The practical and symbolic purpose of dental dams in lesbian safer sex promotion

Taken from the Sexual Health Journal Volume 7 #2, 2010

FULL TABLE OF CONTENTS (PDF)

Juliet Richters A C and Stevie Clayton B

A University of New South Wales, School of Public Health and Community Medicine, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia.
B Formerly AIDS Council of NSW, PO Box 350, Darlinghurst, NSW 1300, Australia.
C Corresponding author. Email: j.richters@unsw.edu.au

Sexual Health 7(2) 103–106 doi:10.1071/SH09073
Submitted: 14 July 2009 Accepted: 16 February 2010 Published: 14 May 2010

The practical and symbolic purpose of dental dams in lesbian safer sex promotion Top The practical and symbolic pur ... What are dams for? Evidence for the effectiveness ... Reasons for dam distribution Meeting real rather than symbo ... Conflict of interests References

The paper in this issue on safer sex practices by Sydney women having sex with women1 reports that few women used dental dams, and that there was no evidence of those women doing so out of a rational perception that they were at higher risk of acquiring a sexually transmissible infection (STI). These findings raise several questions. Should dental dams be recommended for STI prevention in sex between women? Are they effective? Are they necessary? If not, why are they distributed at all? What needs are being met by this activity?

What are dams for? Top The practical and symbolic pur ... What are dams for? Evidence for the effectiveness ... Reasons for dam distribution Meeting real rather than symbo ... Conflict of interests References

Are dental dams intended to prevent HIV transmission? Or to prevent transmission of other STIs or blood-borne viruses?

Only a handful of cases of woman-to-woman sexual transmission of HIV have been reported worldwide,2–5 although transmission is theoretically possible from infected vaginal or menstrual fluids or damaged mucous membrane,6,7 especially when viral load is high, for example during seroconversion or late AIDS. Nonetheless, a case of HIV infection in a woman who has sex with women is more likely to be due to sex with men or to injecting drug use than to woman-to-woman sexual transmission.8 No cases of woman-to-woman sexual transmission of HIV have been reported in Australia.

The low rates of transmission of HIV between men during fellatio9–11 suggest that transmission during cunnilingus would be unlikely unless the mucous membrane of mouth or vulva were damaged. Fellatio is of course not entirely risk free, but AIDS organisations in Australia (although not necessarily elsewhere) have promoted it as considerably safer than anal intercourse, and not insisted that condoms were essential for oral sex. This is a judgment call for health promotion authorities, who need to balance the risk of alienating the target audience if they insist on an unrealistic ‘belt and braces’ approach to HIV prevention against the risk of being responsible for sporadic cases of oral transmission. The result in practice is that gay men in Sydney, despite higher HIV prevalence, hardly ever use condoms for fellatio12,13 – indeed it is considered so little as a risk practice that most surveys of sexual behaviour do not even ask about it.14 In this context it is not clear that it is reasonable to exhort women to use dams for cunnilingus, especially given the very low prevalence of HIV among women, although some barrier for oral sex might be desired by a known serodiscordant couple.

Oral herpes can be transmitted from a cold sore (herpes simplex virus type 1) to the genitals,15–18 and a dental dam or other barrier would help to prevent transmission. There is little evidence on oral sex transmission of hepatitis B or hepatitis C virus.16 Likewise although bacterial STIs are sometimes transmitted by fellatio, there is little evidence for transmission via cunnilingus, although there is some doubt about its role in candidiasis and bacterial vaginosis.

Evidence for the effectiveness of dams in preventing HIV transmission Top The practical and symbolic pur ... What are dams for? Evidence for the effectiveness ... Reasons for dam distribution Meeting real rather than symbo ... Conflict of interests References

It is widely believed by health educators that dental dams meet safety standards for STI prevention and that alternatives such as cling wrap (plastic film) cannot be recommended. However, dental dams are not manufactured, registered or tested for STI prevention purposes. No studies exist on their permeability to STI pathogens, although it is likely that they are at least as impermeable as condoms, which are also made of latex but thinner. Condoms have been tested in vitro for permeability to Chlamydia trachomatis, viruses and virus-sized particles20–24 and except for one large study of aged condoms,25 show very little or no leakage. As stated by the (US) Centers for Disease Control and Prevention:

No barrier methods for use during oral sex have been evaluated as effective by the [US] Food and Drug Administration. However, natural rubber latex sheets, dental dams, condoms that have been cut and spread open, or plastic wrap may offer some protection from contact with body fluids during oral sex.

Cling wrap is likely to be effective simply because it is waterproof, although less robust than latex film. Cling wrap is cheap, readily available, odourless and thinner than latex dams. If a piece tears during use it can easily be replaced. It is thus likely to be more acceptable to women for regular use than dental dams, but because of uncertainty about its possible permeability, many authorities remain reluctant to encourage its use. Laboratory evidence for the performance of cling wrap as a barrier to pathogens would be very useful.

Although it is plausible that dental dams would be impermeable to STI pathogens in vitro, it would be difficult or impossible to establish the effectiveness of dental dams in preventing HIV transmission in vivo at population level, as the risk is so low, even in countries with a higher overall prevalence of HIV than Australia. Any study to evaluate this would require a cohort of discordant couples having cunnilingus but no vaginal intercourse. Even condom-protected intercourse would probably be more risky than cunnilingus, thus swamping the ability of a study to detect infection via oral sex.27 Assembling a cohort of serodiscordant lesbian couples would be well nigh impossible. No studies have been done for other viruses. It is likely that dams help prevent transmission of enteric pathogens during rimming (oral–anal contact), but there is no population research evidence.

Reasons for dam distribution Top The practical and symbolic pur ... What are dams for? Evidence for the effectiveness ... Reasons for dam distribution Meeting real rather than symbo ... Conflict of interests References

The AIDS Council of New South Wales (ACON), a partly government-funded community-based organisation, is the main HIV prevention and service organisation at state level. ACON distributes ‘safe sex’ packs at lesbian community events such as dances, and also has them available for collection free at ACON offices. Until 2005 these packs contained dams, gloves, lubricant and condoms. However, more of the dams were apparently used by gay men (for rimming) than by women. Outreach workers reported that women receiving safe sex packs at community events often took out the condom, glove and lubricant for use and discarded the dental dam. After a dance there were hundreds of unused dams on the floor. Since 2006 dental dams have no longer been included in the packs, although they are available on request from ACON offices and information stalls, and included alongside condoms and gloves in self-serve bins in the toilets at functions. About 30 boxes are distributed per year, representing 3000 dams costing A$1200.

Given the weakness of the evidence for the need for barriers to prevent HIV/STI transmission between women during cunnilingus, and the lack of evidence for the effectiveness of dental dams even where the need for a barrier is felt, it is puzzling why some health authorities and non-governmental organisations in the HIV field felt it necessary to recommend and distribute dental dams.

It has been argued that the promotion of dams reveals a desire to ‘contain’ homosexual sex.28 In parallel with condom promotion for gay men, dental dams were promoted by and for women who had sex with women, but not for men having cunnilingus. Sara MacBride-Stewart argued that dominant understandings of ‘healthy’ sex do not include sex between women, and that the dental dam represents a sealing of the lesbian body.

This argument would be more plausible if it were mainstream authorities recommending dam use to lesbians, but it was the gay- and lesbian-run AIDS service organisations that provided dams. Perhaps, therefore, it was not a desire to seal off lesbian sex, but a sense of need and risk that originated elsewhere. In the 1990s, many lesbian, bisexual and queer women were surrounded by HIV – among their gay male friends, in their work as nurses or carers, in queer circles, as sexual adventurers on the leather or fetish scenes, or through drug-using networks. Many of them knew HIV-positive women and may have been unconvinced that lesbians were at low risk of acquiring HIV through sex. They saw resources being spent on HIV prevention among gay men, and women being largely ignored.

AIDS service organisations were in a sense ‘damned if they did and damned if they didn’t’ do something about HIV prevention among women who have sex with women. If they did nothing, even where there was minimal evidence of need, they were seen as ignoring and marginalising women. If they did something, despite minimal evidence of risk, they were seen to be stigmatising and stereotyping lesbians, or to be misdirecting resources.

Despite the fact that dams would in theory reduce STI transmission via oral sex, the question has to be asked whether they would be used in situations of risk. Given the practices and values of the subculture of sex between women, it is likely that alternatives such as explicit agreements about sex outside the relationship, greater awareness of mouth hygiene and lesions (in relation to HIV), or avoidance of oral sex if one partner has herpes would all be more acceptable to women concerned about STIs. Some of these strategies and others are promoted by a safer sex promotion website for women developed and evaluated in Australia.

Cox and McNair remark that most safer sex resources for women who have sex with women focus on latex products, yet few of their participants had ever used any latex products.29 Cox and McNair refer to women’s ‘consistent aversion to latex’ and interpret support for the safer sex project as a way of affirming sex between women. Thus it appears that the provision of dental dams is a knee-jerk reaction to the theoretical risk of STI transmission between women, based on an assumption that they are equivalent to condoms for sex between men. This, rather than any evidence of need, appears to have been the reason for supplying them in women’s prisons in New South Wales.

Continue HERE

Cubans march against homophobia

A photographer takes a picture of Farah arriving to La Rampa theater for events leading up to the International Day Against Homophobia in Havana, Saturday, May 15, 2010. International Day Against Homophobia is celebrated annually on May 17. (AP Photo/Franklin Reyes)

Members of Giganteria theater group participate in events leading up to the International Day Against Homophobia at La Rampa cinema in Havana, Saturday, May 15, 2010. International Day Against Homophobia is celebrated annually on May 17. (AP Photo/Franklin Reyes)

Mariela Castro, daughter of Cuba's President Raul Castro, front row second from right, participates in events leading up to the International Day Against Homophobia in Havana, Saturday, May 15, 2010. International Day Against Homophobia is celebrated annually on May 17. Mariela Castro directs the National Sexual Education Center. (AP Photo/Franklin Reyes)

By ANDREA RODRIGUEZ (AP)

HAVANA — Hundreds of gay and lesbian activists, some dressed in drag and others sporting multicolored flags representing sexual diversity, marched and danced through the streets of Havana on Saturday along with the daughter of Cuban President Raul Castro as part of a celebration aimed at eliminating homophobia around the world.

Some of the marchers played drums and others walked on stilts as they made their way down a wide avenue in the capital's hip Vedado neighborhood, where they have held a series of debates and workshops ahead of the May 17 celebration of the International Day Against Homophobia, which participants say marks the day in 1990 when the World Health Organization stopped listing homosexuality as a mental illness.

"We have made progress, but we need to make more progress," said Mariela Castro, a campaigner for gay rights on the island and the leader of Cuba's National Sexual Education Center. She is also the daughter of Cuban President Raul Castro.

Cuba has come a long way in accepting homosexuality. In the 1960s, shortly after the revolution, homosexuals were fired from state jobs and many were imprisoned or sent to work camps. Others fled into exile.

But that began to change in the 1980s, in large part to the work of Mariela Castro's center. Recently, the government has even agreed to include sex change operations for transsexuals under its free national health system, another project championed by the center.

The workshops and debates held Saturday dealt with issues such as adoption by gay and lesbian couples and whether to legalize gay marriages, a step Mariela Castro has been pushing for years, so far without success. The week of celebrations culminates Monday

Five Myths that Hurt Intersex People

The Intersex Roadshow:

Myth 1: Intersex people all have intermediate genitalia

Imagine this: you're an intersex person, nervous about dating and finding a partner. You work up your courage to disclose your status to people you're interested in, and after a series of them seeming polite but disinterested in dating, you finally meet a guy who expresses interest. You date for a while, and get to the point where the clothes come off. Your boyfriend gets a good look at you naked, accuses you of "making up that story of being intersex" because your body looks female to him, and breaks off the relationship, leaving you feeling misunderstood and ill-used.

Many people are intersexed in ways that are not visible to their partners. For example, an individual with AIS (androgen insensitivity syndrome) is born with internal testes but genitalia that look typically female. Intersex people born with visibly intermediate genitals are often subject to infant sex assignment surgery, another reason why our bodies may not appear visibly intersex to others.

What disturbs me about incidents in which a partner seems interested in dating an intersex person until the clothes come off is that it generally reveals that the partner was fetishizing the intersex person--only interested in them for their "exotic" body. In the situation described here, the boyfriend wanted to have sex with someone who looked genitally intermediate generally. I've also heard stories from intersex people whose genitals are visibly atypical about how a partner lost interest in them when the clothes came off because they didn't see the kind of "hermaphrodite" genitals they'd dreamt of, with a big penis and a vagina (a configuration almost unheard of in real life, but popular in pornographic fantasy). It's depressing to find out your date wasn't really interested in you, but in playing with some fantasy set of genitalia.

Myth 2: Intersex conditions are always diagnosed in infancy

Here's another unfortunate scenario: a person is having infertility problems, so they visit some doctors. They receive a diagnosis and turn in shock to an online gender forum to post "I was just diagnosed as intersex." Somebody responds, "Stop trolling this blog. You're not really intersex--intersex people all know what they are from childhood. You probably have sick fantasies or think saying you're intersex will give you an excuse to gender transition without controversy." The non-intersex person is accusing the intersex individual of being a non-intersex person exploiting intersex individuals, which is pretty ironic.

As noted above, many intersex conditions aren't obviously visible in external genitalia. That means that people may not find out about their intersex status until quite late in life. While the experiences of late-recognized intersex people are different from those of intersex folks diagnosed in infancy, they are not "less" intersex, and have to deal with physical and psychological ramifications for which they need support.

Myth 3: All infant sex-assignment surgery is aimed at creating "female" genitalia

Imagine this situation: you were born with intermediate genitalia but surgically assigned male at birth. However, you grew up hating your male sex assignment, and so you transitioned to female. Your experience has given you a lot of empathy for people viewed as gendertransgressive, so when you notice that a friend of a Facebook friend identifies as genderqueer, you write her a nice message and offer her friendship. She refuses your offer and writes you a nasty note back about how she knows you are lying about being intersex, since "all intersex children are made into girls." She accuses you of being a stalking, posing, creepy man-in-a-dress. Ironic and sad, isn't it--that a woman who identifies as breaking down the boundaries of sex and gender is policing those boundaries so rabidly and wrongheadedly?

It is true that intersex infants are disproportionately surgically assigned female, based on the appalling medical aphorism, "it's easier to make a hole than a pole." But some intersex infants are surgically assigned male--usually when they have at least one external testis, but sometimes under other conditions. The myth that this "never happens" leaves intersex people assigned male at birth open to constant suspicion and exclusion, increasing the difficulties they have to face.

Myth 4: Intersex people should be genderqueer

This myth comes up again and again in academic, activist and feminist circles: that intersex people, being neither male nor female in physical sex, must be genderqueer and androgynous. We're supposed to be standard-bearers for the fight to subvert artificial dyadic gender categories. Encountering an intersex person with an ordinary and "boring" masculine or feminine gender identity who doesn't look at all androgynous, these activists express puzzlement and disappointment--and in private, speculate that the person must have some minor, mild intersex condition, so they are not "intersex enough" to be insightful.

Intersex people face pressure from doctors and families and society at large to genderconform. Facing the opposite pressure to gendertransgress--subversivism-- is just as unfair. Yes, most intersex people open enough to disclose our sex status agree that it is damaging for our society to insist that everyone must identify as male or female. But we live in a society that understands gender dyadically, and like non-intersex people, we commonly identify as masculine or feminine.

Myth 5: "Real" intersex people are not genderqueer

Frustrated and upset by pressure from gender activists to gendertransgress, as descibed in Myth 4, some intersex people have created a reactionary opposite myth: that "real" intersex people have no interest in subverting dyadic gender understandings of male and female. These genderconservative individuals often don't actually identify as "intersex" but as "people with DSDs (Disorders of Sex Development)." And they go around arguing to institutions that "real" intersex people don't identify as genderqueer--that people who say they are intersex and argue for third gender categories and the like are posers, probably crazed feminist zealots or deceptive trans people.

What makes the myth that intersex people are never genderqueer particularly painful to me is that it is spread by members of our community. To undermine your own intersex siblings and deny their identities is counterproductive, pathetic, and cruel. Many intersex people identify as typically masculine or feminine people, but there are plenty who do not do so, and like all genderqueer people, they face a lot of social bias. We have no duty as intersex people to be genderqueer, but I see a strong moral imperative for us to support people who do have genderqueer identities and manners of selfexpression. There are enough hurtful myths circulating about intersex people already. We don't need to add one of our own to the mix.

Theory Explains Why Some With HIV Survive Longer

Source

A group of researchers in Boston announced a new theory this week that may help to explain a longstanding mystery in AIDS research: why some people with HIV survive for decades without ever developing AIDS.

Described in the scientific journal Nature, the research highlights the secret workings of a genetic trait that may allow some immune systems to better wage war on the virus than others. Like many new theories in science, though, it is likely to be debated -- at least one expert in the field who was not involved with the research is already cautioning that further work needs to be done.

The one thing that all experts agree upon, however, is that understanding why some people with HIV can survive longer than others has broad implications for the global epidemic. Their secrets may lead to effective vaccines against the virus, which infects more than 33 million people worldwide and kills millions of people every year.

The Mystery Of The Non-Progressors

Doctors who treat people with HIV have known for years that the virus affects people differently. Some catch it and develop AIDS very quickly, sometimes dying within a few months, while others live with HIV for a few years without symptoms, though they develop AIDS eventually. New drugs and treatment strategies have helped people live longer than ever in the last 15 years -- saving some 2.9 million lives in the past two decades, according to estimates by the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS.

About one out of every 200 people who catch HIV are considered "long-term non-progressors" or "elite controllers" because they can live for many years with the virus without developing AIDS. Even the most sensitive tests often cannot detect the virus in their bloodstream.

"Some of our patients have been infected for more than 27 years and have not had any blips or declines in their CD4+ count [a measure of progress towards AIDS]," said immunologist Mark Connors, who works with non-progressors at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in Bethesda, MD.

Numerous studies have followed these people, seeking to understand how their bodies control HIV so well when so many others succumb to the virus. What accounts for this difference is the crux of the new theory by the team in Boston, led by Arup Chakraborty of MIT in collaboration with Bruce Walker at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Part Genes, Part Luck

According to Chakraborty, one of the reasons why non-progressors can control HIV so well is a combination of good genes and good luck.

About half of all the people who have natural HIV resistance share a genetic trait known as "HLA-B57," a particular form of the gene that makes a molecule known as HLA. This molecule plays a part in developing the immune system's killer T cells, which seek out and destroy cells infected by HIV and other viruses.

In general, HLA helps to delete T cells that are too reactive and could cause a whole host of problems by damaging healthy tissue.

Chakraborty and his colleagues used computer simulations to study the diversity of interactions between HLA and killer T cells, and they determined that the HLA-B57 variation of the gene tends to remove fewer developing killer T cells. This creates a population of these killer T cells that are cross-reactive and may be better at fighting HIV, keeping up with the virus as it constantly mutates.

Having the HLA-B57 trait by itself is not enough for natural resistance -- 99 percent of people who have it are not non-progressors -- but for a lucky few it could lead to cross-reactive killer T cells that can recognize a wider range of HIV.

"This ability to have cross-reactive T cells gives you better control of the virus," said Chakraborty.

Some researchers, including Connors, remain unconvinced.

"It's an interesting idea, but it needs to be backed up by experimental data." he said. "There is no objective data that shows non-progressors have greater cross-reactivity."

If future studies confirm the theory and a way can be found to artificially induce such broadly-reactive killer T cells in people, researcher might be able to design a vaccine to do just that -- though there is no guarantee that such a vaccine would ultimately prove effective, as the history of AIDS vaccine trials has shown more than once.

Source: Inside Science News Service

Bruce must go, but then what? ..................

The Editor, Sir:

After listening with horror to the prime minister's confession in the Coke-Manatt affair, I immediately said, "He needs to resign!". For at least the next two hours, I was furious and saying to anyone who would listen, "Bruce needs to go."

However, after I had absorbed the news and began to think, I realised, if Bruce goes, who will replace him? In the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), there is no one who seems to be able to lead themselves much less the country. Then I looked at the People's National Party (PNP) and realised that there was nothing to look at.

As it stands, the PNP has descended on this issue, but who in the PNP has any moral authority to speak for Jamaica? That party is no more than a party of individuals who are just conveniently banding together to gain political power.

After we chase Bruce out, what solutions are the PNP going to come with? How will they deal any differently with crime or the debt? They were the initial farmers of the downward spiral in which we find ourselves, so what difference will they make?

No honour

Bruce, you gave up your honour for a man who is too cowardly to come and face the courts himself. I could understand the issue behind the wiretap - somewhat - but now you are being made to look like a fool. Jamaica has been made to look like a country of 'shady' men.

Bruce, you have placed yourself in a corner and have nowhere to go. My advice to you, even though I am mad with you, is look toward the Almighty as there is your only hope for redemption.

I am, etc.,

DONNA SCOTT

honeywelljm@yahoo.com

Lauderdale Lakes

Florida


My two cents:
With the plethora of voices calling for The Prime Minister's resignation and all of a sudden everybody now has morality fever where were these voices when other ills faced this country?

When the Armadale fire happened and seven girls perished where was the outcry that is so loud now for blood?

Where was the outcry for rights for ALL citizens despite of race class creed or orientation? yes while I may concur that the PM has slipped up many calling now for his head are mere political john crows (not saying this letter writer is) hovering over nearly dead meat waiting for it to die and begin rotting so they can feast.

The Peoples National Party must not forget their own set of scandals and amongst their midst is one who presently is being tried for alleged embezzlement as we all know the Kern Spencer affair where Cuban light bulb money allegedly cannot be properly accounted for, lest we forget he is on tape and by the looks of it he tried to cipher off some of it by false paperwork in collusion with others. The case now dangles in court with all kinds of legal manoeuvres taking place with judicial review after judicial review and delays, justice delayed is justice denied I tell you.

Straight hypocrisy no pun intended I tell you that's what happening here amongst the real honest citizenry.

Peace and tolerance.

H

Jah Cure goes techno with Never Say Never ..... remember the dancehall meets house post?

Following on the post Dancehall/Reggae meets housemusic: Is Tolerance already there?
here we see a perfect fusion yet again happening with a Jamaican artist using the services of European remixer to reach bigger markets.

What the Observer Entertainment article below didn't get into is the vision of Jah Cure to enter the market through this Techno/House vein which can be used to settle the problems with the homophobic lyrics issues by local acts and The Stop Murder Music Campaigns worldwide. Tolerance in as far as the crossings of Reggae with house music in it's varying forms predominantly followed by GLBTQ people is refeshing and shows that entertainment on a whole can be the bridge to reaching some form of harmony.

Article:
Producer, Rick Warren, has remixed Jah Cure's recent hit, Never Say Never, with a Techno flavour. The reggae version of the song was released in February of this year on the Stonehenge Riddim and was the first single of that compilation.

The Stonehenge rhythm also features artistes such as Anthony B, George Nooks, Pressure, Bryan Art, Lutan Fyah, Gyptian and Courtney John among others.

Now Rick Warren has again shown his ingenuity by remixing the song. Warren reveals that the remix involves a significant amount of automation and the production is more technical that would be necessary on the reggae track.

The track for the techno version was built using Protocols. Warren says the building of a techno beat is very tedious as the finished product is focused a lot on the arrangement and less on the vocals. He says that a techno track also has a lot of other elements that would not be included on a Dancehall or Reggae track such as crescendos and filter sweeps.

"I made the electronic remix to Jah Cure's Never Say Never to open up new doors for Reggae music. I'm trying to get fans that don't normally listen to Reggae artistes and would probably never of heard of Jah Cure, to get a chance to listen to his music," Warren explained.

"I think it will be well received. Even though we changed the genre of the original song to make it more appealing to dance music fans, we still kept some Reggae elements so the hardcore Reggae fans will still appreciate it," he said.

According to Jah Cure, he is very happy that Rick decided to remix the song: "My fans in Europe don't only listen to Reggae music they also listen to House and Techno and I think that this is just another way for me to connect with them in their space".

The Techno remix of Never Say Never has been released online and is also getting rotation on several radio stations in Jamaica and the Caribbean. Warren says he will be releasing the song to European stations in the coming week as there have been several requests from that part of the world for the remix.

Gay asylum seekers challenge UK's policy in court, implications for other cases

Two gay men are appealing against the UK's policy on returning gay and lesbian asylum seekers to their home countries.

The cases are being heard this week in the Supreme Court, with the men, one from Cameroon and the other from Iran, appealing against previous court decisions barring them from gaining asylum.

Gay asylum campaigners argue that the UK frequently tells gay asylum seekers that they can return to homophobic countries if they are "discreet" or relocate.

The two cases will be heard separately over three days.

The Cameroonian man is appealing against a tribunal decision which could he could be sent home despite being attacked after he was seen kissing his partner.

The Iranian man was told by a tribunal that he must expect persecution for his homosexuality and could avoid it by being discreet.

Angela Mason, the patron of the UK Lesbian and Gay Immigration Group, told the Guardian: "It seems that the Home Office are routinely refusing applications on the grounds that lesbians and gay men can go back and be 'discreet' or 'relocate'.

"Decisions are being made by Home Office case owners who lack essential training on dealing with such claims … The result is that lesbian and gay asylum seekers who are already experiencing persecution may also face discrimination in our own country."

Last month, an Amnesty International report claimed that the UK and several other European countries were breaching international law on returning vulnerable Iraqi asylum seekers.

According to the report, women, ethnic minorities and gays, or those perceived to be gay, are most likely to be at risk of violence and persecution in the country.

Amnesty accused the UK, along with several other countries, of forcibly returning "scores" of Iraqis to dangerous areas in the country, breaking international rules.

Psychiatric evaluation for senior on buggery charge

Tanesha Mundle

A senior citizen, who has found himself on the wrong side of the law after allegations surfaced that he sexually assaulted a 12-year-old boy, is to undergo psychiatric evaluation to determine whether he is fit to answer to charges of buggery and gross indecency.

The 59-year-old man was remanded in custody when he appeared in the Corporate Area Resident Magistrate's Court recently, after Resident Magistrate Georgianna Fraser ruled that he is to be examined by a psychiatrist.

However, the accused, who could be seen mumbling to himself, begged the magistrate to give him bail, but it was denied.

"Not today, I need to find out whether or not you are a danger to yourself and to others," Fraser said.

According to police reports, on March 23 this year, the complainant left school about 9:00 am and went to visit the accused man, who lives in a tree.

The youth, who is a ward of the state, reportedly spent the night at the accused man's 'home' and was fondled and raped.

The man was arrested the following morning when residents saw him with the child in the community and called the police.

The juvenile reportedly informed the police of the ordeal and the man was charged.

Genital wart virus may raise men's risk of HIV suggests Kenyan study

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Men who carry the virus that causes genital warts may be at increased risk of HIV infection, a study of Kenyan men suggests.

Researchers say the findings raise the possibility that vaccination against the virus, known as the human papillomavirus (HPV), could help curb the world's HIV pandemic.

The investigators found that among 2,168 Kenyan men between the ages of 18 and 24, half tested positive for HPV at the start of the study. Over the next 3.5 years, nearly 6 percent of those men became infected with HIV, versus just under 4 percent of those who had tested HPV-negative at the outset.

When the researchers controlled for a number of HIV risk factors, men with HPV were still 80 percent more likely than their HPV-negative counterparts to become infected with HIV, suggesting the genital wart virus itself may boost a person's susceptibility to HIV.

The findings are published in the Journal of Infectious Diseases.

There are more than 100 strains of HPV, some of which cause genital and anal warts. In most people, the immune system clears the infection fairly rapidly. However, persistent infection with certain HPV strains can eventually lead to cancer in some cases.

Persistent HPV infection is the primary cause of cervical cancer, and it can also lead to cancers of anus and penis.

The current findings come from a larger clinical trial that, along with two other trials in Africa in 2005 and 2006, found that circumcision lowered men's risk of acquiring HIV through heterosexual sex. Subsequent studies of those men have shown that circumcision may also lower the odds of HPV infection.

In this latest study, HPV infection itself was linked to a higher risk of acquiring HIV even when the researchers factored in circumcision, as well as the men's reported sexual history and whether they had the genital herpes virus -- which has already been linked to an increased risk of HIV infection.

All of this suggests that HPV vaccination, along with circumcision, could help stem the HIV pandemic, according to lead researcher Dr. Jennifer S. Smith, of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

"Finding a vaccine to prevent HIV is the greatest hope for curbing the world's AIDS pandemic, but so far there is no such vaccine," Smith said in a written statement from the university. "However, there is a vaccine to prevent specific types of HPV infection, and vaccinating young men before they become sexually active could potentially help prevent the spread of HIV."

There are two vaccines that can prevent infection with certain cancer-related strains of HPV: Gardasil (from Merck) and Ceravix (from GlaxoSmithKline). In the U.S., the vaccines are approved for girls and young women as young as 9, and up to the age of 26. Last year, regulators approved Gardasil for boys and men in the same age group.

The current findings, according to Smith's team, warrant clinic trials to test whether HPV vaccination can lower the risk of HIV infection.

If vaccination does prove effective, cost could stand as a major obstacle to bringing it to developing nations where HIV transmission rates are high. The required three doses of the HPV vaccines cost roughly $400 in the U.S.

It's not clear why HPV infection might increase the odds of HIV infection, but it is biologically plausible, according to Smith's team. Skin lesions caused by HPV, for example, might act as "portals of HIV entry," the researchers note. In addition, HPV may induce the production of certain inflammatory proteins in the genital area, which may in turn boost susceptibility to HIV infection.

The study was funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.

SOURCE: Journal of Infectious Diseases, June 1, 2010.

New insights into the mystery of natural HIV immunity

A new finding from the Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT and Harvard may have implications for designing an effective AIDS vaccine.

Anne Trafton, MIT News Office

When people become infected by HIV, it’s usually only a matter of time, barring drug intervention, until they develop full-blown AIDS. However, a small number of people exposed to the virus progress very slowly to AIDS — and some never develop the disease at all.

In the late 1990s, researchers showed that a very high percentage of those naturally HIV-immune people, who represent about one in 200 infected individuals, carry a gene called HLA B57. Now a team of researchers from the Ragon Institute of Massachusetts General Hospital, MIT and Harvard has revealed a new effect that contributes to this gene’s ability to confer immunity.

The research team, led by MIT Professor Arup Chakraborty and Harvard Professor Bruce Walker of MGH, found that the HLA B57 gene causes the body to make more potent killer T cells — white blood cells that help defend the body from infectious invaders. Patients with the gene have a larger number of T cells that bind strongly to more pieces of HIV protein than people who do not have the gene. This makes the T cells more likely to recognize cells that express HIV proteins, including mutated versions that arise during infection. This effect contributes to superior control of HIV infection (and any other virus that evolves rapidly), but it also makes those people more susceptible to autoimmune diseases, in which T cells attack the body’s own cells.

This new knowledge, described in the May 5 online edition of Nature, could help researchers develop vaccines that provoke the same response to HIV that individuals with HLA B57 muster on their own, says Walker, who is director of the Ragon Institute and a professor at Harvard Medical School.

“HIV is slowly revealing itself,” says Walker. “This is another point in our favor in the fight against the virus, but we have a long way to go.”

Natural resistance

Chakraborty, a professor of chemical engineering, chemistry and biological engineering who specializes in theoretical and computational studies of the immune system, undertook this study after Walker told him about the phenomenon of HLA B57-induced immunity. Chakraborty was also intrigued by the fact that people who carry the HLA B57 gene also are more likely to develop autoimmune disorders.

Chakraborty, Walker and their colleagues focused on killer T cells, one of two types of T cells that play an important role in the immune response. Most killer T cells are genetically unique and recognize different pieces of foreign proteins, known as epitopes, attached to the surface of cells that have been infected by viruses or bacteria.

After a killer T cell grabs hold of such a protein, it becomes activated and starts sweeping the body for more cells that express the same protein, so it can kill them. It also clones itself to produce an army of T cells targeting the invader.

The new Ragon Institute study shows that individuals with the HLA B57 gene produce larger numbers of killer T cells that are cross-reactive, meaning they can attack more than one epitope associated with HIV, including mutants that arise to escape activated killer T cells.

The finding offers hope that researchers could design a vaccine to help draw out cross-reactive T cells in people who don’t have the HLA B57 gene. “It’s not that they don’t have cross-reactive T cells,” says Chakraborty. “They do have them, but they’re much rarer, and we think they might be coaxed into action with the right vaccine.”

The work is a valuable contribution to scientists’ understanding of HIV, says David Baltimore, professor of biology and former president of Caltech.

“This is a remarkable paper because it starts from a clinical observation, integrates it with experimental observations, generates a valuable model and derives from the model a deep understanding of the behavior of the human immune system. Rarely does one read a paper that stretches the mind so surprisingly far,” says Baltimore, a Nobel laureate in physiology or medicine who now studies HIV and human T cell interactions.

Weeding out

Chakraborty and colleagues had previously developed computational models of T-cell development in the thymus, an organ located behind the breastbone through which T cells must pass in order to become mature killers. There they undergo a selection process designed to weed out cells that might attack the body’s own cells (which display pieces of human proteins on their surface). T cells must also demonstrate that they can bind weakly to some human protein fragments. Only a tiny percentage of T cells pass these tests and are allowed to leave the thymus and circulate in the body to defend against viruses, other diseases, and cancerous cells.

Inside the thymus, T cells are exposed to “self-peptides” — small human protein fragments — bound to HLA proteins. Chakraborty and co-workers had previously shown that the diversity of self-peptide fragments presented in the thymus influences the kinds of T cells a person can produce. The type and number of self-peptides expressed are determined by the HLA genes, which have hundreds of distinct forms, including HLA B57. Each person carries up to six of them (three inherited from each parent).

Using data from previous studies, the Ragon team found that HLA B57 protein presents fewer types of self-peptides than most other HLA proteins. (HLA B27 is another protein that presents few types of self-peptides and also appears to protect against HIV and promote autoimmune disorders.) In this study, Chakraborty and postdoctoral fellow Elizabeth Read and graduate student Andrej Kosmrlj, lead authors of the paper, used their computer model to study what happens when maturing T cells are exposed to only a small diversity of self-peptides in the thymus.

T cells with receptors that bind strongly to any of the self-peptides in the thymus are forced to undergo cell suicide, because of their potential to attack the body’s own cells. Chakraborty and co-workers showed that this means that, for most individuals, most of the body’s T cells have receptors that bind to targeted viral proteins via a number of weak interactions, with each interaction making a significant contribution to the binding. Thus, a single mutation to an HIV peptide can potentially evade the immune response.

A different scenario unfolds in people who have the HLA B57 gene. Using their computer model, Chakraborty and colleagues showed that, because those individuals’ T cells are exposed to fewer self-peptides in the thymus, T cells with receptors that mediate strong binding to viral proteins via just a few important contacts are more likely to escape the thymus. This makes these T cells more cross-reactive to targeted HIV peptide mutants, because as long as those points in the viral proteins don’t mutate, the T cells are still effective. The model also showed that once those T cells are released into the bloodstream, they can effectively attack HIV proteins, even when the virus mutates.

This model also explains why people with the HLA B57 gene have autoimmune problems: Their T cells are more likely to bind strongly to human peptides not encountered in the thymus.

The computational studies explained many puzzles, but also made a prediction: Individuals with HLA genes that result in a display of fewer self-peptides should control HIV (and other viruses like hepatitis C virus) better. To test this prediction, the researchers studied nearly 2,000 patients — 1,100 “HIV controllers” and 800 who progressed normally to AIDS, and confirmed that this appears to be true.

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Lesbian overview in Jamaica

Lesbians in Jamaica have an easier existence than gay men, obvious to everyone these days as most of the venom towards gay life is directed at gay men. Our sisters enjoy much more overt freedoms than we do and across the landscape of the exotic nightclub arenas and massage parlors (also known as sex shops) patrons can readily find lesbian entertainment reasonably priced. Things seem to be changing though as in recent times it is noticeable that our lesbian sisters are feeling the pinch of homophobic violence across the island.

There are no laws presently on the books that directly speak to lesbian behaviour as illegal except for the gross indecency clause where one may be charged if caught in a public or private place conducting that specific sexual activity, the alleged perpetrators consenting or not. The new Sexual Offences Bill 2009 speaks of penetration with an object vaginally or anally gender neutral and as we know many lesbian couples do use sex toys for pleasure, that's the closest they may come to legal woes here.


There have been several "corrective rape" crimes carried out in Portmore and Kingston and most recently in St. Thomas where an attempt was made on a 19 year old woman and in upper St. Andrew on a visiting Jamaican student studying in the United States who was followed and set upon by 2 men who she had resisted there advances in the hometown of her birth while she was shopping at a local grocery store. Corrective Rape in the paragraphed is used to describe the sometimes despicable sexual assaults of lesbian and bisexual women with the intent to punish and correct their same sex attraction or choice. There are several other types of rapes as well such as date, war, prison and gang rape.

Lesbians like the gay male community also have their fair share of problems within each sub group and they have developed ways of dealing with them, of note the forumatic activity which seems lacking in the gay community in general as the two groups socialise differently and many lesbians openly refuse to be seen at parties, events or forums where certain types of gay men would be present. Lesbophobia is also a pressing problem for some lesbians, the now defunct GLABCOM meetings usually held by Jamaica AIDS Support for Life which was an outreach arm of their targeted intervention program for Gay Lesbian Allsexual and Bisexual Community as the acronym spells out. Many lesbians complained of gays overtaking the meetings and not allowing fulsome discussions and exchange of ideas while many of the men wanted a meeting for themselves to deal with issues.


JFLAG has not had any forumatic activity in a while which begs the question what does forum in the name and acronym stands for? There was a lesbian group which was a spin off from early JFLAG days called Lesbians in Action which later changed to Women for Women. Their primary concern is social intervention within the Jamaican lesbian and bisexual female communities. They have bi-weekly meetings at selected locations and often have excursions with friends and family members. They can be reached via email at: womenforwomen1999@gmail.com. I think though that because women in general are naturally social creatures they are able to come together to handle issues.

Straight men attracted?Jamaican men in general seem titillated by lesbian action, I say this because of my observation at some of the exotic nightclubs I mentioned before and even the bootleg DVD business, sales on the streets of Kingston and other areas where lesbian xrated porn is openly sold. One of the ways to test the temperature of sexuality and lifestyle I have seen is to check these two spots as mentioned.

In a poll I started some time now on here I asked whether lesbians could use their tolerance advantage to assist with the fight for equality in Jamaica, yes seems to be the majority answer so far as at the time of this post it was 93%. it has been suggested that they could speak on certain issues definitively and may not get rebuffed as easily as the gay male voices over the years in GLBT agitation.

To track issues relating to lesbian posts on here just click on the labels section "lesbian issues" or type in the search bar on top to list all articles.

GLTBQ Jamaica hopes to work together with all the groups and gender variants to arrive at a cohesive working relationship and tolerance.

Peace

H

Budding tyranny of the minority? (Observer Letter)

Dear Editor,

Maurice Tomlinson's May 2 letter condemned the absence of sexual orientation non-discrimination specification in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and alleged an obsession of some with "what consenting adults do in the privacy of their bedrooms". If private consensual behaviour were really the issue, the GLBT political machine would have won this issue globally four decades ago. The aims clearly go much further and are insatiable.

Is Mr Tomlinson suggesting Jamaican law would fail to defend the victim of a crime for the sake of sexual orientation? Isn't the point of the rule of law to protect individuals - and not fashionably favoured groups - from state excess? Are crimes against same-sex-attracted Jamaicans somehow worse than the same offences against anyone else?

Is the next step hate-speech legislation to punish any who dare voice dissent against GLBT politics? Isn't this a budding tyranny of the minority?

In the USA, Court Appointed Criteria for True Minority Status Qualifying for Special Civil Rights Protections specify that the entire class in question must meet three standards: they must have suffered a history of social oppression; exhibit obvious, immutable, or distinguishing characteristics; and demonstrate political powerlessness. Sexual orientation fails on all three counts.

(1) Social oppression: same-sex-attracted people have a higher average household income, higher average educational status, and higher percentage in professional or managerial positions than most Americans; and housing discrimination is nearly non-existent.
(2) Immutable characteristics: gays have none that are obvious or readily identifiable, and there is zero evidence for a gay gene.
(3) Political powerlessness: the GLBT lobby is potent with influence on every level of society - government, business, media, and education - guarded aggressively by an extremely well-financed lobby.

Mr Tomlinson noted "human rights (are) not the gifts of the state but were the birthright of every individual..." Does he know from whence that concept came? According to renowned English jurist and devout Christian, Sir William Blackstone, the source for common law was "holy scriptures". Yet Mr Tomlinson wishes the Lawyers' Christian Fellowship to go away: "in an evolving democracy when they are long dead and gone". If Jamaica had hate-crimes and hate-speech legislation, would his own comments have violated such? Be careful what you wish for, Sir; you just might get it.

Dr Andre Van Mol


USA

Global Prevention of HIV Infection for Neglected Populations: Men Who Have Sex with Men

Chris Beyrer

Department of Epidemiology, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland

The global epidemiology of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection among men who have sex with men (MSM) suggests both reemergent spread among men in resource‐sufficient countries since 2000 and emerging epidemics among MSM in resource‐limited countries. Both epidemic contexts are evidence of the current limits of prevention of HIV infection in MSM.

A range of evidence‐based preventive interventions exist, but few new interventions have shown efficacy among MSM. Circumcision has not been investigated for MSM. New interventions are needed. Trials of preexposure prophylaxis are pending and may markedly alter the prevention landscape. For MSM in developing countries, basic services for prevention of HIV infection have yet to reach the large majority of men. Homophobia and discrimination limit access of MSM to prevention services and markedly increase vulnerability, as does criminalization of same‐sex behavior. Decriminalization of same‐sex behavior is a structural intervention for prevention of HIV infection and has recently been embraced by a nonbinding statement from the United Nations.

Reprints or correspondence: Dr Chris Beyrer, Center for Public Health and Human Rights, Johns Hopkins BSPH, 615 N Wolfe St, E 7152, Baltimore, MD 21205 (cbeyrer@jhpsh.edu).

In the third decade of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and AIDS pandemic, we face a painful reality—although men who have sex with men (MSM) were among the first affected populations and, in well‐resourced countries, communities of MSM were pioneers in prevention of HIV infection and behavior change, there is now evidence of multiple reemerging epidemics of HIV infection among these men [1, 2]. A recent analysis of data from 8 industrialized countries, including the United States, United Kingdom, the Netherlands, France, Germany, Spain, Australia, and Canada, found that, although the prevalence of diagnosis of HIV infection generally decreased from 1996 through 2000, diagnoses of HIV infection among MSM have increased by 3% per year from 2000 through 2005 [2]. Marked increases in the rate of diagnosis of syphilis among MSM in 5 of these 8 countries over the same period suggest that at least some of the increase in the prevalence of HIV infection was attributable to increases in sexual risk–taking behavior [2]. Among US MSM, a particular concern is the disproportionate burden of HIV infection among MSM of color, especially among African American MSM, who are at strikingly higher risk of HIV infection, even after controlling for individual‐level sexual risk behaviors [3, 4]. Rates of undiagnosed HIV infection among black MSM are also strikingly higher than those among MSM of other race and ethnicity groups, suggesting that HIV testing, counseling services, and messages are failing to reach these men, even as rates of HIV infection increase.

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The HIV Research Catalyst Forum: Treatment, Prevention, Advocacy Slides & more

GET MORE INFORMATION HERE

Held on April 20-23, 2010
Renaissance Harborplace Hotel
Baltimore, Maryland


The HIV Research Catalyst Forum: Treatment, Prevention, Advocacy (Formerly North American Treatment Action Forum—NATAF) is an unique conference focusing on community advocacy in HIV treatment and prevention research. From identifying research priorities to overcoming research barriers, HIV advocates have driven groundbreaking discoveries that have changed the course of this relentless epidemic. But with no cure or preventive vaccines in sight, rising new infection rates, and the continuing death toll, our work is far from over.

The Catalyst Forum aims to revitalize the community response to the domestic and global AIDS epidemic by amplifying the voices of community advocates in HIV treatment and prevention research. This four-day conference will provide a rare opportunity for new advocates to gain knowledge, build capacity, and sharpen skills; for experienced advocates to exchange ideas, craft strategies, and tackle new challenges; and for advocacy networks to recruit new participants and collaborators to strengthen planned or ongoing research advocacy campaigns.

Be careful what you wish for (Gleaner Letter)

The Editor, Sir:

Maurice Tomlinson's May 1 letter condemned the absence of sexual orientation non-discrimination specification in the Charter of Rights of Freedoms and alleged an obsession of some with "what consenting adults do in the privacy of their bedrooms". If private consensual behaviour were really the issue, the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender (GLBT) political machine would have won this issue globally four decades ago. The aims clearly go much further and are insatiable.

Is Mr Tomlinson suggesting Jamaican law would fail to defend the victim of a crime for the sake of sexual orientation? Isn't the point of the rule of law to protect individuals - and not fashionably favoured groups - from State excess? Are crimes against same-sex-attracted Jamaicans somehow worse than the same offences against anyone else? Is the next step hate-speech legislation to punish any who dare voice dissent against GLBT politics (thou shall not say 'no')? Isn't this a budding tyranny of the minority?

In the USA, court appointed criteria for true minority status qualifying for special civil rights protections specify that the entire class in question must meet three standards: they must have suffered a history of social oppression; exhibit obvious, immutable, or distinguishing characteristics; and demonstrate political powerlessness. Sexual orientation fails on all three counts.

(1) Social oppression: same-sex attracted people have a higher average household income, higher average educational status, and higher percentage in professional or managerial positions than most Americans; and housing discrimination are nearly non-existent.

(2) Immutable Characteristics: gays have none that are obvious or readily identifiable, and there is zero evidence for a gay gene.

(3) Political powerlessness: the GLBT lobby is potent with influence on every level of society - government, business, media, and education - guarded aggressively by an extremely well-financed lobby.

Mr Tomlinson noted "human rights [are] not the gifts of the State but were the birthright of every individual ... ." Does he know from whence that concept came? According to renowned English jurist and devout Christian, Sir William Blackstone, the source for common law was 'holy scriptures'. His Commentaries on the Laws of England sold more copies in colonial America than in England, and the Blackstonian phrase "the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God" served as intellectual premise for the introduction to the Declaration of Independence.

Yet Mr Tomlinson wishes the Lawyers Christian Fellowship to go away: "in an evolving democracy when they are long dead and gone." If Jamaica had hate-crimes and hate-speech legislation, would his own comments have violated such? Be careful what you wish for, sir; you just might get it.

I am, etc.,

ANDRE VAN MOL

andrev@charter.net

Redding, California

here is the original letter:
Guard against the tyranny of the majority

Lesbian scared of returning home

While many lesbians remain closeted, Neisha Hemmings has decided to open the doors to her life for all to see by revealing her sexual tendencies. Born in St Mary 28 years ago, Hemmings now residing in the United Kingdom for the past 12 years says she feels obliged to go public, even knowing that she could lose friends and even jeopardize her own safety.

“I got into my first lesbian relationship at the age of 17 and since then I have been enjoying my life,” Hemmings said. But while she has finally stepped out, she is concerned about some of the negative feedback from some of her friends and family members. According to Hemmings she was warned that some of her relatives and friends in the village where she was born are saying negative things, while others declared openly that she should not return to the district because something terribly could happen to her.

“I have been hiding my sexuality for a long time and am not going to cover up anymore. I am a lesbian. While I understand Jamaica has a reputation of being a homophobic country, I must be true to myself,” Hemmings told the Sunday Herald.

She said based on the reports from her friends and associates and what she read on the Internet, she was scared of returning home. Hemmings contends that her sexual tendencies were her private business and she should not be punished or threatened by persons who don’t share her lifestyle. She is encouraging other lesbians to come forward and declare themselves, providing they feel comfortable doing so.

Hemmings is among several homosexuals who have fled Jamaica for fear that they could be harmed because of their sexuality. Sexuality, according to experts on sexual behaviour, “is an important part of who we are as humans. Beyond the ability to reproduce, sexuality also defines how we see ourselves and how we physically relate to others.”

Sexual orientation

JFLAG, the local organization representing homosexuals believe its members are being targeted. Much research has been conducted to determine if sexual orientation is the result of nature.

However, most scientists today agree that sexual orientation is the result of a combination of environmental, emotional, hormonal, and biological factors.

In other words, there are many factors that contribute to a person’s sexual orientation, and the factors might be different for different people. Experts argue that homosexuality and bisexuality are not caused by the way a child was reared by his or her parents, or by having a sexual experience with someone of the same sex when the person was young.

Also, being homosexual or bisexual does not mean the person is mentally ill or abnormal in some way, although there might be social problems that result from prejudicial attitudes or misinformation.

Experts say for many people, their sexual orientation becomes evident to them during adolescence or young adulthood, and in many cases without any sexual experience. For example, homosexuals become aware that their sexual thoughts and activities focus on people of the same sex. It is possible, however, to have fantasies or to be curious about people of the same sex without being homosexual or bisexual, or choosing to act on these impulses/ attractions.

Gonorrhoea 'may become untreatable', health experts warn

Jessica Green (PN)

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has said that the sexually transmitted disease gonorrhoea may become untreatable due to the improper use of antibiotics.
The disease, which increases the chances of gay men catching HIV, is usually treated with a course of antibiotics but doctors say that they are seeing increasing resistance to drugs in the eastern hemisphere.

According to WHO, cheaper, first-line antibiotics are losing their effectiveness and it will be a "matter of time" before gonorrhoea develops resistance to third-generation cephalosporin, which is usually the last drug used to treat infections.
Australia, Hong Kong and Japan have reported treatment failures with oral cephalosporin, the agency said.

Studies show that the overuse of antibiotics can render bacteria immune to them.
"We are dealing with a serious issue with the implication that gonorrhoea may become untreatable," said Dr Shin Young-soo, WHO regional director for the Western Pacific.
"This will have a major impact on our efforts to control the disease and will result in an increase in serious health-related complications."

If left untreated, gonorrhoea can result in infertility, pelvic inflammatory disease, ectopic pregnancy, infections in newborn children, urethral strictures and scrotal swelling.
It also increases the likelihood of acquiring and transmitting HIV infection, which disproportionately affects gay men.

Matthew Hodson, head of programmes at GMFA, the gay men’s health charity, said: “Hearing this report is a major concern. Not only can gonorrhoea have major health consequences, such as inflammation of the joints and septicaemia, but also it can considerably increase the likelihood of HIV being transmitted.

"HIV positive men with gonorrhoea will be more infectious. HIV negative men with gonorrhoea will be more vulnerable to HIV infection."

more from Bloomberg

Ways of attacking HIV

HIV has a complex life-cycle that involves several steps. Disease progression occurs when the virus replicates (reproduces) and infects new cells. The key goal of antiretroviral therapy is to slow – or ideally stop – HIV replication and enable recovery of the immune system.

Antiretroviral drugs, targeting different steps in the viral life-cycle, are the mainstay of HIV treatment. These include, but are not limited to:
Nucleoside and nucleotide reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs and NtRTIs).
Non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NNRTIs).
Protease inhibitors.
Integrase inhibitors.
Fusion inhibitors.
CCR5 inhibitors.

There are a number of other candidate drugs in clinical trials, including one in a class called 'maturation inhibitors', as well as innovations in immune-based strategies.
The standard of care for anyone on antiretroviral treatment is highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) using drugs with at least two different mechanisms of action (for example, two NRTIs plus either an NNRTI or a protease inhibitor). Over time, HIV can develop mutations that make it resistant to drugs. For this reason, people who have more treatment experience may need more drugs to construct an effective regimen.

By targeting multiple steps in the viral life-cycle simultaneously, the emergence of resistance can be slowed or prevented.
Researchers have also explored other approaches for treating HIV, such as inhibiting cellular factors the virus needs for its replication, gene therapy that protects cells from infection, and removal of cells that are already infected. Many of these approaches are experimental and some remain purely theoretical. But there is evidence that complementary therapies such as nutrient supplements – used in conjunction with antiretroviral therapy – can improve the overall health of people with HIV.

Since the advent of effective combination antiretroviral therapy in the mid-1990s, researchers have discovered much about how best to treat HIV, and treatment has shifted from managing opportunistic illness to suppressing the virus to the greatest extent possible. New studies are showing that even at CD4 cell counts between 350 and 500 cells/mm3, there is a greater risk of morbidity and mortality from non-AIDS illnesses.

While viral load suppression is considered an indicator of effective therapy, the ultimate goal of treatment is to preserve immune function, increase disease-free survival, and reduce mortality. Once HIV replication is controlled, a person’s CD4 cell count usually rises over time, but this occurs more slowly in some patients. Researchers are studying various ways to promote immune system reconstitution and HIV-specific immune response.

Effective antiretroviral therapy has dramatically improved survival and lowered the incidence of opportunistic illnesses and other conditions related to immune suppression in people with HIV. But much remains to be learned about long-term treatment, including whether it is possible to completely eradicate HIV from the body.

also see: How NRTIs and NtRTIs work

Bisexual concurrency, bisexual partnerships, and HIV among Southern African men who have sex with men study

Accepted 9 February 2010
Published Online First 21 April 2010

Abstract
Objectives
The sexual behaviour of men who have sex with men (MSM) in southern Africa has been little studied. We present here the first data on bisexual partnerships and bisexual concurrency among MSM in Malawi, Namibia and Botswana.

Methods
A cross-sectional probe of a convenience sample of 537 men who have ever reported anal sex with another man using a structured survey instrument and rapid-kit HIV screening.

Results
34.1% of MSM were married or had a stable female partner, and 53.7% reported both male and female sexual partners in the past 6 months. Bisexual concurrency was common, with 16.6% of MSM having concurrent relationships with both a man and a woman. In bivariate analyses, any bisexual partnerships were associated with lower education (OR 1.6, 95% CI 1.1 to 2.3), higher condom use (OR 6.6, 95% CI 3.2 to 13.9), less likelihood of having ever tested for HIV (OR 1.6, 95% CI 1.1 to 2.3), less likelihood of having disclosed sexual orientation to family (OR 0.47, 95% CI 0.32 to 0.67) and being more likely to have received money for casual sex (OR 1.9, 95% CI 1.3 to 2.7).

Bisexual concurrency was associated with a higher self-reported condom use (OR 1.7, 95% CI 1.0 to 3.1), being employed (OR 1.8, 95% CI 1.2 to 2.9), lower likelihood of disclosure of sexual orientation to family (OR 0.37, 95% CI 0.22 to 0.65) and having paid for sex with men (OR 2.0, 95% CI 1.2 to 3.2).

Conclusions
The majority of MSM in this study report some bisexual partnerships in the previous 6 months. Concurrency with sexual partners of both genders is common. Encouragingly, men reporting any concurrent bisexual activity were more likely to report condom use with sexual partners, and these men were not more likely to have HIV infection than men reporting only male partners.

HIV-prevention programmes focussing on decreasing concurrent sexual partners in the African context should also target bisexual concurrency among MSM. Decriminalisation of same-sex practices will potentiate evidence-based HIV-prevention programmes targeting MSM.

DOWNLOAD FULL PDF OF STUDY

'Taboo Yardies' documentary to hit the streets in November

Howard Campbell

A Jamaican film-maker's documentary about the country's indifference toward homosexuals is tentatively scheduled for a November release.

Taboo Yardies is the title of Selena Blake's project which looks at the intolerance of Jamaicans toward persons with an alternative lifestyle. The project is being produced by Blake's Maynov Productions.

"Hopefully, the film should be completed within the next two months. I think the buzz surrounding this project is human rights because it's never been told in this manner before," she said.

The Old Harbour-born Blake interviewed several persons in the Caribbean gay community in New York City, and travelled to Jamaica late last year for similar discussions with prime minister Bruce Golding, psychologist, Aggrey Irons, journalist, Beverley Anderson Manley, and the Jamaica Forum of Lesbians, All-Sexuals and Gays.

Significant assignment

The Golding assignment was significant. In a 2008 interview on the British Broadcasting Corporation television programme Hard Talk, the prime minister said there was no space for homosexuals in his administration.

Blake, 47, said it was difficult getting archival material in Jamaica.

"We knew it would be challenging trying to get footage from sources that are homo-intolerant but we managed to overcome the road blocks," she said.

Jamaicans have long shunned homosexuality, mainly on religious grounds. In recent years, many dancehall artistes have been targeted by gay advocates in Europe and North America for their anti-gay songs.

Taboo Yardies is the second film by Blake, a former model who has lived in New York City for more than 30 years. Her 2005 debut, Queensbridge: The Other Side, dealt with deteriorating conditions at the Long Island housing project of the same name where she once lived.

The Queensbridge scheme was built in 1939 and was once home to World War II veterans. NBA star Ron Artest and rapper Marley Marl grew up there.

That documentary got strong reviews including a thumbs-up from the New York Times. Blake hopes Taboo Yardies will also strike an emotional chord.

"I hope it will become a vehicle that will spur an open and honest conversation where homo-intolerance is concerned," she said. "I'm sure there are bigger issues facing Jamaica than same-sex relationships."

see also: A glimpse into the lives of Taboo Yardies


TABOO YARDIES, a documentary that examines Jamaica's indifference toward homosexuals, will have a screening at the General Theological Seminary in New York City next week.

Selena Blake, a 49 year-old Jamaican filmmaker who is producing Taboo Yardies, says persons attending the April 24 event will see 17 minutes of the film which is expected to be released in late 2009.

"I hope that the documentary will be a springboard in the way we as Jamaicans conduct ourselves in the name of God," Blake told The Gleaner this week from her home in New York.

Blake, who was born in Old Harbour, St Catherine, started work on Taboo Yardies in 2007. Through interviews with gay Jamaicans in the United States and Canada, she attempts to show the un-initiated a look at the prejudice homosexuals face in Jamaica.

The documentary also has interviews with businesspersons who have suffered because of the anti-gay themes of some Jamaican dancehall acts. Businesspersons like show promoter D'Niscio Banks of the annual Carifest concert who was strongly criticised by New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg for inviting Buju Banton and Bounty Killer on that show last year.

Aljazeera Network carries Island of Music & Murder Story

Though not directly related to homophobic violence here is a damming piece by the Aljazeera Network in the middle east on our murderous trends specifically related to murdered DJ Kentucky Kid.

Click the image or here to see the video feed from their website.

More:
With 268 armed gangs or neighbourhood 'corner crews' locked in deadly turf wars, Jamaica is one of the most violent societies on earth.

With a population of less than three million people, police kill hundreds of people every year in what they claim are crime-related shootouts, making Jamaica's police force among the deadliest in the world.

Rights groups say that these shootings add up to a campaign of extra-judicial executions carried out by police who have taken the law into their own hands.

The official police response to these allegations cannot be recorded - the commissioner has issued standing orders which ban all officers from speaking to foreign journalists.

But, as reporter Simon Ostrovsky discovered, many others in Jamaica are prepared to speak out. One of them, Robert Hill, an entertainer, actually warned of his own impending death.

"Hello Jamaica. I'm Robert Hill AKA Kentucky Kid. I really don't know what is going on but all I know, police are covering up for each other and they're trying to kill me," Hill explained in a video message.

Robert Hill installed a video camera in his house because he was concerned about his safety

Hill went on to explain how his car had been hit by a police car that had passed through a red light.

Hills car was badly damaged in the incident and he was taken to the police station to give a written statement.

But after waiting for four hours, Hill was sent home and told to return within 24 hours to submit the statement.

When he returned the following day, the police told him that they could not take his statement.

"They told me that they could not take my statement, [and asked] why I did not give it [at] the time of the accident. I told them that Sergeant Gardener told me to return to give it," Hill explained.

When he refused to leave without providing a statement, Hill said he was physically forced out of the building.

"All I know is I can't get any justice. Who will fix my car? Who will take care of my health?" Hill asked in his video message.

Fearful

Kimmo Matthews, a reporter for the Jamaica Observer, says Hill was concerned for his safety.

"The first time he came in and spoke to us it was evident that he was really concerned. He had mentioned that police had threatened him at his home and they were intimidating him."

Hill saw a legal aid lawyer who advised him to install a camera in his house. He followed their advice.


Many Jamaicans are angered by police violence and corruption

"After installing the camera he came to me three days later showing me some video footage of what appeared to be police manhandling him along with his wife. It appeared they were holding him and pushing him around in a room and they were asking him questions," Matthews says.

Hills wife was eight months pregnant when she was beaten by police along with her husband.

Hill told Matthews that members of the police wanted him to drop his case and had resorted to intimidation and physical violence to make him do so.

When Hill took the video of the violence to the police high command, he said nobody was willing to help him.

"I can't get any justice from anyone in Jamaica. All I know is everywhere I go for justice in the police force there is someone there trying to kill me or someone there trying to set me up with the police," Hill said.

"So I would like the whole world to check this out, listen to this, and know that if I'm dead or anything happens to me, it's the Jamaican police that carry out that work or that order."

Shot dead

On December 8, 2009 Robert Hill was shot dead by the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF). The police report said they were forced to shoot because Hill had a gun.

Kumiko, Hill's wife, said Hill had received a call that night from someone who said they wanted to see a car that he was selling.

He told her he was going out to show it to them but would be right back.

His cousin accompanied him, but Hill had forgotten the car key and asked his cousin to return to the house for it.

"The Robert Hill case perhaps is a nadir for Jamaica because Robert went and caught the people on tape," says Carolyn Gomes, a medical doctor and the executive director of Jamaicans for Justice.

"You can see them, their faces, you can see them beating him and his wife. You can see them threatening him, and he took that tape to the police high command and they came back and killed him."

"It was too much. It was too much for me to bear. Up to this point I cannot believe that he is dead, that he is gone, just because of a car," says Hills mother, Caroline.

Robert Hill was one of 224 people killed in police shootings last year.

"In the last ten years, 1,900 of our Jamaican citizens, officially, have been killed by the police, more than 1,900. In that time, one policeman has been convicted of manslaughter and he has been freed on appeal," Gomes says.

Corruption and crime

Police blame Jamaica's high crime rates and gang violence.

The national security ministry estimates that there are 268 gangs active in Jamaica.


Jamaican police kill hundreds each year in what they claim are crime-related shootouts

Horace Levy of the Peace Management Initiative says that the police often treat corners crews in the same way as criminal gangs and that it is the black people in the inner cities of Jamaica who are dying at the hands of the police.

"Each time we keep hearing the same reports. Police engaged a man in a shootout, firearm was recovered, a revolver, three live rounds. It's always amazing how when you hear of the incidents the residents always have a story totally different from what the police are saying," Matthews says.

Levy says that many of the police are frustrated because known criminals are being released back onto the streets after just weeks or months in prison.

"The fact is that this is probably one of the most difficult and dangerous places to police in the world because the number of illegal firearms that are on the streets is enormous. And that's a situation that's developed over the past 30 years," Mark Shields, the former deputy commissioner of police, says.

"We have to acknowledge that the JCF is rivven with corruption and crime and we have to make some very difficult decisions around well what we going to do about it? How are we going to protect the citizens of the country, how are we going to protect the good police, the good civilians who work with the police. How can we make their job easier and how can we make the public trust the good police?"

Gomes and Jamaicans for Justice believe that the current police force should be disbanded and that a new service should be created to protect Jamaica's citizens.

"If you gave them equipment, if you gave them the laws and they were not reformed, they continue to be corrupt, than obviously it's time that you dismantle and abandon that police force and form a new one," says Reneto Adams, a former senior superintendent of the JCF.

Eight months after Robert Hill gave the video tape showing him and his wife being beaten to the police high command, and three months after he was killed, no action had been taken against the officers involved and investigations were still in progress.

UK 'breaching UN rules' on returning gay Iraqi asylum seekers

An Amnesty International report claims that the UK and several other European countries are breaching United Nations rules on returning vulnerable Iraqi asylum seekers.
According to the report, women, ethnic minorities and gays, or those perceived to be gay, are most likely to be at risk of violence and persecution in the country.

More than 100 civilians died in the first week of April.

Amnesty accused the UK, along with several other countries, of forcibly returning "scores" of Iraqis to dangerous areas in the country, breaking international rules.

The report said: "Despite the ongoing violence in Iraq, several European governments continue to forcibly return rejected Iraqi asylum-seekers to Iraq.

"In 2009, the authorities in Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and the UK forcibly returned scores of Iraqis to unsafe parts of Iraq, such as central Iraq, in breach of UNHCR guidelines."

It recommended that all forcible returns should cease and resume only when the security situation in the country has stabilised.

Amnesty said that gay people in Iraq were living under a "constant threat" and that Muslim clerics were making frequent public statements condemning homosexuality.

Homosexuality is not illegal in Iraq but it is frowned upon.

In the first few months of 2009, an estimated 25 men and boys were killed in Baghdad because they were thought to be gay. The killings are thought to have been carried out by militia groups.

In some cases, the report said, there was evidence that members of the security forces and other authorities were encouraging the targeting of people suspected to be gay.

The report added that killers of gay men could find protection under the law, as it offers lenient sentences for those committing crimes with an “honourable motive”.

It said that Iraqi courts were continuing to interpret provisions of Article 128 of the Penal Code as justification for giving "drastically reduced" sentences to defendants who have attacked or killed gay men they are related to if they say that they acted to “wash off the shame”.

UK campaigners have complained in recent years that gay asylum seekers from around the world are being deported by UK authorities on the grounds that they will be safe in their home countries if they are "discreet".

Ali Hili, the head of London-based Iraqi LGBT, told PinkNews.co.uk that the British government was "failing Iraqi lesbians and gays".

He said: "We welcome the report. We continue to receive reports of killings and now have over 738 documented.

"Within the last fortnight two young gay men were taken by men in police uniforms and their graffitied bodies displayed in one of Baghdad's main squares.

"We have and will continue to try to get people to safety but the British government must do more. It is wrong to tell Iraqi asylum seekers that it is safe to return if only they are 'discreet', which they have done."

Amnesty International Middle East director Malcolm Smart said: “Iraqis are still living in a climate of fear, seven years after the US-led invasion. The Iraqi authorities could do much more to keep them safe, but over and over they are failing to help the most vulnerable in society.

“The continuing uncertainty as to when a new government will be formed following last month’s election could well contribute to a further increase of violent incidents of which civilians are the main victims.

“The uncertainty is threatening to make a bad situation even worse. Both the Iraqi authorities and the international community must act now to prevent more unnecessary deaths.”