AIDS Project Los Angeles blogs from AIDS 2010:

March in July

It's been a busy couple of days for MSMGF and APLA as AIDS 2010, the XVIII International AIDS Conference (IAC), continues.

Following the conclusion of BE HEARD, MSMGF's pre-conference attended by more than 500 participants, MSMGF opened its week-long booth space in
IAC's Global Village. The booth, situated among hundreds staffed by AIDS service organizations, government entities, and others, served as a
networking and discussion space for conference delegates to strategize on HIV prevention methods for heavily stigmatized men who have sex with
men (MSM), often from the developing world.

Read news coverage of the event at Advocate.com, and hear a podcast of APLA Executive Director Craig E. Thompson's live commentary on Los
Angeles Times columnist Patt Morrison's radio program on local National Public Radio affiliate KPCC-FM (89.3).

MSMGF staff also held a range of organized activities for MSM and their allies. MSMGF's Jack Beck held an orientation for the group's new Web
site; Omar Banos presented "Sense," the group's new multi-lingual and multimedia publication; Krista Lauer co-hosted a skills-building
advocacy training and debuted a new advocacy toolkit; and Executive Officer George Ayala conducted a poster discussion session focused on
addressing prevention and care needs among MSM and transgender people
globally.

MSMGF also canvassed The Global Village with multilingual copies of two of their newest publications: "Reaching MSM in the Global HIV & AIDS
Epidemic" and "HIV Prevention with MSM: Balancing Evidence with Rights-based Principles of Practice."

As night fell in Vienna, the crowd grew outside the conference venue, where thousands prepared for a mile-long human rights march through the
heart of the city. With chants of "End AIDS Now," thousands swarmed the streets, gathering at a festival-style outdoor stage for a series of
addresses and a musical performance by singer and AIDS activist Annie Lennox.

Back at the conference site, delegates buzzed with news of a major medical breakthrough revealed at one of the day's press conferences: Groundbreaking research shows that an antiretroviral vaginal gel has potential to reduce HIV infection risk among women. Learn more about the
study at IAC's CAPRISA Microbicide Trial Web site.

Other participants gathered in The Global Village, where one of the biggest attractions was an electronic white board where users scrawled messages to e-mail to family and friends. Passersby paused as a young Ugandan delegate approached the board to quickly write, "Dad, I still miss you."



Blogging from the MSMGF Pre-Conference

Michel Sidibé, Executive Director at UNAIDS (Photo: Joshua Nantais)

BE HEARD, the world's largest conference on the health and human rights of gay men and other men who have sex with men (MSM) convened in Vienna on Saturday, July 17 as more than 500 HIV/AIDS activists - including a cadre of APLA staff - gathered at the Vienna University of Economics and Business to take aim at HIV within the global gay community.

The event, which preceded the XVIII International AIDS Conference (IAC), focused on the connections among homophobia, stigma, discrimination, and soaring rates of HIV infection among MSM. Globally, MSM are 19 times more likely to be infected with HIV than the general population in low- and middle-income countries, and only one in five has access to the HIV prevention, care and treatment services they need, according to George Ayala, Executive Officer of the Global Forum on MSM & HIV (MSMGF), which organized BE HEARD, the fourth in its series of biennial pre-IAC conferences. In countries with legal prohibitions against same-sex activity, MSM infection rates are markedly higher.

"We're seeing a disturbing backslide among human rights protections for MSM," Ayala said. "As long as gay men are a target of hate, arrest, detainment, and service denial, we will never win the fight against AIDS," added Michel Kazitchkine, Executive Director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria, during opening remarks.

The morning plenary session featured remarks by Kazitchkine, Chris Beyrer (Johns Hopkins Center for Public Health and Human Rights), Joel Nana (African Men for Sexual Health and Rights), and Michel Sidibé, head of UNAIDS. In the afternoon, participants gathered in small conference rooms for break-out dialogue sessions. Topics ranged from the development of fundraising strategies for the support of MSM- and HIV-related work to the use of information technology in transgender HIV prevention. Hundreds of participants regrouped for a closing session that featured a panel moderated by AIDS-Free World Co-Director Stephen Lewis and an epilogue delivered by U.S. Congresswoman Barbara Lee (CA - 9th).

"[Ending stigma] cannot be an abstraction," Lewis said in his address. "We must go from one country to the next. and this repulsive discrimination must come to an end."

The stigma pervades even the AIDS community, conference organizers say, pointing out that only two percent of this year's IAC conference sessions focus on MSM and HIV.

"The timing of BE HEARD is not accidental," Ayala said of MSMGF's event, which convened the day before the IAC. "We have been frank [with the International AIDS Society]. and we can only hope that this will lead to an increase in focus on MSM" during the next International AIDS Conference. "We have assembled here today for a common goal," Ayala added: "To be heard."

MSMGF, with administrative and fiscal support from APLA, works to promote MSM health and human rights worldwide through advocacy, information exchange, knowledge production, networking, and capacity building. Staff from each APLA division offered volunteer support during the event's preparation and execution.