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A Big Turn-Out at the Sexual Health Conference |
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The Sexual Health and Rights Conference, the 4th of its kind on the African Continent, described as “big” and “excellent”, was recently held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia recently. The Conference, initiated by Action Health Incorporated, partnered with the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), was attended by more than 700 delegates from more than 50 countries internationally with its focus on Africa.
The opening keynote address was delivered by the President of Ethiopia, Mr Girma Woldegiorgis with the Ethiopian Minister of Health, Dr Tedros Adhanom; Dr Gill Greer, Director General of IPPF; Mr Jean Ping, Chairperson, African Union Commission; Mr Abdoulie Janneh, UN Under-Secretary General and Executive Secretary of ECA, UNECA; and Dr Rosemary Coates, President, World Association for Sexual Health also speaking.
In her address Dr Greer said that no-one should die as a result of sex, emphasising the very sex-positive nature of the conference. Liesl Theron, director of Gender DinamiX, who also attended the conference, was impressed with the openmindedness of the Ethiopian Minister of Health who did not shy away from issues around sex, addressing safe access to abortion and other controversial topics.
Another South African, Malose Langa, also delivered a paper entitled ‘A Boy can’t marry another boy: Adolescent boys talk about gay boys and men’. In his paper he highlighted three things to demonstrate how homophobia happens. Firstly, he said, legislation does not automatically lead to changes in attitudes and behaviour. Secondly, he highlighted the “everydayness” of homophobia in schools. And thirdly, he highlighted how gayness threatens boyhood or manhood. He particularly dealt with the emotional and psychological processes involved in negating and subjugating gayness as another form of sexuality.
Joel Gustav Nana, Executive Officer of African Men for Sexual Health and Rights, challenged the conference organisers with the heteronormative mindset of the program, both in design and in content. During the only other plenary session with a  LGBT theme Victor Mukasa of IGLHRC, previously a board member of Gender DynamiX, spoke about the implications for sexuality and HIV/AIDS as a result of the criminalisation of same sex union in Africa. Criminalisation creates a climate of fear and has a stigma and reduces health-seeking behaviour.
The conference boasted a multitude workshops and sessions, but of the 44 sessions, only six sessions contained LGBTI and same-sex content. There were two MSM sessions. The complete conference did not have one lesbian or WSW session. One session had ‘a quick mention’ of intersex, two presentations were about transgender, both in the same session. Liesl Theron from Gender DynamiX’s theme was: “Trans-hate at the core of gender based violence” and Skipper Mogapi from Botswana spoke about Transgender and Sexual Health in Botswana. The transgender session was well received, with more than 45 people in the room.
The first conference was held in South Africa in 2004, then in Kenya in 2006 and Abuja in Northern Nigeria in 2008. The 2012 conference will be held in Egypt. Liesl promised that Gender DynamiX will definitely be represented there. “It is well worthwhile,” she said. |
