5 Sep 2005

New Zealand AIDS Foundation opposes Fiji Methodist call to criminalise gay sex

2:25 pm on 5 September 2005

The New Zealand AIDS Foundation says calls to criminalise gay sex in Fiji would endanger public health and foster the spread of HIV/AIDS.

The Daily Post says the Foundation has expressed concern at the likely public health impact of the Methodist Church's intention to hold a mass march to pressure the Fiji government to criminalise gay and lesbian sex.

The executive director of the New Zealand AIDS Foundation, Rachael Le Mesurier, says the spread of HIV is facilitated by the prejudice, discrimination and marginalisation of minority communities that this proposed march and law change would create.

Ms Le Mesurier says the result would be to drive Fiji's gay men deep underground where they would be almost impossible to reach with HIV education and prevention programmes.

She warns that if the proposal is adopted, it would facilitate the spread of HIV/AIDS in Fiji.

Ms Le Mesurier says while the Methodist Church is entitled to hold and express its beliefs on the issue of homosexuality, it should not seek to imposed those beliefs on all people through the secular mechanisms of the government and the law.

She says international health authorities are already warning of a potential HIV/AIDS time bomb threatening the Pacific.