World AIDS Day: a time for reflection
Thursday, December 1 marks World AIDS Day, a day for reflection in so many ways for so many people.
HIV can potentially affect anyone, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity. The new cases around the world due to unsafe sex practices sadly reflect this. Unsafe injecting practices are also another factor.
It was therefore heartening to hear that there have been no new cases reported in Victoria in the last 12 months as a result of the latter. This is great news and reflects great work from all the agencies involved.
Discrimination on the basis of actual or assumed HIV status is also a concern. We urge people to contact the VGLRL or organisations like PLWHA or the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission if they believe such discrimination arises.
Further, the irrational assumption of “HIV being a gay thing” can lead to discrimination for gay men regardless of HIV status. The organisations above again give referral and other information in such a situation.
From a trans perspective, I have read research that discusses the higher prevalence of HIV among trans people. The reasons given include low self-esteem among trans people due to discrimination which leads to an inability to say no to unsafe sex.
Other trans people turn unwillingly rather than willingly to sex work, exposing them to potential risk. Building esteem and changing societal attitudes to reduce discrimination are therefore ways to help reduce potential new cases among trans people, both in Australia and around the world.
The Melbourne Transgender Day of Remembrance function two weeks ago saw the trans and allied communities stand together and come out stronger for it. Similarly, we can all stand together on World AIDS Day and emerge stronger. I wish everyone’s day has the appropriate meaning for them on this major day for all of our communities.
INFO: Sally Goldner is VGLRL treasurer and TransGender Victoria spokesperson.
Ryan
I accept the points raised; I offer the following clarifications:
There are still people who turn to sex work because they believe it is the only option for employment. This comes from conversations with people working/recently working in the industry who are trans within the last year. The unwillingness therefore comes froma lack of accurate and up-to-date information about choices (at least in a Melbourne context) rather than seeing sex work as degrading.
Second, my thinking at the time of writing was in a world context, not just a Melbourne/Australian context. Places with different practices or laws to us are likely to therefore run higher risks.
Again, trust this clarifies.
While its true that there is high rates of discrimination in lots of industries towards trans people I would suggest the way you reword the way you spoke about sex work. Writing about people unwillingly rather than willingly ‘turning’ to sex work further perpetuates stigma against sex workers as desparate and sex work as something that people only do as a last resort [because its ‘degrading’ etc] While some people may feel that the sex industry is one of the few industries that will accommodate their needs maybe this needs to be framed as a problem with other industries in being transphobic and the sex industry being less transphobic and more flexible. It also takes away sex workers’ agency in how they have chosen to make their money because most of us have to work for money under capitilism. Some of us may have few choices but that doesn’t make us instant victims just coz we are doing sex work. (ie we wouldn’t say people turn unwillingly rather than willingly to work in supermarkets, coz even though we say that it might be boring we also recognize that they can make this choice and they may have other motivating factors like money)
Secondly I don’t know if you were talking about sex workers being exposed to HIV risk or other risks, but if it was HIV risk I think its pertinent to mention that sex workers are safe sex experts and we have lower rates of STIs than the general population.