The head of the UN AIDS Agency, Michel Sidibe, is laying it on the line. With direct and pointed words, he stated yesterday that "it is unacceptable" that 85 countries still have laws criminalizing homosexuality. In fact, seven countries punish homosexuality with the death penalty.
Sidibe described the "growing conservatism" around the world frightening. The fact that conservative policies are increasing and that HIV is on the rise among groups which are not only being discriminated against but facing harsh criminal punishments, is a recipe for disaster. Sidibe warns of a rise in HIV of "epidemic" proportions.
He also pointed out that in Caribbean countries, most of which don’t have repressive laws, that only about 5% of HIV is among men having sex with men. The United States, however, is shockingly seeing a spike in new HIV cases, with around 50% of those among homosexuals. Some of this, he concluded, is due to a new "complacency" about the disease.
"We must insist that the rights of the minorities are upheld. If we don’t do that … I think the epidemic will grow again," he warned. "We cannot accept the tyranny of the majority."
In his analysis we can see one of the most dangerous side effects of conservative and restrictive governments. While gays struggle the world over for basic civil rights protections, epidemic disease can be a result of isolation of various groups in the population, groups which are limited in their access to fair and available medical treatments and information. While these governments will undoubtedly entertain the thoughts that perhaps it wouldn’t be too bad if certain groups in the population would start dying off, they’re missing the piece that will in the end, be their undoing as well. HIV is alive and well among all groups in the population, and while they may not belong to the groups at highest risk now, they will eventually be the population left, the only population left for HIV to attack.
Governments choosing to criminalize and restrict certain groups based solely on some false morality they’ve created for themselves can come to no other result but to destroy civilization itself, not just the marked parties.
Read more about the warnings of Michel Sidibe HERE
