Understanding and Challenging Stigma toward ... - Pact Cambodia

Naming
Stigma
toward
MSM
3. Summary: Bring the session to a close by summarizing the main points
which participants have made during the exercise. In giving your summary you
may use some of the following points, if they have not already been mentioned
by participants.
Because of your religion or upbringing you may believe that men having sex
with men is wrong, but it is not okay to stigmatize MSM.
Stigmatizing MSM fuels the HIV epidemic. It makes MSM hide their situation
and take less care about their sexual health, making them more vulnerable to
getting HIV.
Stigmatizing MSM defeats your own mandate as a health care worker. If you
stigmatize MSM, they will stop using the clinic and their health will be negatively
affected. If so, you are failing in your role as a health worker.
The health care providers’ code of conduct requires us to treat all patients
without exception.
We are not saying that the moral values are wrong. We are saying that health
workers’ judging of MSM is wrong. This form of stigma has to be stopped, i.e.,
condemning MSM as undeserving of our support and health care.
Stigmatizing MSM results in their feeling cut off from family, community, and
health services. This lowers their self-esteem and undermines their ability to
take positive action to manage their health. As a result, MSM may take less
care about their use of condoms and put themselves at risk of getting HIV.
Once they get HIV, MSM are doubly stigmatized (for being MSM and for living
with HIV), and this affects their ability to care for their own health and others’
health. MSM may hide their status from their partners (male and female) and
continue having unprotected sex and this allows HIV to continue to spread.
If we are to fight HIV, we have to stop calling MSM “bad people.” MSM are
not bad people. In many parts of the world MSM are accepted as part of the
community. This removes the moral condemnation. MSM are simply regarded
as having a different sexual orientation, not having failed morally.
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