Where it is Illegal to be HIV Positive

Is it whining to complain of the abuses which occur because of sexuality?

Asking because I was going to say I should stop whining.

This whining is good. Because at the time I whine, I also affirm that something is wrong. And well, if it is against me, why shouldn’t I complain.

What am I talking about?

In Egypt it is illegal to be HIV positive.

Fantastic. How does that come about? If you are HIV positive, then you must be gay. And of course, since no one can read your sexuality from your face, it has to be tortured out of you. A signed confession.

You don’t believe me?

That’s fine. Just read this.

Human Rights Watch says the first two men were arrested in October when Cairo police intervened in a street argument. One of the men told police he was HIV-positive. Officers immediately arrested both men and took them to the Morality Police, which began investigating them for homosexual activity, which is not officially a crime in Egypt.

The rights group says the men were handcuffed to a metal desk for four days, beaten and subjected to an intrusive medical examination that amounted to torture.

Two more men were arrested because their photographs or phone numbers were found in the possession of the first two. All four are still in custody. The first two, the rights group says, are handcuffed to their hospital beds 23 hours a day.

Human Rights Watch says four more men were arrested in November, after police raided an apartment where one of the earlier detainees had previously lived. The arrest report indicates they were not doing anything illegal when they were arrested, but they were convicted of "debauchery" in January simply because they were in a home where one of the other detainees used to live. An appeals court recently upheld their convictions.

So, in Egypt, if you are HIV positive, follows you are gay, follows that you can sign the confession. What a beautiful world we live in.

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