A gay Nigerian activist who sought asylum in the United States confronted President Goodluck Jonathan over the country’s recently passed anti-LGBT law at a dinner in the president’s honor hosted by business groups in Washington on Wednesday. Micheal Ighodaro left Nigeria in 2012 after his ribs and hand were broken in an attack in the capital of Abuja and is now a fellow at the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission in New York. “If you think the law is unconstitutional, you have the right to go to court,” the activist says President Goodluck Jonathan told him. Read More
Nepal drafts new laws to recriminalize gay sex, stall same-sex marriage recognition.
It’s a dramatic reversal for Nepal whose Supreme Court ruled in 2007 to ensure broad protections for LGBTI people. Today, the LGBTI community faces fresh opposition as the law ministry under law and justice minister of the ruling Nepali Congress is seeking to enact punitive laws to recriminalize gay sex. Read more
Uganda HIV nurse continues to languish in Kampala jail
Melbourne brought an update from Rosemary Namubiru, the HIV+ nurse charged with criminally negligent behavior for using an intravenous needle, that she had accidentally pricked her finger with, on a child. The child was not infected and HIV/Aids activists condemned the trial. Read More
Scottish dentist sacked for failing to reveal HIV positive status
Health chiefs said the dentist had to be suspended over "dishonest conduct" when he failed to disclose his HIV status and caused an infection scare. More than 10,000 patients who visited the surgery were tested after they were told there was a "very slight" risk they had been exposed to the virus. The ban preventing HIV positive NHS staff from performing certain medical procedures was scrapped in England, Wales and Scotland last year. Healthcare workers with HIV face no restrictions but must be on a register and monitored every three months by doctors to ensure they are on the correct treatment and that their viral load is undetectable. Read More
UNAIDS launches the Gap Report
In the first report of its kind, the UNAIDS Gap report emphasizes the importance of location and population through an in-depth regional analysis of HIV epidemics and through analysis of 12 populations at higher risk of HIV. It analyses the reasons for the widening gap between people gaining access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support, and people being left behind. It shows how focusing on populations that are underserved and at higher risk of HIV will be key to ending the AIDS epidemic. Read More
Creating a global organization to oppose marriage equality
The National Organization for Marriage is continuing to work towards the creation of an International Organization for Marriage, NOM President Brian Brown said.
A planning meeting was held around last year’s March for Marriage, convening members of groups opposed to marriage equality from around 70 countries to begin working to that goal. This year’s march does not feature the international speakers that last year’s did, perhaps because of the pending U.S. Supreme Court ruling on state bans on same-sex marriage.
Although “we have our hands full here in the U.S.” at the moment, Brown said, the group was “definitely” still working to establish “an organization that focuses on uniting people of different faiths and different backgrounds internationally” to oppose same-sex marriage. Read More