Experts at the XVII International AIDS Conference in Mexico City say that discrimination aimed at gay men around the world must be stopped and that countries should put more programs in place to prevent HIV transmission among gay men, Bloomberg reports.
“In many countries homosexual activity is against the law,” says UNAIDS executive director Peter Piot. “It is underground and impossible to organize these programs.”
According to the article, more than a quarter of gay men in Africa and the Caribbean are living with the virus, but widespread stigma and criminalization have hindered many of these countries—including Jamaica, Kenya and Ghana—from emphasizing this group in their HIV prevention efforts.
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Beth Benne, RN, is HIV negative, but
the virus has impacted her life. She currently supervises a biannual HIV/AIDS awareness week as
the director of the student health center at Pierce College, a
community commuter school in Woodland Hills, California.
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Overheard in the Women's Forum
"I recently met a guy who is negative. I did tell him about my status and he decided to kiss me anyway (we didn't go further than that). But a day later, he called and said that he actually had a mouth ulcer that time when we kissed and he was very worried. Asked if he can get the virus from me that way. For that moment, I felt so insulted and yet I felt so bad. It was my first time having a contact with a "negative" guy."
