Criminalizing homosexuality has not resulted in less of it – Fitzwilliam
Delivering the keynote address yesterday May 31, 2012 at a Youth Forum, which was part of the Islands of the World Conference XII held at the Eileen Parsons Auditorium, Ms. Fitzwilliam tackled the boiling topic of homosexuality and how criminalizing of it has not resulted in less homosexual activities.
She spoke openly on the issue of condom availability in the prison system and outlined examples of countries where such a move has led to reduction in HIV infection rates.
The every eloquent HIV advocate gave examples of what she called “leadership in action” where three Caribbean countries have taken certain course of actions and have seen drastic results.
She stated that Cuba very controversially made HIV testing mandatory for pregnant women, hospital patients and prisoners and was first to introduce condoms in their prison system.
And while the island’s approach has been questionable in terms of human rights, Ms. Fitzwilliam said it has certainly worked as evidenced by their low rate of infection.
In Barbados, Prime Minister Owen Arthur, who enjoyed a comfortable majority in Parliament and was well into his second term in office, introduced condoms into the Barbadian prison system for inmates.
Such a move she pointed out, also brought the Caribbean leader criticisms from both his people as well as the media but has seen almost “immediate stabilization of the national infection rate among adults”.
In 2011, Prime Minister Denzel Douglas of St. Kitts, who also enjoys a significant majority and has been in power for three successive terms, encouraged his fellow Caribbean leaders to rethink discriminatory laws that increase vulnerability of some people to HIV.
AIDS no longer a “gay disease”
Focusing on the need for the Caribbean to change its views on homosexuality, Ms. Fitzwilliam said homosexuality and people’s obsessive focus on its role in the spread of HIV is an easy “cop-out” of dealing with the true social issues surrounding the disease.
She said criminalizing homosexual sex has not resulted in less of it but has only served to drive the acts and relationships underground, thereby extending homosexuality, with likely more negative impact on all of society.
Outlining statistical data, she said women account for more than 50 percent of all new HIV infections across the Caribbean for the past 10 years and AIDS stopped being a ‘gay disease’ a generation ago.
And while that fact is clear, she said AIDS is still largely associated with homosexuality and promiscuity but heterosexual sex is the main route of transmission of HIV throughout the Caribbean period with more than 50 percent or half of the people living with HIV are women, which is also the global trend.
She also spoke about the 1861 Offences Against the Person Act which makes certain types of sexual acts a criminal offence. According to Ms. Fitzwilliam, the effect of the legislation on the AIDS epidemic has been to hinder the provision of prevention and treatment services to vulnerable and high-risk populations.
“The failure of this legislation is evidenced in the fact that there is statistically a higher prevalence of HIV among men who have sex with men (MSM) in Caribbean countries that criminalize same-sex practices than those countries that do not.”
Ms. Fitzwilliam said it is up to the region to truly commit to addressing HIV/AIDS with having more studies conducted on sexual behaviours, passing less judgment in “our daily” lives, having more and consistent education and message targeted to a wide variety of persons, more lobbying of leaders to spend resources in effectively addressing HIV with the focus on what really matters as opposed to the easy “outs” of homosexuality, promiscuity and moral judgments.
She said “indecisiveness is fertile breeding conditions” for the HIV virus and called for action by all.
Meanwhile, statistics demonstrate, in the Caribbean, the Bahamas has the highest HIV positive population per capita at 3.1 percent of the adult population; Haiti is second with 1.9 percent followed by Jamaica with 1.7 percent, Trinidad and Tobago at 1.5 percent and fifth is Barbados at 1.4 percent.
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