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A growing HIV epidemic is threatening our community.
I do not intend to pit HIV against other equally legitimate LGBT issues, such as same sex marriage or CBCP’s bigotry. But the epidemic demands our urgent action and our immediate attention . We need to act because no one else will until we do; we need to care because our solidarity and compassion are most needed now.
HIV is largely a hidden epidemic, and its scope will remain invisible until people undergo voluntary HIV testing and counseling. But the numbers that we are seeing are enough to give us a picture of what’s happening: more and more Filipino gays, bisexuals, other males who have sex with males (MSM), and transgenders (TGs) are getting infected with HIV. The prevalence has already reached more than 2% for our community, according to a survey that was done early 2011, though it is much higher in NCR, Cebu and Davao. 205 out of the 268 new cases that were reported last December – the highest in history – were due to unprotected male-to-male sex. That’s 7 new HIV cases a day that could be attributed to unprotected male-to-male sex. One could crudely assume that at least 7 MSM and TGs get infected everyday. (Download the December 2011 HIV and AIDS Registry)
Cold facts, but it doesn’t become real until it becomes personal. 2011 for me started with a number of friends getting tested positive. 2012 began with a news that a friend died months earlier, the circumstances pointing to an illness that cannot be named. He was the sixth person that I know who died because of AIDS-related diseases last year, the third in his own barkada. His was yet another case of late diagnosis. Like his other friends, once he started getting sick he simply disappeared and hid in his province. Within the community you’d hear nervous murmurings of friends or friends of friends who succumbed to the illness, their deaths swallowed by stigma and silence. Continue reading
