When he was 14 his father died and his mother placed him in the care of a family friend. Then they began clapping with the music as the middle-aged dancer spun around them in a blur of light and color. He was no dancing boy, but a man of about 40, his face starkly made up, his blue dress covered with tiny bells and sequins.įor a moment the baffled partygoers only stared. At around midnight the host threw back a curtain and a dancer leapt through the doorway. Jokes went around about the reception a delicate youth like the Chinoise could look forward to in a Kabul jail.īut a last-minute substitute was found. Then someone's phone rang: The boy had been arrested by Afghan police while dancing at a wedding. He was the jealously guarded "property" of a wealthy Kabul businessman who had promised to bring him around later in the evening. Many had seen him dance at other parties.
The 16-year-old Hazara youth was known as "the Chinoise" for his striking oriental features. Some were drinking while others were smoking hashish in open windows, looking down into the street of the middle-class Kabul district of Karte-Char as they anticipated the boy's arrival. Most receive little financial or political support from government - constraints which must be tackled if countries are to mount more effective prevention of HIV transmission through sex between men.The 20-odd men who had come to the party were expecting a dancing boy, or bacha bereesh. As one example, the Naz Foundation developed the first clinical services and outreach for men who have sex with men in New Delhi, India, offering education, information, testing and treatment for sexually transmitted infections (STIs), HIV testing and counselling, support groups for HIV-positive men and a telephone hotline.Įfforts by NGOs working with men who have sex with men have often been limited in scope and in some cases constrained by repressive legislation and discriminatory attitudes. In some countries, homosexual men started the first support organizations for people with AIDS, in the absence of action by governments and traditional NGOs.
Since the beginning of the AIDS epidemic, community groups and other NGOs made up of men who have sex with men have engaged in prevention and care. The consistent and correct use of condoms, properly lubricated, is thus crucial for HIV prevention. Because of increased friction and the fragile tissues in the anus, anal intercourse involves a higher risk of HIV transmission than vaginal intercourse, particularly for the receptive partner. Negative social attitudes often lead to stress for men who see themselves as homosexual an Australian study found that around 28% of young men who preferred sex with other men had attempted suicide, compared with under 8% of heterosexual young men.Īnal intercourse is often a component of sex between men and is practised by 30-80% of men according to surveys from various settings. This social stigma has prevented many men and boys from admitting that they are at risk of contracting HIV from sex with other men and has prevented the development of HIV prevention campaigns directed at those men at risk. In many parts of the world men who have sex with men are frequently the target of prejudice and discrimination, even legal sanction. In yet other cases, sex may take place between men because they are the only sex partners available, as in the case of men in prison or in all-male institutions. Others may be married or in a long-term relationship with a woman and occasionally have sex with men, often without their female partner knowing. Some men may identify themselves as "homosexual" or "gay" (specific terms exist in almost all cultures) and have long-term or occasional sexual relationships with other men.
Studies confirm that boys and men across the world report sex with other boys and men, with rates of 10-16% in Peru, 5-13% in Brazil, 10-14% in the US, 15% in Botswana and 6-16% in Thailand.