Homosexual men strive to fight AIDS

Homosexual men strive to fight AIDS

By T. Sima Gunawan

SURABAYA (JP): "Why should we use condoms? None of us will get
pregnant," a gay man said when Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome
(AIDS) activists told him about safe sex.

"Are you a doctor?" another man asked with a frown.

That occurred in 1992 when Gaya Nusantara, the Indonesian Gay
Network, started an anti-AIDS campaign through an out-reach program
for the gay community in town.

After two years, there seems to be a significant improvement in
the awareness on the need of safe sex as a way to prevent the
disease, along with their fear of there being no cure.

"Now they ask about a good brand of condoms to use," Dede Oetomo,
national coordinator of the group, told The Jakarta Post.

A member of the Asia Pacific Council of AIDS Service
Organizations, Dede has been active in AIDS campaigns since 1989.

The spread of the killer AIDS is haunting the world. More than 16
million people are now infected with AIDS worldwide and some 6,000
new infections occur daily, according to the World Health
Organization (WHO).

WHO estimates that there are 50,000 HIV (Human Immunodeficiency
Virus) carriers in Indonesia, much higher than the official figure.
Nafsiah Mboy of the five-month old national commission said that as
of Sept. 30 there were 1,420 people infected with the virus. Earlier
reports said that as of June there were 256 people who tested
positive for HIV.

Most of the those infected with the virus are heterosexual. Out of
the 256 people, only 15 percent of them were homosexual, according
to Nona Poeroe Utomo, the director of the Indonesian AIDS
Foundation.

HIV can be transmitted through sexual contact, blood transfusions
and the use of used syringes. Pregnant women infected with the virus
can infect their babies as well.

Homosexual men, however, are considered to be in the high risk
group.

In foreign countries gay organizations are actively involved in
national campaigns to fight the disease. Pioneers of the drive to
curb the spread of the deadly disease were homosexual people, which
is not surprising since the first AIDS cases were found among the
gay community.

Last year the government asked AIDS groups to direct their
energies towards the national program on the disease. Dede was
involved in the project as a member of the steering committee.

"At the last moment we were dropped from the committee. It seemed
it was impossible for the government, in this case the Director
General for Control of Communicable Diseases of the Health Ministry,
to issue a decree bearing the name of a gay organization," Dede said
bitterly.

Ujungpandang

A gay group in Ujungpandang, which is also quite active in the
AIDS awareness campaign, was included in the provincial health
commission, he said.

Dede, a lecturer at the state Airlangga University who got his
PhD. in linguistics and East Asian studies from the Cornel
University, is the first gay man in the country to have come out of
the closet.

Homosexual people in Indonesia, especially lesbians, prefer
anonymity due to social, cultural and psychological barriers. Cross-
dressers (waria), who are better accepted in society, are more
likely come out in public.

The Surabaya health office asked Gaya Nusantara to participate in
a program for gay men infected with HIV, Dede said. Up to the end of
last year, AIDS screening had been held seven times.

When the program was introduced in 1980s, only 20 men took the
test. The last screening involved 80 people. None of them tested
positive.

The respondents, however, were not happy with the program. They
said it lacked confidentiality and that it proved difficult to
obtain the results.

Dede said that people tired of the program and felt they were
treated as mere statistics.

"I began to question whether it was wise to have such a program
while the disease is still uncurable and there is no appropriate
post-test program for those found positive," he said.

He referred to the government's and society's poor treatment of
sex workers, saying they were reportedly isolated and condemned for
having the virus.

While a vaccine for AIDS is still a distant dream, there is much
to do to help those infected with the virus and to contain the
spread of the disease. The government alone will not be able to deal
with this. Dede said there are about 20 non-government organizations
on AIDS situated throughout the country, including Merauke and
Jayapura. Most of them were established in the last two years.

Hotline service

Gaya Nusantara is opening a gay hot line service, the first of its
kind in the country. Six trained volunteers will answer any gay-
related questions as well as those on AIDS. The number is (031) 593-
4924.

The other hot line services which provide information on AIDS are:
Hotline Surya, Surabaya (031) 42-145, 42-482, 522-676, 522-938;
Yayasan Kemanusiaan, Surabaya (031) 594-1075; Hotline AIDS Mitra
Indonesia, Jakarta, (021) 321-0855; Yayasan Sidikara, Bandung (022)
302-458; Yayasan PRIAngan, Bandung (022) 250-4325; Yayasan Citra
Usadha Indonesia, Denpasar (0361) 222-620; Lentera PKBI, Yogyakarta
(0274)586-6767; Hotline AIDS PUS-Triple M, Ujungpandang (0411)
871-1051