peripheries

Mainstreaming HIV prevention in Thailand

Two important articles have appeared in The Bangkok Post newspaper since last week’s cancellation of the 2nd Chiang Mai Gay Pride Parade because a small group of red-shirted pro-Thaksin demonstrators objected to the event taking place in a public space.

The first was an announcement by Pairote Boonsirikamchai, assistant secretary-general of the Medical Council of Thailand that under 18 now could receive a free HIV test and counselling at clinics without their parents’ consent.

This is definitively a step forward. By making counselling accessible to the most vulnerable people in society, that is teenagers who know very little about sex or HIV but will soon engage in sexual activity (if they have not already done so) can only contribute to decrease the risks of HIV transmission in the future. It will also contribute to reducing the stigma around getting tested for HIV.

The second was an article in The Bangkok Post on the history of Gay magazines in Thailand. Prof Peter Jackson, a senior fellow in Thai history at the Australian National University’s Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies and founder of the Thai Queer Resource Centre, explains that Thai Gay magazines were in fact born out of the social prejudice people have towards homosexuals.

“Both gay men and lesbians have usually had to encounter a lot of obstacles receiving messages from mainstream media because it is full of bias when it comes to discussing topics about homosexuality. When people with sexual diversity do not have a fair media channel to receive useful information, they have to start creating one by and for themselves”

The story goes that the first gay magazine was born after a young student decided to insert a picture of a man instead of that of a women in a life style magazine that would regularly showcase a model in its central page. The reader’s reaction was overwhelmingly positive and the student decided to repeat the experience which finally led to the creation of the first magazine targeting men.

Since then, and that was in the 70s, there has been a flurry of Thai “Gay” magazines. Most of them are now unavailable (hence the creation of the Thai Queer Resource Centre) and many could not and still can not be sold. The police would confiscate them since they are considered obscene»

Not short of imagination the Thai publishing industry has come up with a plethora of “fashion” magazines showcasing lightly dressed male models. Volume 30 of Stage featuring Pirawit Pandaeng» sold out in no time in Bangkok. These magazines fill the gap created by the absence of gay magazines that would provide a tribune and a source of information to a population who is most vulnerable to HIV infection in Thailand.

For Natee Teerarojjanapongs founder of the Gay Political Group of Thailand, “gay magazines are a saviour in the way that they help young men break free from the concept of patriarchy, in which sons are expected to marry a good woman, to be a family leader and be seen by their fathers as heir to their family linage.”

Additionally, gay magazines also provide Thai male homosexuals with emotional relief. They function as an asylum for when gay men are pressured by family expectations or when are upset with their sexual orientation, life’s problems or any personal issues.”

Unfortunately, homosexuality is still somewhat considered taboo in Thai society despite what many travellers believe, and the future of gay publishing is far to be promising.

Danai Linjongrat from the Rainbow Sky Association of Thailand commented in The Bangkok Post that “A media channel for homosexuals in Thailand aims to give them a space free from social inequality. But they will never be widely accepted if most people still think of gender issues only as involving sex organs.”

The printed media is also seriously challenged by the Internet which provides a space for people to communicate and share their life’s experience and where censorship is more difficult to exercise (though the Thai ICT ministry is proud of blocking more than 30,000 websites which content is considering threatening Thailand or damaging the image of the country).

However, the internet does not make homosexuality more accepted in the general population and tends to re-create online ghettos and closets. As Pongpeera Patpeerapong, editor of More than Man magazine, puts it, ”I want gay magazines to break down the wall that blocks people’s understanding and positive attitudes towards homosexuality in Thailand.”

Gay prides, magazines and even TV programmes, such as Passport for Men one of the gayest Thai TV show which connotational content has completely escaped the censors, can bring inside people’s home and head the idea that ‘Gay men are not special people. We do not want any extra privileges. What we want is rights as equal as everyone else in society’ (Virach Suwanwilaikul, Max Magazine editor).

Sex Workers: Unwanted Rescues

This is a cross posting from Laura Agustín’s blog, Border Thinking on Migration and Trafficking: Culture, Economy and Sex. It is worth circulating broadly in an age where everything is conflated and reduced to a black and white understdanting.

Briefly, sex workers at the Barn Funn Brothel have been forcibly “rescued and liberated” by NGOs, charity workers or the Police (if the latter can be considered as a rescue).

In this poster designed by EMPOWER in Chiang Mai Thailand, the workers list the reasons why they do not wish to be rescued (photo provided by the Asia-Pacific Network of Sex Workers):

• We lose our savings and our belongings.
• We are locked up.
• We are interrogated by many people.
• They force us to be witnesses.
• We are held until the court case.
• We are held till deportation.
• We are forced re-training.
• We are not given compensation by anybody.
• Our family must borrow money to survive while we wait.
• Our family is in a panic.
• We are anxious for our family.
• Strangers visit our village telling people about us.
• The village and the soldiers cause our family problems.
• Our family has to pay ‘fines’ or bribes to the soldiers.
• We are sent home.
• Military abuses and no work continues at home.
• My family has a debt.
• We must find a way back to Thailand to start again.

As observed by Laura, “poorer migrants selling sex might prefer to continue what they’re doing than be ‘rescued’ by people on anti-trafficking crusades. While the rescuers’ good intentions are important, they obviously haven’t consulted the prostitutes they want to save first, to find out whether they want to be helped and, if so, what kind of help would actually be helpful! The poster makes it clear that cutting migrant women off from their source of income has terrible consequences both for themselves and their families.”

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WE does (RED)

Bibi Rusell, former international fashion model and now world renowned Bengali designer started her own version of (PRODUCT)RED with HIV-infected women in Cambodia.

Russell joined the women of MDSF, an initiative started in 2006 by the UN Development Program that now employs 17 women living with HIV in a Phnom Penh factory reports the Phnom Penh Post.

“If you join hands with women living with HIV with affection and confidence, they can create magic with their fingers. Fashion is very important, and it makes you understand the culture of a country,” said Russell.

The goods, a range of accessories and bags will initially be sold in Bangkok and in Canada and will provide a more steady income to women who often live in the margin of a society where stigma and discrimination are associated with being HIV positive.

The contrast with (PRODUCT)RED could not be more different.

Whilst (RED) has teamed up with “the world’s most iconic brands to produce (PRODUCT)RED branded products”, Bibi’s WE (Women Empowered) is directly teaming up with the people that (RED) aims to help through donation to the Global Fund. A bottom-to-top approach that echoes the women’s wish:

“We don’t want sympathy, but support to live a life of respect and dignity,” said MDSF business manager Pham Srim.

But as with nearly everything else from education to culture, charity has been commercialised and whilst (RED) asks its customers to purchase “the power of (RED) simply by upgrading your choice”, WE asks its consumers to empower women directly through their purchase.

“Be embraced, take your own fine self to the power of (RED). What better way to become a good-looking samaritan?!” exclaims (RED).

Being a good looking Samaritan is certainly reassuring, but is the point of charity to exonerate us of the guilt of buying expensive clothes or products? And what’s wrong with being an ugly-looking Samaritans?!

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Fighting “common nonsense”

“A tiny group of Republican senators continues to block a vote on an important bill to increase American spending on AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis around the world” i.e. PEPFAR.

Republicans opposing the re-authorisation of PEPFAR have done so on different grounds. A recurring argument being the cost of the President’s plan which, lest we forget represents less than 1.5% of the cost of the Iraq war. Another argument is the elimination of the statutory ban on admitting people infected with the HIV virus into the US, putting the country on a par with Iraq (where the US is fighting an expensive war on terrorism), Colombia (a main producer of the drugs that contribute to fuelling the HIV epidemic) and Sudan. Interestingly a record of terrorism, tax evasion, money laundering or child smuggling are the other reasons preventing admission in the US.

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