Sanity returns to health policy. Yesterday, the President-Elect Barack Obama transition team indicated it would begin an across-the-board review of President George Bush's executive orders. New reports say the new Admnistration "will reverse" Bush's much-criticized family-planning and AIDS-prevention strategies that have "long linked global funding to anti-abortion and abstinence education" and discriminated against gay men in Africa.
Bloomberg reports Bush's $45- billion PEPFAR program has brought AIDS and retrovirals to 3 million people in developing nations, "more than under any other president." But the "family values"-inspired requirement that counselors emphasize abstinence and/or monogamy over condom use, the so-called "gag rule, has arguably set back HIV/AIDS, STD prevention and family planning across the globe.
In Uganda, the no-condom, abstinence policy has had disastrous affects on gay men. Earlier this year, Rod 2.0 reported the White House, through its abstinence programs, is funding religious organizations in Uganda that "actively promote violence and discrimination against lesbians and gay men." Members of one group have threatened Ugandan LGBT rights activists and posted their names, photos and addresses on a website. It's no wonder so many gay African men are dying rather than seeking treatment.
Condons Trump Abstinence in Obama Policy [Bloomberg]
Some Background ...
Report: "Abstinence Only" Policy Spreads HIV, Death [R20]
Bush Admin Funding Anti-Gay Groups in Uganda [R20]
Ugandan Minister Receives Award for Anti-Gay Crusade
[R20]
Glad to see they will reverse these but it will be interesting to see what his answers to this issue will actually be.
Posted by: C. Baptiste Williams | 11 November 2008 at 11:42
This is really good news. Hopefully with Obama's new plan the STD rate will start to drop.
Posted by: Ace | 11 November 2008 at 11:42