Local health officials in western Nepal have asked HIV educators to stop treatment and prevention programs for sexual minorities and to “find something better to do,” according to Nepali LGBT group Blue Diamond Society.

The group used a grant from the Elton John AIDS Foundation to get 15 HIV-positive people in rural Dhangadi into treatment and care, but was allegedly told by officials with the District AIDS Coordinating Committee (DACC) that the “anus doesn’t have any sexual tissues” to contract HIV, and that there were no gay people in the region anyhow. The Elton John AIDS Foundation will release a statement on the matter early next week.