bài viết này được đăng từ hồi tháng 02 vừa rồi.nhưng không biết đã có ai đọc chưa?nếu chưa thì xin mời đọc tiếp ha.còn ai đã đọc rùi thì coi như đọc lại.trong bài báo này có một phần nhỏ bài viết,ý kiến của funk về tình hình msm-hiv/aids ở vn.
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http://vietnamnews.vnanet.vn/showart...um=01SAY270209

Your say

(27-02-2009)

Joint effort needed to curb prejudice, encourage men to use social services


Last week we asked if readers think discrimination and stigma are
reasons why only 10 per cent of MSM (men who have sex with men) in Viet
Nam use public health services. We also asked what readers think should be done to change that. These are some of the answers we received.

Nguyen Chung Tai, Ha Noi HIV carrier


I’m not surprised by these numbers because the real numbers are always more than those published in reports by the UN or other organisations.


It is understandable that many gay men find it hard to come out,
especially those who are infected with HIV. Other people still keep their conservative thinking toward gay people, mostly older generations.


Another problem, in my opinion, is the "easy" lifestyle of a great part
of the gay community. Their habit of not being faithful to one partner
but changing partners regularly plays an important role in spreading HIV/AIDS in the MSM community particularly and in society in general.


How can we change that? I think this depends on both sides. On the one
hand, the gay community should recognise that they need to maintain a
healthier lifestyle. On the other hand, society needs to change their attitude towards gay people, stop looking at them with disgust.


The Ministry and departments of Health need to create and apply more
practical programmes to promote HIV/AIDS prevention. Current efforst
are too short-term and unrealistic. At the same time, our education
system needs to insert sex education into teaching programmes for
secondary school and above, because our students are no longer as
innocent as before living in the internet era. Schools need to play an
important role in teaching students how to live a healthy and pratical
lifestyle and families need to start talking about sex to their
children. Internet is a great school for the kids, but letting them surf the internet by themselves is dangerous.

Nguyen Thanh My Actionaid Brussels Belgium


In my opinion, gay people, both women and men, rarely use health
services because they are afraid of the discrimination from their families and society.


There are many people who think homosexuality is a sickness. As a result, it’s very difficult for the homosexuals to lead a normal life.

The more they hide themselves, the less they use social services.


To improve this, I think we need to have a wide and appropriate
information and education programme so that MSM understand their rights
and can receive the necessary information about the social services
available to them. This programme should also target greater public
awareness to encourage sympathy and understanding that will hopefully
encourage the gay community to be more open and more willing to use social services.

As for the health service, it should offer comfortable and sensitive access. High confidentiality is very important.

Dinh Thai Son, Ha Noi FHI Viet Nam


As a supervisor and manager to HIV prevention activities for the MSM
community in some big cities in Viet Nam , I realise that the greatest
obstacle to encouraging MSM from using health services is
discrimination. We need to focus on educating and training people
working in these services about the mentality and sensitivity of the people they are dealing with.


It takes time to change public opinion, so social administration
agencies should pay more attention to leading people’s positive
awareness of MSM, as well as supporting strong projects and programmes working on HIV prevention and intervention for this group of people.

Tom Miller, California


It would be wise for the Government and society to "bite the bullet"
since this is not "their" problem, it is "our" problem. Excluding the
gay community from our thinking and action excludes people we know and
love, and the sooner we can accept "gayness" as a reality and a
legitimate part of our society and not a threat, the sooner the healing
– physical and psychological – will occur. This is asking many to make
a big step since all their lives the idea of homosexuality has been
reinforced as evil. American writer and social critic Mark Twain once
said "Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness." The same can be said about getting to know the gay community.

Joshua Riedel, Ha Noi


In addition to overcoming general discrimination against gays in Ha Noi
and HCM City , it seems to me that a more immediate and feasible issue
to confront and overcome is improving the channels of communication
within the gay community. Even if access to health services is limited
in Viet Nam due, in part, to the general population’s discrimination
against gay men, the 10 per cent of gay men who do take advantage of
the health services offered should share their information with the
other 90 per cent of men who do not use those services, helping to
introduce them to gay-friendly clinics and doctors. With the assistance
and encouragement of others within the gay community, perhaps men who
do not currently think they have access to health services would come to discover that it is possible to stay healthy and gay in Viet Nam .

Dr Nick Medland, Viet Nam Chair MSM Subcommittee HIV/AIDS Technical Working Group


Evidence from around the world, and increasingly from Viet Nam ,
suggests that MSM feel stigmatised and discriminated against in daily
life and when coming into contact with services and with other
authorities. Many go through life trying to avoid such contact and
actively try to stay hidden. Reaching out with information, education, support, assistance and health care is that much more difficult.


We know well how MSM can protect themselves and their partners from HIV
infection: to be well informed about condom use and HIV prevention; to
feel confident and strong enough in their own hearts to want to protect
themselves; to be able to go to a health service in a supportive and
safe environment for an HIV test from time to time; to receive the support and friendship of their peers.


Viet Nam has been doing amazing work in a short period of time to help
prevent the rapid spread of HIV infection that we have seen in
neighbouring countries. However, this is just a beginning and an
enormous amount is yet to be done. We support and applaud the work of the government in this.


There are a lot of inspiring individuals and groups doing great work in
MSM communities. We need to be open in our support for them. The press
and our leaders need to give the message that we will take care of
every member of our society, that it’s OK to be gay. Then, and only
then, will we have a chance to reduce the threat that the HIV epidemic poses to each and every one of us.

Nathalie Miller, Ha Noi Entrepreneurs du Monde, Country Director


I’m not sure if MSM’s lack of access to HIV/AIDS health service is
reflective of homophobia. The driving force of spreading HIV/AIDS in
Viet Nam is intravenous drug use (IDU); although the liaison between
HIV/AIDS and drug use has diminished in recent years in Viet Nam , the
link is irrefutable. The lack of access to HIV/AIDS health services
that you noted with MSM populations is also prevalent among IDU
populations who are not, of course, all men having sex with men – so I
would hesitate to argue that the reason behind this phenomenon is homophobia.


That said, there is definitely ongoing stigma in Viet Nam against gay
men – and perhaps more so against gay women, a group that you didn’t include in your question.


In Viet Nam , where kinship is of utmost importance and pressure lies
on children to continue the family line, discrimination against gay
people might also center around this idea that being gay means a
departure from the "family" as it is normally understood. Yet gay men
and women have always been parents and will continue to be parents,
which is important for Vietnamese people to realise. — VNS