The government of Kenya will attempt to count the number of gays in the country in an attempt to stop the spread of HIV/AIDS:
"Nicholas Muraguri, head of Kenya's Aids prevention programme Nascop,
told the BBC it was vital that the government reached out to the gay
community. He said gay people suffered from a lack of information about the disease. But analysts say many gay people will be afraid to come forward in a country where homosexuality can result in jail. Mr Muraguri conceded that an accurate count was unlikely. But he told the BBC's Network Africa programme getting a clearer idea
of the number of gay people would be a huge help in planning
educational programmes."
Bullshit! Why do you have to "count the gays" in order to educate about HIV and AIDS. Heteros spread it too! The mere fact that they are pinning the disease on gays makes it very clear what this is really about. This ain't nothin' but a fucking witch hunt, plain and simple.
Posted by: soulbrotha | Oct 29, 2009 11:50:18 AM
... and by "educational programs", they mean prison.
Fail.
Posted by: Strepsi | Oct 29, 2009 11:57:54 AM
My god...And what will they do with the informations once they got them....
Posted by: seb38 | Oct 29, 2009 11:58:15 AM
Call the Human Rights Watch, those n's are up to no good!
Posted by: ty | Oct 29, 2009 12:09:05 PM
Any leaves out the sentence in the article I found most disturbing:
"He said the survey would involve gay men identifying each other"
Soulbrotha is 100% right-- this is a McCarthy-esque witch hunt.
Posted by: Landon Bryce | Oct 29, 2009 12:11:34 PM
It all sounds stupid. Most of the AIDS in Africa is not spread through homosexual activity. And remember that these are Barry's people!
Posted by: John | Oct 29, 2009 12:24:37 PM
Who's Barry, John? What the hell are you talking about?
I've had it with the racist posts on this site. This has to be some sort of concerted effort to stir up animosity. ENOUGH!!!
Andy, your blog is great---one of the best on the web. But I hope you and your crew can get a handle on this and these commenters. It's obviously upsetting and not representative of those of us who come to the site. Thanks, and good luck.
Posted by: Tom | Oct 29, 2009 12:42:28 PM
This is nothing but a witch hunt. AIDS in Africa is rising most steadily among heterosexual women whose husbands screw around (with men and women). What needs to be gotten in hand is male behaviour and irresponsibility. The Church needs to be kicked to the kerb and condooms distributed widely. Attacking gays is yet another ruse, designed to exonerate ostensibly het male swinery.
Posted by: Jennifer | Oct 29, 2009 12:53:20 PM
Actually Tom...
The only person stirring up animosity in this thread is you.
None of the posts proceeding your comment where racist.
The Barry's people comment was obviously about that right wing christinist fool who recently went to Africa representing some southern state church.
Incouraging the local gov't to "crack down" on homosexuals.
So perhaps you should get your head out of your ass.
Posted by: griffin1573 | Oct 29, 2009 12:58:15 PM
Griffin1573 is absolutely right. There is nothing, absolutely nothing, racist about "those n's are up to no good!"
Posted by: Aaron | Oct 29, 2009 1:04:04 PM
This quote from the article shocks me.
"Most of the gay community think that having sex with men is safe. There's no information here about safety measures," he said."
I don't know what the average lifestyle in Kenya is, but if "most" gay men don't know about safer sex, they are about 25 years to late to do much about it. I just don't believe that gay men there think sex with other men has no risk.
Posted by: Tom A | Oct 29, 2009 1:24:13 PM
Umm, Tom A, you're talking about a developing country with a limited public health care system and private care affordable only to elites. Children there regularly die of diarrhea, so you really shouldn't be surprised that safer sex messages aren't making it through to the country's population---whether engaged in homo or hetero behavior. Most people there live on less than $2 a day.
That said, no one is going to be dumb enough to respond to a government census on whether they're gay. It's an obscene, abusive waste of limited health resources.
Posted by: Paul R | Oct 29, 2009 1:43:24 PM
Something about this makes me nervous. My mind flashes on a Holocaust type thing, but maybe I'm just being a silly alarmist. (John: "Barry" is an American).
Posted by: JT | Oct 29, 2009 2:06:23 PM
I heard the BBC report on the radio this morning, and it didn't seem nearly as ominous as some of the comments here suggest. A gay activist supported the survey and saw it as a step towards more openness and leniency on homosexuality. Also, it didn't seem like this was an effort to pin AIDS on gay people. Because AIDS has largely been a heterosexual disease in Africa, some men believe that it is safer to have sex with men, and this is an effort at outreach and education--if the BBC is to be believed--rather than demonization. Clearly it's a good thing to make men who have sex with men aware of the risk factors, but I agree that a survey such as this in the wrong hands could accomplish less worthy goals.
Posted by: Ernie | Oct 29, 2009 5:43:15 PM
This is nothing but a stratagm by a public official and his cronies to steal public funds. No gay census will take place. I know because I was born and raised there; looting of public funds by government officials is pretty much the order of the day. Who needs $500,000 to count ten people(I can guarantee you that is number of openly gay men they will manage to find)?
Posted by: Jonathan | Oct 29, 2009 5:51:45 PM
A lot of the 'Progressive' posturing by officials in a place like Kenya is for the consumption of western 'Progressives', and a way to obtain cash. It's a win-win. The official(s) get their cash and the western 'Progressive' gets to proclaim and brag about how much they helped with AIDs fight or whatever in [fill in the blank]
Posted by: John in Boston | Oct 29, 2009 10:14:54 PM
HIV/AIDS has been around so long that if you don't know how to avoid getting it by now then you never will.
As far as counting gay people...that sounds kind of far fetched, especially if you can be jailed.
The government has to start realizing that some people just do not want to be helped. When people are given condoms do they use them? Yes, a few times and then they realize it's just too much work. It's basically laziness and people not giving a crap.
Posted by: Jimmy/Boston | Nov 4, 2009 3:16:20 PM