ST: ‘Coming out’ in China

20 June 2009
Straits Times

MEMO FROM BEIJING
‘Coming out’ in China

While homosexuality is still largely a social taboo, Chinese society is slowly opening up

By Sim Chi Yin, China Correspondent

TWO empty white picture frames hung on the art gallery’s wall.

Hours earlier, the authorities had marched in, inspected each art piece and asked for the sexually explicit ones to be removed.

But apart from those casualties, Beijing’s first gay art exhibition opened without trouble last Sunday.

A crowd of 200 gay, straight, Chinese and expatriate guests gathered over soft drinks and beer at the Songzhuang Art District on the city’s outskirts for what organisers quietly hailed as a breakthrough for gays in China, where homosexuality was delisted as a ‘mental illness’ only in 2001.

ST: HIV up among gays and bisexuals

Source

5 June 2009

By Judith Tan

THE number of homosexuals and bisexuals here who tested positive for the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) last year climbed to a new high.

The increase comes as overall figures rose 7.8 per cent, with activist groups and counsellors calling for more education across all genders and lifestyles.

Although the number of HIV cases from heterosexual transmission – which makes up the bulk at 54 per cent – has fallen from 255 in 2007 to 248 last year, the spread among homosexuals and bisexuals has spiked, rising by 16 per cent and 127 per cent respectively between 2007 and last year.

ST Forum: Why teaching youth about condoms is important

25 May 2009
Straits Times Online Forum

Why teaching youth about condoms is important

I REFER to last Wednesday’s Forum Online letter, “Useful programme except for condom excerpt” by Mr Steven Tan, in which he argues that teaching youth about condom use will “confuse” them into unprotected sexual activity.

Last November, it was reported in the media that one in four sexually active women does not use birth control.

Push to ban sodomy laws

5 May 2009
Sydney Star Observer
Source

Push to ban sodomy laws

Former High Court justice Michael Kirby has called on lawyers to help repeal laws that criminalise homosexuality in 41 of the 53 Commonwealth countries.

Addressing the Commonwealth Law Conference in Hong Kong last month, Kirby said gay law reform was an ongoing “blind spot” in the Commonwealth, which should do more to end criminal codes that punish adults for consensual, private homosexual acts.

STForum: What the school programme teaches students

Source

29 April 2009

I REFER to reactions to Aware’s Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) programme. The CSE was developed when data released in 2005 showed a sharp rise in sexually transmitted infections (STI) among teenage girls. Between 2000 and 2005, this figure grew 3.4 times. We were concerned because some STIs can cause sterility.

A study by the National University Hospital found that 117 girls under 20 years of age had abortions, and of these, nine had previous abortions. Nearly 30 per cent of women above age 20 had previous abortions.

Clearly, accurate information about safer sex and contraception is severely lacking for teens and adults. Aware’s CSE programme set out to help close the information gap.

Gays under threat in Senegal

25 April 2009
GlobalPost
Link

Gays under threat in Senegal

Local youth leader: “The homosexuals will not escape lynching. They will be fish food.

By Anne Look – GlobalPost

DAKAR, Senegal — A mob gathered near a mosque outside Dakar. They were there to hunt down and kill nine men accused of homosexual acts.

Earlier this week the nine Senegalese AIDS activists were freed from eight-year-prison terms for alleged homosexual acts, but they went into hiding because of death threats from Muslim religious leaders and the general population.

Bone marrow transplant might have cured a patient of HIV

Source: Wall Street Journal
7 November 2008

A Doctor, a Mutation and a Potential Cure for AIDS
A Bone Marrow Transplant to Treat a Leukemia Patient Also Gives Him Virus-Resistant Cells; Many Thanks, Sample 61

The startling case of an AIDS patient who underwent a bone marrow transplant to treat leukemia is stirring new hope that gene-therapy strategies on the far edges of AIDS research might someday cure the disease.

The patient, a 42-year-old American living in Berlin, is still recovering from his leukemia therapy, but he appears to have won his battle with AIDS. Doctors have not been able to detect the virus in his blood for more than 600 days, despite his having ceased all conventional AIDS medication. Normally when a patient stops taking AIDS drugs, the virus stampedes through the body within weeks, or days.

“I was very surprised,” said the doctor, Gero Hütter.

‘HIV-positive? You deserve it’

Source: The New Paper
31 October 2008

‘HIV-positive? You deserve it’
Infected man’s mum slams him when he reveals condition. He now hides it from friends and colleagues
By Benson Ang

In 2004, one evening during dinner, he broke the news to his family. His mother and elder brother were present.

He was advised by his doctor to break the news to his family so that they could react appropriately in case of an emergency.

File picture from The New Paper

James (not his real name), 38, said he was shocked by their reaction at the dinner table.

His dejected mother, in her 70s, first stared at him and asked: ‘How did this happen?

He replied: ‘Through sex.’

She shot back: ‘Then, you’ve only yourself to blame.’

His brother kept silent throughout the conversation.

Strong bias persists against HIV victims

Source: The New Paper
31 October 2008

SURVEY SAYS:
Strong bias persists against HIV victims

SINGAPOREANS are aware about HIV, but they are less accepting of people with the disease, according to a survey released by the Health Promotion Board (HPB).

1,768 respondents were surveyed. They were divided into three age-groups: 18 to 29, 30 to 49, and 50 to 69.

Chinese gay bars open, activism slowed during Olympics

Source: Washington Blade
Date: 15 August 2008

Chinese gay bars open, activism slowed during Olympics
Activists find inspiration, new enemies from the West

LAURA DOUGLAS-BROWN
Friday, August 15, 2008

The first paragraph of the Aug. 9 entry on John Amaechi’s blog could have been written by any Olympic tourist guilty of staying up too late to take in the local culture.

“I had to wake up at 6 a.m. this morning, which was not fun considering I had been up until 3 a.m., watching the opening ceremony and hanging out at ‘Destination’ again,” he wrote. “I have to say that it got busy very late — I am officially too old for bars that close at 5 a.m.”