Tanzania Cracks Down Heavily On Gay Community, HIV Organizations

Tanzania has cracked down heavily on gay men and women. Lately the government has outlawed same-sex liaisons and has also threatened to punish those found guilty for up to 30 years of jail.

However, the move has also alarmed health workers widely as the anti-homosexual fury is taking a new direction including HIV/AIDS programs are being targeted that have helped the country once by taming the disease and saving lives.

Tanzanian minister of health announced in October the country will ban HIV/AIDS outreach projects in the country that is aimed at gay men and a review process will be set up to confirm those are not promoting homosexuality.

The closure is temporarily to the US-funded programs that provide medical care, condoms and testing to the gays. A data reveal about thirty percent of the gay men in the country are HIV-positive and the health workers say it could rise further.

This is the first time the country has suspended parts of the America’s foreign HIV/AIDS initiative just to crack down on gay community.

Founded in 2003, the US PEPFAR campaign has spent about $65 billion over the years and is said to have saved millions of lives from the disease.

The government said, “Any attempt to commit unnatural offenses is illegal and severely punished by law.”