Chemical Castration and the Quest for 'Normalcy'

The Guardian magazine carried a rather interesting feature by Decca Aitkenhead yesterday, exploring the issue of chemical castration among sex offenders.  All those interviewed were men  -although they weren't all paedophiles.  It's fairly balanced and explores the issues surrounding chemical castration.  Rather like the piece, I don't have any firm conclusions as to the appropriate course of action in this area.  I do however think it's important to start by asking the 'right' question.

The Governor of Whatton does seem to be on the right tracks when she says:  "We're trying to stop the people we lock up from doing this again.  That's the key thing for me.  The majority of them will get out and will possibly be living next door to you or me.'

The logic of this position is therefore not 'what is the best form of retribution', but what dow e need to do, to ensure this individual is less likely to re-offend given they will be once again in our communities.    I'm not sure what the answer is, but that's surely the right question.

Check out the full piece here.

Sex Work in China

The South China Morning post carries a fascinating and sad piece on female sex work in China.  The journalist and author Lijia Zhang says the impunity with which police officers abuse their power often means a life of misery for China's sex workers, who operate without recourse to proper legal protection.  The piece is well worth a read and can be accessed here.

Homosexual Offenses and Human Rights in Isle of Man

I previously blogged a link to an excellent piece by Paul Johnson on Homosexual Offenses and Human Rights in Guernsey.  He's now published 'Part 2' which explores Homosexual Offenses and Human Rights in Isle of Man.  It's well worth a read.  Check it out here.

SlutWalk 2012

SlutWalk London 2012 will be taking place on Saturday 22nd September 2012, meet 12.30pm at Top of Piccadilly (near Hyde Park Corner).

The protest received wide-spread media coverage last year and represents an important public statement about rape - and tackles conceptions of people 'asking for it' when it comes to rape.  Put simply, Slutwalk is the radical notion that nobody deserves to be raped.

Campaigners describe on their website the background to the campaign:  'On 24th January 2011, a Toronto policeman told a group of law students that in order to avoid being raped ‘women should avoid dressing like sluts’. This sparked outrage around the globe, with sluts and allies from Chicago to Amsterdam standing up and saying that we have had ENOUGH of being victimised and labelled, speaking out for freedom, equality and fun and saying that nobody gets to tell us how to be women...We believe that rape is always the fault of the rapist, never the survivor. And until that attitude is held globally, we will continue to speak up.'

Read more and find out about the campaign here.

HIV and Online Identities

The ever-lovely @leomack87 flagged up this post on the excellent UKPositiveLad blog.  UKPositiveLad or Sam, set up a blog when he was diagnosed as HIV+ in 2011.  He uses the blog to share his activism and document his own journey with HIV.  His latest post post contains a story that is perhaps unsurprising but that does not reduce the importance of examining it.  Within the post he writes:

'I started wondering last weekend (25th Feb 2012) what kind of responses someone would get if their profile said that they were HIV+. So I created myself a second profile on Grindr, almost identical to mine in (but different enough to look like a different person), still looking for “Friends, fun and dates” – but this time I mentioned my HIV status in the profile text.

'Over the course of the week (25 Feb – 03 Mar) my existing profile received messages from 74 users. On the other hand my (almost identical) profile that mentions my HIV status had 11 people message it. Four of those eleven messaged purely to ask me questions about HIV and one felt it necessary to send me foul mouthed abuse for seemingly no reason. Which leaves me with six people actually showing an interest in me.

'Let’s look at that for a second shall we? That’s a 92% reduction in interest purely by mentioning my HIV status.'

The reduction is somewhat unsurprising (although you'll note he still seems to be doing reasonably well!), reminding us of the 'fear' that men still associate with HIV+ men.  For Sam, it undoubtedly highlights issue of prejudice and discrimination in that men just don't want to be with someone who is HIV+ because of ill-educated beliefs, fears for their own safety or unease at the need to adapt their own sexual practices.  This has perhaps been compounded by the rise in bareback sex.   Knowing your partner is HIV+ may lead to a decision that a condom is necessary in order to make sure that you don't become HIV+ yourself.  You therefore opt to have sex (bareback) with someone else who states they are not HIV+ in order to 'protect' yourself from HIV.  Spot the flawed logic.

It also doesn't take a genius to see the sexual market forces this sets in train.  More people don't disclose their HIV status at a time of increased bareback, leading in turn to a rise in HIV rates.  This can - and I believe will - continue exponentially.  The only things that would stop this are (1) death.  The return of the holocaust, or (2) growing drug resistance creating increased complications in HIV treatment.

So it is that this one incident documented by UKPostiveLad gives us an insight into much larger trends that are taking place in sex lives globally and driving increased criminalisation - and ever tougher measures - in relation to HIV transmission.

Read Sam's post here.

To Russia with Love

The decidedly 'straight' Putin

Pink News reports that International protest against St Petersburg’s new law banning the promotion of “sodomy, lesbianism, bisexualism and transgenderism” have continued with a video highlighting the law’s effect. The would punish the promotion of homosexuality with a fine of 5,000 roubles, £107 or up to 50,000 roubles, £1,070 for holders of public posts.  Being gay is bad, being gay when you influence others is very very bad.


I'm not sure of the impact the video will have in stopping people from travelling to Russia, but it does help to raise this issue.

There is, I think, a sense that Russian politics are shifting at the moment and even if Putin wins (as expected) the Russian presidential election which takes place tomorrow, his grip on power is apparently slipping and growing number soy Russians openly question his leadership and seek greater democracy.

Protests against him are on the increase and his Soviet-esque authoritarian brand of Russian politics increasingly seems out of kilter with a  new generation of Russians.  It is that movement which I suspect will ultimately lead to progress on social issues such as gay rights, rather than a few tourists not going to St Petersburg for a holiday.

Check out the full story here.

New HIV-specific Criminal Law

Interesting news coming out of Maryland, USA. Lawmakers in the Maryland legislature are considering legislation which will change the state’s HIV-specific criminal law from a three-year misdemeanor to a 25-year felony.  The move appears to be prompted by a perception that people have been 'let off lightly' by the courts.  As across the globe, law is being used as an instrument to a dress issues f disclosure, consent, knowledge and even race.  This move is ill-advised but we'll see what happens.  The growing and deepening criminalisation of HIV is a vital issue that remains all-too-silent.  These ongoing developments in North America are worrying.

Check out the full story here.

Cop and Preacher Latest 'Victims' in Public Sex War

Queerty reports on the latest set of public sex arrests in the USA.  This time, the focus is on Tampa Bay in Florida and included the arrest of a preacher and a retired cop.

Polk's Sherrif Department also put out a press release last week regarding the arrest of another 8 men in Florida.

On Friday, February 3, 2012, PCSO Vice detectives conducted an undercover operation at the Saddle Creek Park located on Morgan Combee Road between Lakeland and Winter Haven in response to complaints of lewd activity taking place there. During the operation, male undercover detectives made contact with various men in the park, six of whom asked the detectives to perform sex acts with them, and two of whom were trespassing. The two arrested for trespassing had been previously arrested at the park for lewd acts, and as a result were forbidden from being at the park.

Once again, names, dates of birth, and addressed were all published alongside information of how each man was arrested.  In most cases it is also indicated that they were married.  The accompanying quote from Sheriff Grady Judd in the press release offers some insight into the thinking of law enforcement agents:  “Let me be perfectly clear about this – we will not tolerate lewd behavior in our public parks or at any other place where people and their families go to relax and enjoy the outdoors. The fact that two of these men have already been trespassed from this area for the same behavior proves that they will not heed our warnings, and that they belong behind bars.”