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| Archbishop Desmond Tutu |
Desmond Tutu has called for the
decriminalisation of homosexuality to help tackle HIV.
He made the call in the wake of an
analysis in the Lancelet Journal of why incident of the virus continues to grow
among men who have sex with men (MSM).
The Archbishop who is the
patron of the Desmond Tutu Foundation based in Cape Town South Africa which
cares for HIV patients and carries out research on HIV said that in time to
come anti-homosexuality laws would be as “wrong” as apartheid laws are now.
He wrote "In the future, the laws that criminalise so many forms of human
love and commitment will look the way apartheid laws do to us now - so
obviously wrong.
"Never let anyone make you feel
inferior for being who you are. When you live the life you were meant to live,
in freedom and dignity".
She added “We've got to have community leaders and people with influence speaking out.That's why what Desmond Tutu is saying is so important."
I completely agree with Archbishop Tutu. Instead of judging and
condemning homosexuality and pretending it does not exist, various African
countries should adopt policy of tolerance to decriminalise homosexuality so
that HIV can be tackled.
Africans stand to gain if
this kind of sexual behaviour is decriminalised in that it will help to
determine the scale of HIV in men who have sex with men.
As long as these laws that
make homosexual activities a criminal offence are in place proper services and
counselling will continue to elude gay men. This is because they will continue
to be secretive about their sexual behaviour for fear of jail terms and
stigmatisation.
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