Inter Press Service - March 5, 2002
Zadie Neufville

High levels of discrimination and the threat of violence force male homosexuals to ''fit in" by having sex with women, increasing the risk of females becoming infected with HIV, says Yitades Gebre, head of the national HIV programme.

Scientists say the virus causes AIDS, or Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome.

Last year, 439 women were among the 939 new cases of HIV/AIDS reported, up 10 percent from 2000, according to ministry of health figures. Gebre says the increase is due in part to a rise in the number of homosexual males entering relationships with women.

New estimates show that since the island's first case of AIDS in 1982, about 24,000 Jamaicans have contracted HIV.

Closet gays put women at increased risk of infection because women are physically more vulnerable to HIV than are men who have sex with men, says Gebre. He estimates that as many as 25 percent of gay men could be HIV positive, with many leading double lives. Health officials say it is the making of an epidemic, but it has become a way of life for those in fear of losing their lives.

Everton Mattis, 35, has been a closet gay for more than 12 years, ever since he was beaten and almost chopped to death by a mob that suspected he was a homosexual. "I was trying to be straight and sleeping with every woman I could find, but I still couldn't fight the urges," says the father of two. He only told his live-in girlfriend of "the other life" after he contracted and infected her with the HIV virus in 1995.

Bisexuals and homosexuals make up 5.7 percent or 345 of the 6,038 Jamaicans who have contracted AIDS since 1982, but officials are concerned that a large number of the 24.8 percent of 'unknowns' with AIDS could include homosexuals and bisexual males. Unknowns usually fail to disclose their partners to health workers because they fear discrimination, health officials say.

With about one-third of AIDS cases unreported until death and roughly two-thirds of Jamaicans with the disease seeking treatment only at the onset of full-blown AIDS, some doctors fear the number of infected could be 15,000 more than official estimates. Each infected person is expected to infect between five and six others in his lifetime, says Gebre.

Jamaica's chief medical officer, Peter Figueroa, is renewing calls to decriminalise homosexuality and prostitution and wants to distribute condoms and permit conjugal visits for prisoners as measures to fight the disease.

"It is a given that social stigma and discrimination drive people underground.

If we are to address this epidemic properly, we have to be able to accurately gauge the number of HIV cases across the island, " Figueroa told World Health Organisation officials recently.

Doctors warn that men who practise homosexuality in prison and return to their communities after serving time are also partly responsible for the spread of HIV.

But Health Minister John Junor says that while the government is "committed to preventing the spread of the disease", it has no intention of changing the laws.

And last month, the cabinet voted down suggestions from a parliamentary committee to repeal the Buggery Act and to decriminalise "private homosexual acts" between consenting adults.

A group of Caribbean priests condemned the committee's recommendations on the grounds that "a person who engages in homosexual behaviour acts immorally and under no circumstance can they be approved."

An attempt to introduce condoms in local prisons in 1997 sparked prisoners' revolt, resulting in 16 deaths and injuries to more than 40 alleged homosexuals.

Inmates at the St. Catherine District Prison and Kingston's General Penitentiary - two of the island's largest jails - rioted after warders walked off their jobs when authorities announced they intended to distribute condoms.

With civil society silent on the issue, it appears unlikely that decriminalising homosexuality will find support among the government or opposition in the run-up to general elections due this year. But the leader of Jamaica's newest political party, Antoinette Haughton, says she would support legislation to protect privacy and individual rights.

"It would be out of order to ask a nation that is against homosexuality to accept their behaviour, but if they (homosexuals) want protection from having their doors kicked in and being drawn off to jail, I see nothing wrong with it," says Haughton, of the United People's Party.

HIV infected persons are still being turned out of homes and jobs, says Ian McKnight of Jamaica Aids Support. In addition, police continue to detain outreach workers and the fear of violence from the wider society hampers condom distribution and HIV/AIDS education programmes.

Another group is trying to change the law that makes AIDS workers criminals for distributing condoms to commercial sex workers and offering counselling and assistance in preventing the spread of the virus. The National AIDS Committee (NAC) wants to remove government's right to isolate or quarantine the sick, protect victims of sexual abuse, outlaw deliberate HIV transmissions, and give prisoners rights to demand care and protection from the HIV virus, says NAC head Verity Rushton.

Health minister Junor has acknowledged the need to review legislation because of "discrimination and stigmatisation" that has led to job losses and acts of violence against persons living with HIV/AIDS. But the minister believes increased awareness of HIV/AIDS among Jamaicans should negate the need for legislative changes.

But those on the front line believe that only radical changes can eliminate deep-rooted fears. "However controversial, these (legislative changes) are decisions we have to make if we are to make a significant inroad into curtailing the spread of this epidemic," according to Figueroa. (END/IPS/CA/HE/HD/ZN/ML/AA/02)
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