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India’s Ban on Homosexuality Violates Gay Human Rights, UNAIDS Charges

By Gudrun Schultz

NEW DELHI, India, December 4, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) - UNAIDS condemned India’s anti-homosexuality law as “puritan” and a “head in the sand” approach to homosexuals, in an interview with Reuters for World AIDS day.

These people are discriminated against just because of their sexual preference, for no other reason," UNAIDS country chief Denis Broun said. "It violates their human rights.

The UN has pushed India to legalize homosexuality as part of an AIDS prevention program, arguing that criminalizing homosexual activity drives gay men underground and prevents their education on ways to prevent transmission of the disease. India has the second highest rate of HIV/AIDS  infection in the world, with more than five million people living with the virus.

Calls for legalization of homosexuality as a preventative measure have little if any success to back them up, however. AIDS organizations in Australia warned last week that HIV infection rates were soaring in the homosexual community of Sydney, with infection rates rivaling that of African nations at between 10% and 18%.

Last year in New South Wales 954 people were diagnosed with HIV, the Sydney Morning Herald reported, and almost three-quarters of those infected caught the disease through homosexual activity. The steady rise in HIV/AIDS infection rates has been attributed to a growing laxity towards protection among the homosexual community.

Research has shown that in countries where homosexual activity is legal, and educational material on “safe-sex” practices easily obtained, HIV/AIDS rates are highest by far in members of the homosexual community. Recent studies in the United States and Canada have shown an alarming increase in infection rates among homosexual men, while rates have been diminishing among heterosexuals and intravenous drug users.

The UN has admitted that current AIDS prevention programs in India have not been successful in stemming the rising infection rates.

"Given the fact it is 20 years into the epidemic and we have spent hundreds of millions of dollars in prevention activities, this is not a good reflection on our efforts," acknowledged Anjali Gopalan, head of Naz Foundation India, a pro-homosexual anti-AIDS group.

See previous LifeSiteNews coverage:

UN Tells India to Decriminalize Homosexual Sex to Fight AIDS
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/jan/06011307.html

Homosexuality Triggering HIV Escalation
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2005/nov/05111812.html"http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2005/nov/05111812.html

STD Explosion: HIV, Syphilis Rates Up by 50% in Toronto Homosexual Community
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2004/jun/04061609.html"http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2004/jun/04061609.html

Indian Government Fights Court Effort to Legalize Sodomy
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2005/dec/05120805.html"http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2005/dec/05120805.html

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