Homophobia Spreads HIV/AIDS in Africa

HIV/AIDS in Africa has many faces.  One of them that's not terribly well reported - but still nonetheless shocking - is the face of HIV/AIDS in gay male populations.  This week, a study in the Lancet sheds light on just how devastating this disease is on gay men throughout the continent. The results, above all else, show the dire effects that homophobia can have in spreading HIV/AIDS.

First, the numbers. Gay men in many African countries are more than 10 times more likely to contract HIV/AIDS than their straight counterparts.

Next, the analysis. Here are just a few of the reasons why researchers believe gay men in Africa are much more likely to contract HIV/AIDS than straight men:

• Prejudice toward gay people leads to isolation and harassment, which results in many gay men engaging in risky, underground sexual practices;
• Within sub-Saharan Africa, HIV/AIDS in gay men is driven by cultural, religious and political unwillingness to accept LGBT people as equal members of society;
• A lack of education: one activist in Burundi told the BBC News that men understand that you can get HIV/AIDS from having sex with a woman, but not from a man.  Failing to educate properly about the transmission of HIV/AIDS leads to higher contraction rates; and
• HIV/AIDS rates among gay men are often under-reported by public health officials, leading to very little attention being given to the epidemic among Africa's queer population.

The evidence here is stark: homophobia balloons HIV/AIDS rates.  In Sub-Saharan Africa, more than 30 countries criminalize homosexuality, with a few (including Niger and Sudan) that prosecute homosexuality as an offense worthy of the death penalty.  In a climate like this, it's no wonder that it's hard to do HIV/AIDS education work among gay male populations.  As Time Magazine writes, "...one reason it has been so difficult to reach gay men with AIDS-prevention messages: most of them don't want to be found."

Finally, the solutions. The researchers who conducted the study, including folks with Oxford University, the Population Council of Ghana, and the Kenya Medical Research Institute, all recognized several steps that should be taken in order to curb HIV/AIDS rates among gay men throughout Africa.  Among the ideas?

• Delivering basic HIV/AIDS prevention supplies to at-risk populations, including dispersing condoms;
• Train HIV/AIDS workers in how to work with queer populations; and
• Destigmatize and decriminalize homosexuality.

That last one is certainly going to take some work.  But the results of this study, again, can't illuminate the problem any brighter: criminalizing homosexuality, and driving large numbers of queer people underground, only incresaes HIV/AIDS.  That's a problem that we can't afford to keep perpetuating any longer.