“Men Who Have Sex With Men: Homophobia and HIV in Africa” was the topic of the first session I attended today. The three African panelists who spoke were from Malawi, Cameroon, and Zambia. One of the issues they addressed concerned legal provisions being used in some African countries to criminalize men wrongly. When LGBT people get arrested, few lawyers are willing to represent them because society frowns on. Two examples used noted:
Alim Mongoche, one 11 Cameroonian men who spent more than a year in prison awaiting trial under a law that punishes sex between men; and the crackdown against a gay rights organization in Senegal, where nine men were
sentenced last year to eight years’ imprisonment. Another focus of the seminar was the influence of Western ideologies on Africa’s policy on LGBT and MSM rights. Speakers pointed to Scott Lively in Uganda and how most of his anti-gay talking points were visibly apparent in Uganda’s anti-gay mandate.
The next session was on “State Pimping: Young Sex Workers, State Custody, and Universal Access to HIV/AIDS Services”. Featuring a youth panel from the United States and Uganda, the discussion centered on the rights of under-18 sex workers and how the state infringes on their human rights and prevents them from accessing HIV/AIDS health services. Some of the proposed solutions entailed developing educational programs to assist underage sex workers to be more aware of their rights as well as how to safely do their jobs. If programs in the U.S. teach drug users how to safely inject themselves, why can’t there be programs teaching sex workers how to have safe sex and also manage their money safely?
