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Making up for the past – homophopia, HIV and churches

Bishop Mark Hansen washing the feet of HIV-positive women to show humility and to repent the church’s former sins towards HIV-infected groups.

This took place at the ecumenical AIDS pre-conference in Mexico, where Bishop Mark S. Hanson, President of the Lutheran World Federation in Geneva, washed the feet of Sophie Dilmitis and Herlyn Uiras, as part of a session on stigma and discrimination against HIV-positive and AIDS-infected.

"We must show remorse"

Hanson said that only after washing the women’s feet, could he initiate his speech with his integrity intact. ”I am totally convinced that we – the church leaders – and everybody in the ecclesiastical society, who have disgraced people with AIDS, must begin to show signs of remorse in public. If we don’t, I am afraid that people will not trust us in the future.”

Male heterosexual leaders must be ready to talk openly and vulnerably about their own sexuality in stead of the sexuality among gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transvestites, Hanson said. The human sexuality must not become an issue which defines or splits the church, as it is Jesus’ good Gospel which defines the church.

Homophobia obstructs HIV prevention

Besides, Bishop Hanson and many others at the conference mentioned homophobia as one of the big problems in HIV prevention. In spite of this positive step there is still a long way to go.

At the pre-conference gays, lesbians, bisexuals, transvestites held a meeting, where they produced a strong statement. The statement praises the generally positive and including atmosphere at the conference, where sexual orientation and love between people of the same sex and transsexuality for the first time have been very obvious in the debates at the pre-conference.

At the same time the group stresses that many challenges are still outstanding. People with another sexual orientation are often spoken of as ”them” compared to ”us”, as if all categories were not represented among us. There has been no open statement from any of the panellists regarding sexual orientation, and none of the workshops had the item on the agenda.

Among other the statement recommends:

• Religious leaders should be more inclusive
• Everybody must assume responsibility for the language used so it does not offend anyone
• We must include positive announcements regarding sexuality and make space for positive dialogue
• We must include persons with another sexual orientation in future planning groups.

All in all it was a good and constructive pre-conference which proves that many religious leaders have come a lot closer to an active and constructive engagement regarding fighting discrimination and stigmatization – including discrimination of people with other sexual orientation. At the same time, they are also beginning to address other areas which are very difficult to handle for churches and other religious institutions, not least gender inequality, which strongly contributes to maintain the large extent worldwide of the AIDS pandemic.

Religious leaders who seriously start dealing with these sensitive issues contribute to ensure that the religious institutions become part of the solution – and not part of the problem in relation to the spreading of HIV. See broad-cast from the pre-conference on EAA website here

Gay men and HIV on the agenda

Jorge Saavedra, leader of Mexico’s national HIV/AIDS Programme

The main AIDS conference has also increased focus on sex between men. At the opening of the conference most of the keynote speakers mentioned homophobia as one of the most important areas to address. As Dr. Jorge Saavedra from Mexico said Tuesday at the plenary session: ”Finally a plenary session dedicated to men who have sex with men!”.

We have advanced since Toronto, but still have a lot to do, not least by convincing the leaders in Africa into recognizing that homosexuality and HIV must be addressed as well, in order to put a stop to the infection. Far too many African homosexuals are being discriminated and criminalized and have to hide their sexual orientation in an atmosphere which does not include them actively and positively in the national AIDS-activities. It is about time to hold the international AIDS-conference in Africa again and it is regrettable that four years must pass before the continent most severely affected by AIDS may once again provide the framework for this event.