Timor Leste Red Cross excludes homosexuals from HIV-AIDS Reduction

Program

ETLJB 19 September 2009 Before the undemocratically-formulated Constitution was adopted in

East Timor in 2002, constitutional protection for homosexuals in East Timor was expunged from
an early draft. The then Constituent Assembly (the prototype of the present National Parliament)
voted to remove gay protections from the new nation's draft constitution.

Fifty-two of the Assembly's 88 members specifically voted to exclude "sexual orientation" from
an antidiscrimination clause. Discrimination was banned based only on "color, race, gender,
marital status, ethnic origin, economic or social status, beliefs or ideology, politics, religion,
education, and mental or physical condition."

One member of the assembly, Joao Carrascalao, (who was the East Timor Transitional
Administration's Minister for Infrastructure) called homosexuality "an illness" and "an anomaly"
and said protecting gays would create "social chaos." Another member said the only homosexuals
in East Timor are foreigners.

This is the grotesque and primitive social context in which HIV-AIDS prevention policies are
supposed to operate in East Timor; a context in which the most basic rights of homosexual
citizens are denied and in which homosexuals are publicly vilified by political leaders (some of
whom were deeply engaged with the illegal Indonesian occupation and the universe of human
rights violations perpetrated during the period from 1975 through to 1999).

This context is problematical not only for the civil rights of homosexuals in East Timor but also
for HIV-AIDS prevention policies and it is reflected in a recent position vacant advertisement for
an HIV-AIDS consultancy with the Red Cross.

In that advertisement, the Red Cross notes that it is one of the most active implementing
organizations working in the National HIV/AIDS and STI Program, lead by the Ministry of
Health. HIV/AIDS is emphasized in CVTL’s (Cruz Vermelha de Timo-Leste) Strategy 2006-
2009 with the objective of increasing HIV/AIDS knowledge and its prevention in youth and Most
at Risk Groups (MARGs). Since 2005 CVTL has been involved in HIV programs with MARG
including transport workers, clients of sex workers and female sex workers.

The job advertisement continues: "CVTL are currently receiving a grant for their activities with
MARGs, specifically clients of female sex workers and men with multiple partners. Funding is
from the Ministry Of Health, and is part of the country’s Global Fund for AIDS, TB and Malaria
(GFATM) grant. This grant started in January 2008 and will continue until December 2011.

Not a single mention of outreach programs for homosexual men in East Timor! Homosexual men
are the most "at risk" group for HIV-AIDS transmission!

The "results" that are expected to be achieved by the Red Cross HIV-AIDS program in East
Timor are to continue its "successful implementation" of their grant to reduce the risk of STI and
HIV/AIDS transmission among clients of female sex workers and men with multiple partners, in
four districts – Dili, Bobonaro Covalima and Oeccusse.
But how can any HIV-AIDS reduction policy claim to be such so long as it omits that part of the
community that is most vulnerable to HIV-AIDS; namely, the gay community.

The Red Cross HIV-AIDS program in East Timor is also purposed to increase knowledge and
practice of safer sex behavior in those limited target populations through outreach targeting
reduction in the number of partners, mutual monogamy and/or using condoms correctly and
consistently.

How can HIV-AIDS transmission be stopped by monogamy and the suppression of promiscuity?
Monogamy is a myth. Promiscuity is the natural condition of the human being.

The policy failure here extends not only to this fatally-flawed HIV-AIDS reduction program from
the East Timor Ministry of Health and the Red Cross but also to a lack of advocacy by the many
so-called human rights groups in East Timor; a lack of advocacy for the enactment of laws that
protect the rights of homosexual men and women and a vacuum in the agitation for laws that
criminalise the vilification of homosexuals and homosexuality and which prohibit discrimination
on the grounds of sexual orientation.

The obscurantist approach to HIV-AIDS and homosexuality in East Timor is heavily influenced
by the antidemocratic and antihuman ideology of the Catholic Church and the propagation of
religious doctrines rather than the rational objectives of secular public health policies.*

What a despicable program! East Timor Law and Justice Bulletin condemns the Red Cross and
the Government of East Timor for the exclusion of the gay community from its supposed HIV-
AIDS reduction policies. This exclusion is tantamount to an endorsement of homophobia and it
colludes in the vilification of homosexuals in East Timor and the exposure of homosexual
citizens to hate crimes.

But worst of all, it constitutes a guaranteed failure of the policy and the Red Cross program. The
central message of the HIV-AIDS programs must prioritise - not moral lectures on sexuality - but
the primacy of the deployment of condoms, proper public information campaigns and the
protection of HIV-AIDS-vulnerable population's civil rights as the most effective holistic strategy
for the reduction of HIV-AIDS transmission. And the primary "target populations" must include
the gay community. But this appalling program does neither of these things!

The Center for HIV Law and Policy concludes that it is homophobia that is a significant barrier
to HIV diagnosis, treatment, and prevention, and a critical public health issue.

Homophobia and heterosexism interfere with appropriate health care access and services for
homosexuals, feed support for counterproductive abstinence-until-marriage programming, fuel
antigay social policies and other violence, and otherwise marginalize gay people of all ages.

Studies consistently demonstrate that homophobia contributes to the spread of HIV and that
internalized homophobia increases HIV risk.

The Red Cross program should, at the very least, be providing access to information on issues
related to homophobia and HIV, including discrimination, stigma, sexuality education, and access
to care. Instead, it violates the required public health objectives by entirely omitting
homosexuality from the program parameters.

A recent study found that homophobia creates a significant health hazard and directly undermines
important public health initiatives. One impact of homophobia is that many men who have sex
with men, particularly young men, do not disclose their sexual orientation in order to avoid social
isolation, discrimination, abuse, and violence. Young gay and bisexual men may be at higher risk
for HIV infection as a consequence of low self-esteem, depression, and lack of peer support and
related services available to those who are more open about their sexual orientation and identity.

But only the most courageous homosexuals in East Timor will stand up and demand that the state
protect their legitimate interests.

Warren L. Wright BA LL B

HIV/STD Risks in Young Men Who Have Sex with Men Who Do Not Disclose Their Sexual
Orientation, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

* see, for example, Gays outraged by Pope's 'homophobic attack' December 24, 2008

-----
See also
Homosexuality in East Timor
Blog for Timorese Gay Guys