We will not banish AIDS until we banish stigma

Eugene comes to a drop-in center for men who have sex with men.

This originally appeared on the ONE Campaign Blog on July 23, 2014.

Earlier this year, I met Eugene and Dominique at a drop-in center for men who have sex with men (MSM) outside Nairobi, Kenya.

Eugene, 23, comes to the center regularly to get condoms, lubricants and HIV counseling and testing, and has brought other gay men to the center. So far, he is HIV-negative.

Dominique, 26, also frequents the center. He was treated for a sexually-transmitted infection, and gets tested there every month. He, too, is HIV-negative.

In Kenya, most gay men are very much in the closet, due to the strong stigma against them. Many of these men would not have access to health services if not for the handful of drop-in centers in Nairobi, Kisumu and other urban centers for the simple reasons that most health facilities are not gay-friendly. Quite the contrary. Thus, most MSM have no access to gay-friendly services.

Kenya quietly takes public health approach with HIV most at-risk groups

Chief Rose Ayere talks to a group of injecting drug users in Nairobi.

This was originally published on Global Health TV on May 27, 2014.

NAIROBI and KISUMU, Kenya — Anti-gay legislation recently signed into law in Uganda and Nigeria has alarmed organizations implementing HIV prevention in Africa, fearing that such laws will further stigmatize and marginalize at-risk populations already hard to reach with health services.

So when I traveled to Kenya this month to interview men who have sex with men (MSM), injecting drug users (IDUs), and people working in programs trying to help them supported by the International HIV/AIDS Alliance, I wondered whether I would encounter “the next Uganda” in gay rights. I did not, but what I did find surprised me.