Criminalising homosexuality threatens the fight against HIV/AIDS
The Lancet, Volume 383, Issue 9919, Pages 783 – 784, 1 March 2014 Ashton Barnett-Vanes Homosexuality is criminalised in more than 70 countries,[1] with severe implications for the health and wellbeing of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community. Recent developments in several countries such as India, Uganda, and Nigeria—where HIV/AIDS remains a pressing public health issue—to reintroduce or strengthen criminalisation of homosexuality holds deep ramifications for patients and health-care workers tackling HIV/AIDS. Although temporarily thwarted in Uganda, the alleged proposal to criminalise a failure to “report” gay persons adds to the alarm.[2] …