Stop Subsidizing Homophobia

Since its inception in 2003, the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief — PEPFAR — has become the largest public health program in history. Created by President George W. Bush, it has distributed nearly $50 billion worldwide, mostly in Africa, to prevent the spread of HIV and to treat its victims. Over the last five years, the fund has provided care for 3 million people and prevented an estimated 12 million new infections. Even Bush’s harshest critics do not deny that PEPFAR has been a huge success in combating the AIDS epidemic.

In spite of all that the program has accomplished, however, a persistent problem remains: the promotion of homophobia by African governments receiving American aid money. In no nation is this problem more acute than in Uganda, one of 15 PEPFAR “focus” countries that collectively account for half of the world’s HIV infections. Homosexuality is considered a taboo in most of Africa, yet few governments have gone to the lengths of Uganda’s in punishing it. The consequences are devastating not only for the people directly affected by these adverse policies but for the fight against AIDS in general.

Uganda’s campaign against homosexuality took a disturbing turn last month when a member of parliament in the nation’s governing majority introduced legislation that would stiffen penalties for actual or perceived homosexual activity, which is already illegal under Ugandan law. According to the proposed law, “repeat offenders” could be sentenced to death, as would anyone engaging in a same-sex relationship in which one of the members is under the age of 18 or HIV-positive. Gay-rights advocacy would be illegal, and citizens would be compelled to report suspected homosexuals or those “promoting” homosexuality to police; if they failed to do so within 24 hours, they could also be punished.

More at: Independent Gay Forum!

Is Fighting HIV/AIDS The Bush Legacy?

As he gets ready to leave The White House, George W. Bush’s legacy just may be AIDS in Africa. His President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) has helped to provide antiretroviral meds for the over 2 million people on the continent living with HIV/AIDS.

In 2003, Bush launched a $15 billion initiative to fight AIDS in 15 countries. Twelve of those countries are in Africa, where it is estimated more than half of the 33 million HIV + people in the world live. In 2008, the U.S. Congress passed legislation which will triple PEPFAR’s budget to $48 billion over the next five years. This legislation was supported by both Republicans and Democrats alike.

According to Mark Dybul, the PEPFAR ambassador and U.S. global AIDS coordinator;

“It’s the largest international health initiative in history for a single disease. In any other circumstances, he (bush) would be getting a Nobel prize.”

A majority of Americans gave Bush positive ratings for PEPFAR in a recent Gallop Poll.  The same poll however gave him a huge disproval rate on the war on global terrorism and the floundering U.S. economy.