From blackmail against homosexuals in Zimbabwe to persecution for sodomy in India to a ban on rainbows on Russian products, an international panel on global health and human rights of gay men discussed inequities that have incited activists worldwide.
Five speakers who spanned four continents highlighted pending legislation and other issues during a panel hosted by the Oakland-based Global Forum on MSM and HIV at the LGBT Community Center Wednesday, April 17.
Largely in the form of a Power Point presentation, disparate social inequities were construed in the form of statistics and anecdotes.
"It's not just about HIV. It's also about ending homophobia and finding equal protection," said Daniel Townsend, 29, a Jamaican-born activist who left his country feeling victimized by widespread hostility toward gays and lesbians in the Caribbean.
Coming out of the closet or seeking HIV treatment or prevention services complicate hidden, marginalized LGBT communities worldwide, said the panelists. A gay man in Uzbekistan may be reported to authorities if he came out to a medical worker while testing for HIV, while in Zimbabwe a gay or lesbian may lose their property to blackmail with fear of prosecution.
It was apparent that the countries discussed were caught in a state of LGBT inequity that an audience member likened to the U.S. decades ago, before the Stonewall riots in 1969 or the overturning of sodomy laws 10 years ago.
Samuel Matsikure, program manager of HIV prevention and treatment programs at Gays and Lesbians in Zimbabwe, presented a litany of trauma afflicted upon African gays and lesbians. There, homophobic and violent youth militias aim to identify and assault gays and lesbians, while it is also common for someone to blackmail a family member if they are known to be gay or lesbian.
These trends, paired with homophobic state-sponsored propaganda, led to a government raid on the offices of GALZ, where he works. They are now working from a satellite office.
"People are afraid to come see us in our offices. It's only the brave ones who come," said Matsikure.
Dastan Kasmamytov, a 21-year-old activist from Kyrgyzstan, highlighted Eastern European and Central Asian LGBT communities that are veiled and in the closet and fear being reported to the authorities for prosecution.
"We hear these weird arguments [against gay rights] from Russian parties," Kasmamytov said during his presentation. Russia is likely to pass a ban on media that promotes homosexuality among minors while also banning rainbows on printed material, like logos or milk cartons.
Townsend, now based in Toronto working with the International Council of AIDS Service Organizations, presented a 2012 Boxill Survey on Homophobia, which surveyed Caribbean countries. He left Jamaica three years ago.
"Everyone does live under the threat of violence, and I got sick of it," he said.
Since 2008, 33 percent of men who have sex with men have HIV, according to the report. Meanwhile, 83 percent of those in the Caribbean consider homosexuality immoral, while conservative Christians have pushed reparative psychological therapy, which 53 percent support.
A common struggle was identified near the panel's close. Patriarchy and heteronormativity seemed to negate HIV prevention efforts in Zimbabwe and India. Aditya Bondyopadhyay said that Indian men insist on "spreading their seed" by not using a condom, while Matsikure said that many gay men in Zimbabwe think that women are the source of HIV rather than other gay men.
"This whole idea of gay identity does not make much sense to most Indian men," Bondyopadhyay said. Negotiating safe sex, for example, is usually out of the question �" he later said that he could carry "100 condoms" and he couldn't have a say if they were used if he received anal sex.