Dr Louis Loures The Deputy Executive of UNAIDS has refuted claims the organisation is homophobic, but concedes it’s aware the attention to gay and bi men in HIV/AIDS work worldwide is currently not up to scratch. New Zealand AIDS Foundation executive director Shaun Robinson has previously charged the UNAIDS of "institutional homophobia," in its disregard for men who have sex with men. “That statement that UNAIDS is a homophobic organisation, to be very frank with you, I take that as an insult,” Deputy Executive Director of UNAIDS Dr Luis Loures has now told GayNZ.com. "Only just this morning I was dealing with the recent case of some msm who were put in jail over the weekend, and we are taking action. In Africa we have taken action in one case after the other.” Dr Loures adds: "There is no question that UNAIDS is strongly, openly against any kind of criminalisation of same-sex relations. We condemn it because it is not morally acceptable and it works against what we have to do to control this epidemic. “Criminalising people only drives them underground and can only fuel this epidemic further. Criminalising msm is against public health. The promotion of human rights is our priority today and that is clear." While UNAIDS is only a reporting body and not a funding body, it's well aware the attention to gay and bi men is not sufficient, with Dr Loures pointing out only 1.5 per cent of all the money going into HIV/AIDS worldwide goes into these areas. “It's a very, very strong indication that something is not going in the right direction. We are speaking about the only part of the global epidemic that is increasing." He says the lack of sufficient funded work being done in some countries, generally due to cultural issues with homosexuality, is unacceptable and “crazy”. Read more here
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Wednesday, 4th December 2013 - 5:38pm