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LGBT rights must be protected to ensure healthy lives for all

by Maureen Onditi | @theaidsalliance | International HIV/AIDS Alliance - UK
Tuesday, 15 September 2015 15:31 GMT

Programme officer from the Gay and Lesbian Coalition of Kenya giving a message © Nell Freeman for International HIV/AIDS Alliance

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* Any views expressed in this article are those of the author and not of Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Next week, 193 governments will attend the United Nation's General Assembly in New York to adopt new sustainable development goals. But for sexual minorities the question is: how serious are governments about ensuring no one is left behind in the goal to ensure healthy lives for all?

Joshua* is a man Bungoma, Kenya, who has sex with men (MSM) and discovered he was living with HIV in 2010. He was previously in a relationship with a woman but they separated six months ago. Joshua admits she never knew about his relationship with other men because he is a pastor and has a flock that looks to him for spiritual guidance.

Because of the social stigma of being gay in Kenya, many men who have sex with men also enter into relationships with women. But their need to hide their sexual identity puts them more at risk of HIV, and helps fuel the spread of the disease in Kenya.

Henry*, from Nairobi, is a sex worker who has sex with men. He found out he was living with HIV in 2006. “Most of our clients are married men,” Henry says.

“Discrimination while accessing health care in Kenya when you are gay is almost normal.”

LGBT people subject to stigma

After battling with acceptance of his HIV status, Joshua visited a local hospital because he had genital warts. He recounts the painful experience: "When the nurse found out I was gay she started shouting and asking me why I was doing such bad things."

Yet Joshua's experience of stigmatising treatment from a health worker is not uncommon. The Kenyan penal code criminalises homosexual sex which leaves men like Joshua as an open target for discrimination, including in health facilities.

Some medical practitioners refuse to offer services to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people (LGBTI), citing moral or religious reasons. Fear of such discriminatory treatment has led to low access of services by LGBTI people and threatens global progress on the HIV response.

Obstacles in health access for all

Denis Nzioka, an activist and writer who blogs about key population issues, notes that LGBTI rights in Kenya are still not recognised, even though the Kenyan constitution (2010), is supposed to grant quality health care as a human right to everyone.

“The major obstacle for LGBTI people to access health services is the stigma they experience in medical facilities and from health professionals, which stems from homophobia,” he says.

“Most people do not think it is important to tell the story of LGBTI lives and experiences since they see them as a minority who should be criminalised. I see my writing as a form of activism that seeks to put in the papers the issues that matter to LGBTI people.”

Health access is a human right

Currently many organisations who work with LGBTI people struggle to carry out their work due to the legal and social context. Yvonne Oduor who works for ISHTAR, an organisation which offers health services to men who have sex with men, says: “We use our social media platforms, mobile phones and peer-to-peer educators to mobilise the MSM for different activities that include offering health services.” But she adds that they face the challenge of not being taken seriously by mainstream organisations as well as experiencing outright discrimination.

According to the Kenya AIDS response progress report in 2014 18.2 per cent of men who have sex with men are living with HIV. The percentage counselled and tested for HIV annually has increased from a low of 35 per cent in 2011 to 74 per cent in 2013.

Despite this encouraging progress, the situation for LGBTI people in Kenya remains grim and a lot remains to be done to ensure all people have access to the sexual and reproductive health services they need.

Adopting the sustainable development goals

Last year at the 20th International AIDS conference Helen Clark, administrator of the United Nations Development Programme, said in her speech on HIV and the post 2015 agenda: “…changes in the law and policy, combined with other interventions, could lower new adult HIV infections globally to an estimated 1.2 million by 2031, down from an estimated 2.1 million new infections forecast under business as usual. The accelerated effort would require stronger adherence to human rights principles, and actions to promote access to health for all, particularly among key populations, such as men who have sex with men, sex workers, transgender people, and people who use drugs.”

Dealing with stigma, discrimination and removal of laws that criminalise same sex acts will be key for Kenya if it wants to make any real progress towards the new global sustainable development goals.

*Names changed to protect identities

Maureen Onditi is from Kenya and is a member of the Key Correspondents network which focuses on marginalised groups affected by HIV, to report the health and human rights stories that matter to them. The network is supported by the International HIV/AIDS Alliance.

 

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