A leading Ugandan gay rights and HIV/AIDS activist was tortured and found covered with bruises in the capital city of Kampala on July 26, Afrol News reports (aegis.org/news 7/28). Usaam Auf Mukwaya had been last seen on July 25.
Mukwaya was among three activists arrested at an HIV/AIDS Implementer’s Meeting last month for protesting anti-gay statements made by the head of Uganda’s AIDS Commission.
The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission petitioned the Ugandan government to condemn the “illegal detention and torture of Mukwaya.”
“These actions by the police are a violation of numerous human rights promised to the people of Uganda under the African Charter of Human and Peoples’ Rights and other international treaties to which your country is a signatory,” the petition says.
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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."
