Eliminating Anti-Gay Stigma Key To Fighting Spread Of HIV
Posted in Main Blog (All Posts) on June 22nd, 2011 4:34 am by HL
Eliminating Anti-Gay Stigma Key To Fighting Spread Of HIV
The World Health Organization has issued new guidelines for reducing the spread and impact of HIV among men who have sex with men (MSM) and transgender people. In addition to prevention and treatment interventions such as condom use, behavioral interventions, Internet-based strategies, and anti-retroviral treatment, the guidelines take a human rights approach to ending stigma […]
The World Health Organization has issued new guidelines for reducing the spread and impact of HIV among men who have sex with men (MSM) and transgender people. In addition to prevention and treatment interventions such as condom use, behavioral interventions, Internet-based strategies, and anti-retroviral treatment, the guidelines take a human rights approach to ending stigma and discrimination against MSM and transgender people:
Long-standing evidence indicates that MSM and transgender people experience significant barriers to quality health care due to widespread stigma against homosexuality and ignorance about gender variance in mainstream society and within health systems. Social discrimination against MSM and transgender people has also been described as a key driver of poor physical and mental health outcomes in these populations across diverse settings. In addition to being disproportionately burdened by STI and HIV, MSM and transgender people experience higher rates of depression, anxiety, smoking, alcohol abuse, substance use and suicide as a result of chronic stress, social isolation and disconnection from a range of health and support services.
The guidelines are the first to directly address the the epidemic among gay men and transgender people that continues the world over, particularly in Africa, Asia, and Central America. Just last week, the United Nations affirmed LGBT rights as human rights and similarly condemned violence and discrimination against LGBT people. A comprehensive international response to anti-LGBT stigma and misinformation could potentially save millions of lives.
Nevada GOP Candidate Warns Of Impending Chinese Military Invasion In New Ad
Nevada state Sen. Mark Amodei (R) didn’t wait long after starting his campaign for his state’s unfilled House seat before dabbling in xenophobia. Amodei, the GOP nominee for Nevada’s second congressional district special election in September, launched his three-day-old campaign with a television ad telling viewers China’s debt holdings will soon allow the country to […]
Nevada state Sen. Mark Amodei (R) didn’t wait long after starting his campaign for his state’s unfilled House seat before dabbling in xenophobia. Amodei, the GOP nominee for Nevada’s second congressional district special election in September, launched his three-day-old campaign with a television ad telling viewers China’s debt holdings will soon allow the country to rise up and destroy U.S. sovereignty.
The commercial, which follows in the footsteps of China-bashing ads run by Citizens Against Government Waste and former Rep. Zack Space, depicts a Chinese news anchor in the near-future discussing the U.S. decline in the face of China’s imperial aspirations. “Their President Obama just kept raising the debt limit, and their independence became a new dependence. As their debt grew, our fortune grew, and that is how our great empire rose again,” she reports.
Running in the background are shots of Obama bowing to Chinese president Hu Jintao and a doctored image of the Chinese army marching with automatic rifles in front of the U.S. Capitol building as it flies the red Chinese flag. At its close, the ad cuts to an image of Amodei as he promises to “never vote to raise Obama’s debt limit and risk our independence.” Watch it:
Hyperbolic claims that U.S. independence is at risk from China’s increased ownership of the public debt is a thinly veiled attempt to play on some Americans’ xenophobia. At the end of the 2010 fiscal year, China owned just 9.5 percent of U.S. debt. But not only does Amodei ignore the facts regarding the national debt, the ad’s leap from the national debt ceiling to Chinese troops marching in front of the Capitol is simply preposterous.
But this fear-mongering may not be enough to save Amodei’s campaign once the debate focuses on his support for the GOP plan to turn Medicare into a voucher system.
