“Today we need to acknowledge that we
have failed in too many places to provide even the most basic services to gay
men. In much of the world, they remain hidden, stigmatized, and susceptible to
blackmail if they disclose their sexual lives,” said amfAR Vice President and
Director of Public Policy Chris Collins during the 19th
International AIDS Conference, which took place in late July in Washington,
D.C.
The Lancet-hosted symposium at the
19th International AIDS Conference.
“HIV epidemics in 2012 are severe and
expanding among MSM globally in both low and high-income countries, and yet we
remain underrepresented in decision-making about programs that address our own
health.” Collins said
His words were spoken during a
symposium session titled “Men Who Have Sex with Men
and HIV” and hosted by The Lancet, whose July 28, 2012
issue
featured a series on the same theme, including two articles co-authored by
Collins.
Collins presented one of the articles,
“A
call to action for comprehensive HIV services for men who have sex with men,”
at the session alongside several of his co-authors. In the “call to action,”
the authors found that, where epidemiological surveillance has been conducted,
men who have sex with men (MSM) bear a disproportionate burden of HIV. Yet this
population continues to be excluded, sometimes systematically, from HIV
services because of stigma, discrimination, and criminalization.
The combined effects of this burden
and exclusion, the paper states, makes the expansion of HIV prevention,
treatment, and care to MSM an urgent imperative for both public health and
human rights purposes. The paper lays out a strategy to greatly improve the
response around the world. For this, the authors looked at inputs such as
epidemiology, social settings, and clinical factors.
“Gay men should be treated as whole
people. Not just vectors of disease,” said Collins at the symposium.
“Comprehensive care of MSM requires well-trained physicians, knowledge that MSM
are whole people with a range of healthcare needs, and understanding that provider
engagement can enable youth and older MSM to develop healthier lifestyles.”
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s
recent pledge
of more than $35 million to focus on key populations—also made at the
conference—should be a step forward in getting MSM worldwide the appropriate
HIV care they require.
“Because of the new science and
because of the attention paid to the needs and rights of LGBT people, there can
be no AIDS-free generation until there is one for gay men and LGBT people,”
said Collins. “But by working together and demanding equality in rights and
health, we can achieve an AIDS-free generation for gay men and in the process
advance our rights and the rights and health of others.”