Are we on the right side of history?

AGLA NY at Pride March 2013
Photo by Engin Beri

In a landmark ruling for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) rights, the Supreme Court of the United States on Wednesday struck down the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), the 1996 law signed by then President Bill Clinton blocking federal recognition of same-sex marriages. In a separate case, the court ruled that it could not take up a challenge to Proposition 8, the California law that banned same-sex marriage in that state. That decision means that marriage equality will once again be legal in California.

This is a watershed moment in the fight for equality with the Supreme Court delivering justice to millions of Americans and to the thousands of LGBT Armenian-Americans who have been denied their rights under the U.S. Constitution.

Yet it is increasingly clear that we now have two Americas – one where our relationships are recognized and we are protected from discrimination in 13 States and the District of Columbia, and another that has yet to feel the effects of our progress and LGBT people remain second-class citizens, including in the State of Florida.

Sadly, we find many LGBT Armenian-Americans living under this same pretext for far too long – in an America that celebrates and protects who we are as Armenians and the other in our community centers and churches that marginalize and stigmatize LGBT Armenians for whom they love. No one should choose between who they are and whom they love.

I recognize that there are deeply held views on this issue and deeply fierce opposition by the Armenian Church hierarchy. But we cannot pretend to be a nation seeking restorative justice and recognition of our painful history and add the word “but” if we are truly genuine in our collective quest for justice for all.

This is a debate about equal rights under the law. It is about freedom from discrimination and stigmatization the way we were once discriminated and stigmatized as Christians in the Ottoman Empire. It is about the legal protections and responsibilities, and more than 1,100 rights, obligations and benefits afforded by the legal institution of marriage that, prior to the DOMA ruling, were denied to same-sex Armenian American couples. It is also about real people: your sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, and neighbors. And finally, it is about witnessing and reflecting the love and commitment between two people.

Given our 1,700 years of Christian heritage, I’d like to sum up the whole law in a single commandment, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” Galatians 5:15.

For if truly we, as the Armenian nation, are on a quest to bend the arc of the moral universe towards justice for all, then surely we must stand on the right side of history by resisting all forms of bigotry and dedicating ourselves to the advancement of social justice and human dignity of both the living and the deceased.

And if truly we belong to the body of our Lord Jesus Christ through the One, Holy, Catholic (Universal) and Apostolic Church, then surely we are commanded to love, treat with respect and defend our LGBT Armenian sisters and brothers and any other marginalized groups both in the U.S. and in our beloved Hairenik (fatherland), no matter what your Biblical conviction is on homosexuality. This we know as absolute: Christ’s ministry was inclusive and he said that if we commit hate in our hearts we have committed murder – thus, we should take discrimination, hate-talk and the bullying of any marginalized group very seriously. If our tragic history hasn’t taught us anything, then I do not know what will. To learn more specifics on how the Supreme Court rulings on DOMA and Prop 8 might affect you, please visit www.hrc.org/SCOTUS.

Michael Toumayan
source: Florida Armenians

Michael Toumayan is a program assistant at the Human Rights Campaign and an independent political commentator on the Caucasus and Middle East.
A graduate of Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, Florida, he holds a master’s degree in conflict resolution and mediation from Tel Aviv University in Tel Aviv, Israel. He can be reached at michael.toumayan@hrc.org.

World AIDS Day: Challenges Facing Armenia

BY JIRAIR RATEVOSIAN

Today is World AIDS Day—the day of the year when the world’s attention is temporarily fixated on a social phenomenon that has stolen the lives of millions of people around the world over the last 30 years.

But there is some good news. A new report by the United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) shows that the AIDS epidemic is beginning to change course as the number of people newly infected with HIV is declining and AIDS-related deaths are decreasing.

Yet, despite important advances over the last 10 years, some 2.6 million people became newly infected with HIV last year. Africa continues to be the region most affected by the epidemic. But now a new trend is emerging: In seven countries, mostly in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, new HIV infection rates have increased by 25 percent in recent years.

Here’s the bad news. ARMENIA is #1 on that list. In our motherland, the epidemic is concentrated primarily among people who inject drugs, sex workers, gay men, and other men who have sex with men. It is no coincidence the epidemic is spreading in populations that are socially marginalized and politically irrelevant. Stigma, discrimination, and violence against LGBT Armenians and other vulnerable groups fuel the spread of HIV and AIDS.

Today, this injustice is tainting the moral character of our resilient people. The Armenian government, civil society groups, the private sector, the church, and the media all have a critical role to play in respond to our generation’s greatest challenge. And so do we.

As diaspora, we must face up to this new reality. We have a responsibility to raise awareness in our homes and in our communities—in schools, with lawmakers, community leaders, the media, and the church. Above all, we must support our courageous brothers and sisters working in our homeland each and every day for equality and social justice.

Get involved—write a letter to your local Armenian newspaper, encourage community leaders to raise awareness at events and support NGOs in Armenia fighting the good fight.

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Jirair Ratevosian, MPH, is based in Washington D.C. He chairs the International Health Advocacy and Policy Committee of the American Public Health Association and is deputy director of public policy for amfAR, the Foundation for AIDS Research.

source: Asbarez Armenian News

Be heard! Global Forum on MSM & HIV

The Global Forum on MSM & HIV (MSMGF) starts the 4th pre-conference on July 17, 2010 to the 18th International AIDS Conference in Vienna Austria. This one-day event explores the challenges and best practices in achieving universal access to HIV-related prevention, care, treatment, and support services for sexual minority communities worldwide.

Be Heard! convenes 450 human rights advocates, artists, researchers, public health officials, multi-lateral organizations, and global donors for a day of workshops, skills building, information exchange, and networking sessions. The MSM pre-conference will be followed by an evening networking reception.

MSMGF recommends a rights-based and person-centered approach to developing guidelines that will help transgender persons receive non-discriminatory, non-judgmental and quality health care. There has been an international wave of advocacy calling on authorities such as the American Psychiatric Association (APA) and World Health Organization (WHO) to depathologize transgender identities. Pathologizing gender identity variance as a ‘psychiatric disorder’ only perpetuates the stigma, discrimination and violence that these individuals experience around the world.

As a global advocacy organization working for the health and human rights of men who have sex with men (MSM), the MSMGF is familiar with stigma within health system structures and its negative impact on individuals and communities. For instance, the classification of homosexuality as a mental disorder by institutions such as the APA until 1973 and the WHO until 1993 helped endorse discrimination against gay men and other MSM at multiple levels. Stigma and discrimination impact health by heightening HIV risk factors, including social isolation, and compromising access to HIV prevention, care and treatment services. Transgender persons are also the targets of stigma and discrimination that can be exacerbated by a mental diagnosis, ultimately resulting in compromised health and wellness.

Source: The Global Forum on MSM & HIV (MSMGF)

HIV/AIDS stigma as a major challenge in achieving universal access

Since the face case of HIV/AIDS was reported in the world, the pandemic has change the behavior of the world, the disease has killed 25 million people and infected 40 million more. It has become one of the world’s leading causes of death among both women and men aged between 15 and 59. It has inflicted the single greatest reversal in the history of human development. In other words, it has become the greatest challenge of our generation.

As the number of infections continues to increase, stigma and discrimination remains a formidable challenge to achieve universal access to prevention, treatment, care and support. HIV/AIDS-related stigma and its associated discrimination affect all aspects of HIV prevention, diagnosis, treatment and care. HIV thrives in an environment of ignorance and erodes social support for infected people, which is access to information, support, economic and legal services.

One lesson we have learnt in the Care and Support Project is that stigma and discrimination promotes the culture of silence – people fear to talk about HIV ands AIDS, let alone disclose there status. Stigma, discrimination, Poverty and denial, as well as lack of confidentiality, contributes to a climate of fear. This undermines prevention, care and treatment efforts and further increases the impact of the epidemic on individuals, families, communities and society at large.

The impact of stigma on the affected individual can lead to depression, guilt and shame, as well as to behaviour that limits participation within communities and access to services intended to assist them. HIV/AIDS-related stigma constantly reminds members of the discriminated groups that they are social outcasts or even deserve to be punished. If people are mocked or treated with hostility, they may feel uncared for and are therefore less likely to take steps to protect themselves.

HIV/AIDS-related stigma and discrimination is a major obstacle to effective prevention and care for it can prevent governments (national authorities) from getting a true picture of the burden of the pandemic because people are not coming forward for testing, care and support. This compromises planning, allocation of resources and provision of services to people with HIV and for people from other highly vulnerable groups.

Stigma and discrimination hinders prevention interventions by fostering ignorance about facts on HIV. HIV/AIDS-related stigma discourages people to get tested or when they get tested, from returning for their test results. Some avoid clinics known to be testing for HIV. Others believe that the fact that they have been tested it will eventually reach the rest of the community.

The fear of being stigmatized results in women, men and young people being unable to look after their sexual and reproductive health – accessing sexual health information, treatment and methods for HIV and STI prevention, such as the condom use. Some infected individuals may choose not to change or adapt their behaviour to reduce the risk of HIV/AIDS transmission for fear that such a change would arouse suspicion and stigma. Stigma by health-care providers nurses, doctors impacts on access to treatment in health centers and hospitals. Some medical workers, in an attempt to avoid having contact with people living with HIV/AIDS or provide care, pass patient from one health worker to another or from one hospital to another.

Stigma and discrimination has made the medical management of HIV and AIDS very stressful despite efforts to create more awareness. Social stigmatization of the disease frustrates efforts to apply the most effective medical interventions in the management of HIV and AIDS, counseling, testing and treatment. It causes individuals to shy away from tests hence treatment is delayed or not received at all. Delayed treatment can contribute to the continued spread of the Virus because people do not know their status.

Reducing stigma and discrimination is crucial to the success of Universal Access to HIV/AIDS treatment, prevention, care and support programmes, as the quality of such programmes can and do depend on the degree at which health centers and hospitals welcome and respect the rights of the individuals living with HIV/AIDS.

Hon. Ibekwe Alexander
Director, Health Link Organization
South East Coordinator, Association of Positive Youth in Nigeria (APYIN)
Chiarman Director of Health National Youth Council of Nigeria (NYCN)
source: Global Network of Poeple living with HIV