AEGiS-BAYW: Photo exhibit shows images of HIV and sexuality in India

Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2006. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

Photo exhibit shows images of HIV and sexuality in India

Bay Windows - August 17, 2006
Ethan Jacobs, ejacobs@baywindows.com

The Boston Living Center will host a fundraiser for the Humsafar Trust, a community-based health center in Mumbai, India serving the gay and transgender community, Aug. 22, featuring a photo exhibit documenting the impact of the AIDS epidemic in India. Megan McGuire, a Cambridge native who has been living in India for the past two years working in an HIV program at a public hospital that partners with the Humsafar Trust, took the photos over a four-month period. The 35 photos in the exhibit feature shots of Humsafar Trust clients, many of them living with HIV, and staff members, and accompanying each of the photos are transcripts from interviews with each of the subjects about both the HIV/AIDS epidemic in India as well as the complexity of sexuality and identity in Indian culture.

"I think that probably one of the things that is consistently, overwhelmingly shocking to me, and I work on the ground there, is the inability to be queer or gay in Indian society and the practice of behavioral bisexuality, and the epidemic that's occurring in India. And no one wants to discuss it, and no one's able to discuss it except a few people," said McGuire.

One of those people, Ashok Row Kavi, chair of the Humsafar Trust, will also be on hand at the fundraiser to talk about the challenges of fighting the HIV/AIDS epidemic in a culture where few men who have sex with men think of themselves as gay.

"There was this monolithic homogenous gay community in America and Europe, and it's not like that in India. There are huge populations of men who have sex with men but don't identify as anything. So how does one reach out to these populations? That is a major problem for us that I'm going to explain to the Boston crowd," he said.

The fundraiser runs from 5:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Boston Living Center Aug. 22, and it is co-sponsored by the Living Center, AIDS Action Committee, Fenway Community Health Center, and Massachusetts Asian and Pacific Islanders (MAP) for Health. There is a suggested donation at the door, and all of the photographs are available for purchase, with all proceeds going to the Humsafar Trust.

For more information visit aac.org.

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