Special Gaybombay Meeting on Safer Sex and Living with HIV

DNA recently ran this report on on the latest figures from the National AIDS Control Organisation's HIV tracking studies:

http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?newsid=1209233

As the report noted there's some good news, because rates of infection have been falling in some geographical areas, and also in some communities like female sex workers and from women who are tested at ante-natal clinics. And the bad news? Rates are definitely rising among intravenous drug users and men who have sex with men.

This is no surprise to us at GB. From anecdotal evidence, and actual cases that we're getting to know of, rates of infection in the gay community in Mumbai are definitely on the rise. What's really alarming though is not just that more guys are testing positive, but that we're hearing remarks like "if you sleep with guys from south Mumbai you're less likely to get HIV than from someone in the suburbs." This was really reported to us.

What is disturbing in that remark is not the stupidity of south-mumbai vs, suburbs prejudice, but just the absolute stupidity from a gay man who should have some basics of HIV clear. Which is that it doesn't respect classes and communities, that there's no way of telling who has it and who doesn't and that if you don't practice safer sex you'll very likely get - like does anyone want to bet that the guy who made that remark either has HIV or soon will?

And here's another disturbing trend. We are seeing more deaths. This should not be happening. These are not deaths from people who have had HIV for years and have been through all the treatment regimens and have exhausted all the drugs (an increasingly rare case). These are deaths of guys who were positive just for a couple of years and who didn't even go on drugs. In some cases they chose not to. Or they went on them too late. Or were detected too late. We don't know.

All we know is that neither the infections nor the deaths should be happening at a time when information on both safer sex and living with HIV (with reasonably cheap access to drugs) are increasingly available. Yes, the fact that being gay is still technically illegal puts off guys from actively looking for information - yet it is there if we need to look for it, and we definitely do.

So to help us get better informed on both how to have safer sex and how to live with HIV we're organising a special meeting this Sunday, 30th November at Zouk (Hotel Imperial Palace) in Andheri West, near Andheri Railway Station. I'll ask the moderator to put this mail out again with full details of how to get there, but for now please note the meeting is ON, from 4-7 pm. And there is absolutely no cost for attending.

For those who are put off at the idea of being lectured to, believe me it won't be that way. We'll be having a very informal interactive talk from our regular member Zoraster on safer sex (OK, maybe not that interactive...!). We're also hoping to have a few guys who'll tell us in very ordinary terms what it means to live with HIV. The whole discussion will be kept open for anyone to say anything relevant, whether its experiences, suggestions, appeals, information.

And finally, if you've read this mail and thought to yourself, well this doesn't apply to me, please go back and read that DNA report. We all think HIV doesn't apply to us, that we and our friends and partners are just too smart to do the unsafe sex thing and aren't at risk. A lot of guys feel that and they're now positive. You never know when you might need information on HIV, for your friends, for your partner, for yourself. So get to know about it now.

If anyone has any concerns or queries on this meeting, please mail me at vgd67@yahoo.co.uk Specifically, if you are positive and are worried about being outed about your status at this meeting, please be assured that NO ONE will be asked about their status whether positive or negative. A few people might volunteer personal information, but NO ONE will be forced to reveal anything.

Vikram