many gay and bisexual men ignore the risks of STIs once a critical mass of men are on PrEP? That would be the worst-case scenario, and there’s no reason to assume it’s true. But the possibility is worth considering—and, if feasible, forestalling.  Read more via Slate

Is your fav vacation spot Paradise or Persecution for LGBT people?

Can you tell heaven from hell? It's not all palm trees and blue seas for local LGBT people. Take the quiz yourself and help improve the lives of LGBT people. 

The quality of the local nightlife, museums and beaches matters more to people thinking of a holiday abroad than whether their hotel waiter is likely to be sentenced to death or imprisoned for being gay.
That’s a finding from an opinion poll by an international HIV charity ahead of the launch of an online quiz, ‘Paradise or Persecution’ , which aims to raise awareness of the more than 75 countries in the world that criminalise people on the grounds of their sexual orientation or gender identity.

But a HIV charity thinks people would probably think twice about holidaying in a country that criminalises Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual or Transgender (LGBT) communities, if they knew the scale of the problem.  More