HIV Plus

Forum Examines Service Gaps for Gay Men

July 30, 2008

Continuing the work it began at its launch at the 2006 International AIDS Conference, the Global Forum on Men Who Have Sex With Men and HIV (MSMGF) announced a full program of activities at the XVII International AIDS Conference -- to be held in Mexico City August 3-8 -- to bring much-needed attention to a population at heightened risk for HIV infection around the globe, AIDS Project Los Angeles announces in a press release.

MSMGF will hold a pre-conference satellite session focused on men who have sex with men and HIV on Friday, August 1, and on Saturday, August 2, with a just-announced address and question-and-answer session with Peter Piot, executive director of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, scheduled for 1:30 p.m. on August 1.

MSMGF also will hold a press conference to recap its satellite session at noon on Wednesday, August 6, in the XVII International AIDS Conference media center. In addition, MSMGF will have an exhibit at the AIDS 2008 global village, will re-launch its online presence with a new website, and will participate in the first international march against stigma, discrimination, and homophobia, set for August 2.

"As the eyes of the world focus on AIDS in August, we want to ensure that the dire situation facing men who have sex with men, their communities, and, ultimately, their governments, is addressed head on at AIDS 2008," said Don Baxter, executive director of the Australian Federation of AIDS Organizations and a cochair of MSMGF's steering committee. "The impact of HIV on men who have sex with men cannot be overlooked, and there is an urgent need for international action now."

The pre-conference event will feature more than 450 researchers, community-based experts, and human rights advocates who will gather to examine how insufficient global research on HIV and men who have sex with men contributes to a dearth of HIV prevention, treatment, and care resources targeting their unique needs. It begins at 9 a.m. Friday, August 1, at the Sheraton Maria Isabel Hotel and Towers, Paseo de la Reforma, 325 Col. Cuauhtemoc, and lasts until midday August 2.

With a welcome scheduled from Jorge Saavedra, general director of Mexico's National AIDS Program, and Craig McClure of the International AIDS Society, plenary speakers at the forum include David Wilson of the World Bank; Jeffrey O'Malley of the United Nations Development Program; and David Winters of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria. At the close of the satellite session, attendees will join an international march against stigma, discrimination, and homophobia beginning at 1 p.m. on August 2 at Mexico City’s Independence Column.

"High rates of HIV are emerging among gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men around the world in a climate of stigma, discrimination, and criminalization," said Robert Carr, who works with the Caribbean Vulnerable Communities Coalition in Jamaica and is a cochair of the steering MSMGF committee. "As a result, we have extremely limited research on the risk behaviors and vulnerabilities experienced by these groups in the developing world. This research is desperately needed to bring issues facing this understudied population into the light."

Within the larger conference, MSMGF will hold a press conference featuring researchers and experts from Africa, Asia, Latin America, and other regions at noon on Wednesday, August 6. In addition, MSMGF's booth in the global village will foster networking and sharing of ideas by men who have sex with men from around the world over the course of the conference.

In a 2006 policy brief, UNAIDS estimated that globally, less than one in 20 men who have sex with men have access to the HIV prevention, treatment, and care they need. Recent research on HIV among men who have sex with men in lower- and middle-income countries in Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the former Soviet Union indicates that men who have sex with men are at 19 times greater risk of being infected with HIV compared with the general population.

According to estimates, it remains a crime to be homosexual or engage in sexual contact with a partner of the same gender in some 86 member states of the United Nations, which keeps men who have sex with men from seeking prevention education, care, and treatment.

"Even when epidemiologic and behavioral research indisputably supports prioritizing sexual minorities, there is often a shameful neglect of men who have sex with men needs in discussions about policy, programs, and resources," said George Ayala, an HIV prevention expert and executive officer of MSMGF. "Inadequate representation of sexual minorities in planning processes at all levels fuels the widening gap in resources, programs, and services for men who have sex with men. This must change."

In advance of AIDS 2008, MSMGF has relaunched its website in an effort to reach three central goals of information sharing, community building, and advocacy. The new site features resources listed by region and subject, as well as event calendars from around the globe and a directory through which visitors can connect with other organizations and funders in their region. For more information visit www.msmandhiv.org.

MSMGF is a network of community-based organizations, AIDS service organizations, men who have sex with men groups, and other agencies that work at the global and national level to advocate for improved HIV programming for men who have sex with men. With a secretariat housed at AIDS Project Los Angeles and a steering committee of 21 members from 17 countries, MSMGF is committed to responding to HIV and AIDS among men who have sex with men through advocacy, education, and programs that promote human rights and support the empowerment worldwide of men who have sex with men.