HIV/AIDS Among Gay Men of Asia

My roommate for the past year is Singaporean. He never expressed any hard feelings toward my sexuality. I just remember him being really offended by something I said that he mistakenly interpreted as me accusing him of being gay. I am also friends with a couple of others at school who have spent considerable time either living or going to school in Singapore and they all seem OK with 'homosexuality'.

So I just discovered Fridae.com. Based in Hong Kong and Singapore, this is what they do:

Fridae is a diversified media and services company implementing an integrated strategy that covers the Internet, Broadcasting, Publishing and Events. Founded with a mission to “Empower Gay Asia,” Fridae provides a platform that bridges cultures, transcends borders, and unites the diverse groups to form Asia’s largest gay and lesbian community. As the gay media leader in Asia, Fridae provides unparalleled reach to the valuable, yet diverse and hard to reach gay and lesbian communities in the region.

Most gay men in Singapore and China find their information on sexual health and build their networks through the Internet. Through Fridae, I have been able to find some pretty remarkable information, including articles on the state of HIV/AIDS in Asia [http://www.fridae.com/newsfeatures/article.php?articleid=2273&viewarticle=1&searchtype=all].

Speaking of which, everyone should know about amFAR (The Foundation for AIDS Research) one of the world's leading nonprofit organizations dedicated to the support of AIDS research, HIV prevention, treatment education, and the advocacy of sound AIDS-related public policy. Here in D.C., I was able to catch a meeting they hosted with amFAR's president, a medical doctor specializing in epedemics, and a film producer who does work on the topic in China.

The medical doctor, who is from Beijing, said that the growth in HIV infections in MSM's is largely due to the prevalence of male prostitutes and intravenous drugs. The producer, Thomas Lennon (http://www.chinaaidsmedia.com/) showed clips from works he has produced, including the academy-award winning short, Blood of Yingzhou District, a documentary on children who lost their parents due to AIDS, a new documentary on gay men and Chinese society, and successful PSA's for sexual protection featuring celebs like Yao Ming and Jackie Chan.

amFAR recently completed a report on MSM (men who have sex with men) and HIV/AIDS in Asia and found, among other things that the rate of HIV infection has doubled among MSM in men from 2000 (from about 1.5% to 3%) and that Thailand has the highest rate of HIV infection among MSM (something like 40%).