Identity
Red Ribbon Award 2012: Call For Nominations On this year’s World AIDS Day, the UN and civil society partners jointly announced a global call for nominations for the 2012 Red Ribbon Award.
Red Ribbon Award 2012 poster
The award, which will be presented at the XIX International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2012) in Washington DC in July 2012, will be given to ten organizations
that have shown outstanding community leadership and action on AIDS. The selected community organizations will benefit from international visibility and an invitation to participate in the XIX International AIDS Conference. Additionally, each recipient of the award will receive a US$10,000 grant.
The five award categories are: Prevention of sexual transmission, Prevention among people who use drugs, Treatment, care and support, Advocacy and human rights, Stopping new HIV infections in children and keeping mothers alive; women's health. The closing date for nominations is February 29th, 2012.
International outrage fell upon the Czech Republic last year when it attempted to verify gay asylum seekers by attaching genital cuffs and monitoring their arousal when watching gay porn. Although the Fundamental Rights Agency criticized the measure, it illustrated the government’s intense concern about fraud. In 2009, Stephen and Helen Mahoney, naturalized US citizens from Russia living in Kent, Washington, pleaded guilty to charges of “conspiracy to commit immigration fraud” after coaching straight asylum seekers on how to pass themselves as gay — for fees upwards of $4,000. The odds are stacked against all refugees, gay or straight. Of the more than 10 million refugees worldwide, only an estimated 100,000 are resettled each year. Given community-led violence against gays and high-level political reinforcement of homophobia in his homeland, Alex fears he and Michael will never again be able to return to Uganda. With few options before him, and currently no help from outside agencies, Alex has relied on his faith to keep him positive and driven. Alex describes himself as a devout Christian. He says he finds great incongruity between the intense religiosity of his country and the idea of bashing gay “sinners.” He says he didn’t choose to be gay. “God did,” he said.—JONATHAN KALAN First published by The Global Post, Reprinted with permission We held our silence to the memory of all the pain that led to this success. When ‘he’ finally left ‘his’ home and past to find herself. How she knew ‘his’ mother was only too happy that she didn’t have to witness her birth. How at the age of 17, scared and alone, ‘he’ had no doubt in his mind that nobody was looking for ‘him’ or even concern for ‘his’ well being. But all those she forgave. From the family that was now a cluster of strangers she hadn’t laid eyes on for ten years, to the ‘friends’ who walked away in a blink of an eye. To the man who violently raped her, especially the one who placed those marks on her back when all she wanted was to make some money for something to eat. It was just a few months after her great escape. She was taking all possible jobs to make enough to help her achieve her goal and still be alive to see the day. Ranging from construction, delivery, prostitution, sales, e.t.c., it was on one of those days that she got a client. The pay was handsome enough to make her take the risk. Her intuition pushed her from the idea as best as it could until the gates to the luxurious mansion were opened. But his mission proved to be stronger and got her all the way to a master bedroom that looked exactly how she saw her future one in this dreams. The two hundred and fifty pound, over six feet tall black man that entered the room as she was freshening up sent danger alerts all over her body and mind. Two hours after excruciating sodomy, whips on her back and bruises on her arms and legs where the chains held she endured. She lay in a pool of semen, blood and tears. The man walked out and a beautiful hostess came to clean him up, put her in a cab and sent her away with thrice the pay she expected. As she cried her way home she became more dedicated to her mission - to erase her masculinity but also all the indignity that came with the journey of accomplishing it. So, there we stood a few surgeries and hormonal pills later. As I held the most beautiful woman I knew both in body and spirit, I could not help but tear. Silence to the death of Dan, cheers to the birth of Daniela.—IMMAH REID