Thank you very much for this invitation, and its a great honor to be here.

I
wish to congratulate the AIDS Society of the Philippines and the other
organizers of the 13
th
National Convention on AIDS.

Now is a propitious time to talk about human rights. We are in the middle of
an HIV epidemic that is fueled by stigma, in a time when the entire world is
ready to proclaim that we can end AIDS. 30 years into the HIV pandemic, we
now have sufficient resources and evidence to fight back, control, and
reverse the HIV epidemic. Yet we continue to face challenges in this fight, as
evidenced by the growing HIV epidemic in the Philippines, which had been
described by a leading HIV advocate as one of the most explosive epidemics
among MSM and TGs worldwide.

The push back is not in the area of science. Finding a cure or a vaccine would
be a major breakthrough, but even without these, we have in our possession
a vast array of evidence-based interventions to curb our own HIV epidemic.
The problem, though, is the shadow of stigma and discrimination that
accompanies the epidemic and the communities vulnerable to HIV.

As a gay person coming from the LGBT community, it is a shadow we are all
too familiar with. And there is nothing like a growing HIV epidemic among
men having sex with men and transgenders to amplify the situation of
discrimination and abuse experienced by the whole LGBT community.

I wish to discuss human rights and HIV from that lens as a gay man whose
community is slowly waking up to the realities of the HIV epidemic. In a time
when we have rapid tests and life-saving retrovirals, we receive on almost
daily basis stories about friends, colleagues, or former partners who are
suddenly confined in hospitals, apparently confined for weeks or months for
diseases that refuse to go away despite being curable. Our Facebook walls
offer testimonials for a silent fear of a plague we cannot name: the lives of
young men taken away by meningitis, tuberculosis, pneumonia, because
here, nobody dies of HIV.

Fighting HIV-related stigma and discrimination is like wrestling with an
invisible demon. In several conversations with Health Secretary Ona, we have
underscored the role that stigma plays in undermining our HIV efforts. In
light of proposals to impose a modified form of routine testing here, one that
dilutes informed consent in HIV testing, we have repeatedly told the good
Secretary that stigma and discrimination is one of the most important barrier
that limits access to HIV testing, not informed consent. Unfortunately, that
we face stigma and discrimination because of our sexual orientation and
gender identity is a factual argument that the Secretary was not willing to
accept.


Secretary Onas sentiment is not unique. In the course of our advocacy to
address the HIV epidemic among MSM and TGs, we often hear that LGBTs are
accepted in the Philippines. Hence, we can test them for HIV without
informing them; the lack of informed consent is not a problem.

But just a few days ago, with the killing of Jennifer Laude reportedly by an
American serviceman, we have witnessed the sharp texture of
dehumanization that Filipinos are capable of just because of a persons
gender identity. The killing sparked conversations where inflicting stigma
seems to be the more normal, most acceptable thing to do. Malandi si Jennifer,
kaya pinatay. Kasalanan niya, dahil bakla naman siya na nagpapanggap na
babae. Nameke na nga, tapos naningil pa sa kano. In these remarks we see
layers and intersections of stigma and discrimination that make the HIV
epidemic thrive.

These conversations do not just happen online: they occur inside our homes,
where in truth majority of violence or threats of violence based on sexual
orientation and gender identity happen; they occur in healthcare settings,
where sometimes in our desire to reach our clients, we lose sight of their
humanity and we no longer see them as citizens with full human rights; they
happen where decisions are made why for the longest time, we do not
spend for our key populations, or why we refuse to stick to evidence, since
the affected population are in the margins anyway.

We have the numbers and evidence to prove that our failure to respect
human rights has a cost in our HIV response: countries that criminalize or
discriminate against LGBTs and countries where coercive HIV policies exist
have higher HIV epidemics among MSM and TGs.