Fear of anti-gay attacks closes Kenyan AIDS clinics
Most HIV-AIDS health centers serving Kenyan gays and other men who have sex with men were closed this week for fear of attacks related to the new anti-gay law in neighboring Uganda, the Kenyan Ministry of Health said.
[Update: By March 3, the clinics reportedly had reopened.]Kenyan health Secretary James Macharia said many LGBT people were denied HIV treatment because of the closings, Kenya’s Star newspaper reported.
“There is increased fear, stigma, discrimination and potential acts of violence against the key populations, further limiting access to health services,” he said.
In Kenya, the HIV infection rate is about 30 percent among men who have sex with men (MSMs), compared with 5.6 percent overall, according to the National AIDS Control Council.
For more information, see the Star article “Most clinics for gays are closed.”
Related articles
- Prediction: Kenya too will enact anti-gay laws (76crimes.com)
- Kenyan author lashes out at anti-gay laws: I’m gay (sfgate.com)
- Kenyan politicians respond to Obama plea by forming new anti-gay group (pinknews.co.uk)
- Global conflict: Gay rights, repression in Africa (76crimes.com)
- Obama ‘disappointed’ with Uganda’s anti-gay law (76crimes.com)
- Kenyan clergy: 50 pastors here support gay rights (76crimes.com)
Colin and sisters and brothers in Kenya, I understand and suffer with you the closure you have had to make. To all the LGBTQI folks around the world I say let us gather together and help these folks on the ground. I have been receiving unbelievably propagandistic rants from a catholic theologian about how the West cannot intervene in Africa. “Western imperialism has to stop. Africans have to work this out themselves. I’ve never met a truly loving couple yet.” Horrors! The Catholic church I have experienced in Cameroon is so triumphalistic, so male dominated, so anti-gay! We cannot accept this jail sentence. We must support our sisters and brothers wherever they are. I have pledged support for a Cameroon HIV/AIDS center, CAMEF, to find funds so that they can reopen after they were vandalized in Dec–Christmas–with death threats. Can you imagine they want to put their lives on the line? Western imperialism indeed!
Here’s the Indiegogo campaign I’ve set up We have received only ONE donation so far. Please world! come help! http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/651675/emal/541524 Thanks!
Reblogged this on Embakasi Reloaded.