Feature

Men who have sex with men, women

 

When driving his taxi, you would not think Deidrick Geoffrey, a name he said we should identify him with, is both a woman and a man.

He is happily married to a woman, yet, he has an affair with an aged white man who calls him his girlfriend.

“This is an expression of my feelings. I cannot do things otherwise because everything is coming from inside me,” he says.

Steve Monjeza (L) and Tiwonge Chimbalanga were arrested for allegedly being involved in unnatural sexual acts

Geoffrey says his wife is not aware that he is bisexual. So, he adds, when he goes home, the wife treats him accordingly. They live just as any other heterosexual couples.

On the other hand, when being hooked up by his boyfriend, he just tells his wife that he is being hired out. Thankfully, the boyfriend leaves him with loads of money, providing the woman at home with no room to question whether the hire indeed existed.

Several pieces of research conducted globally established that between five and 10 percent of the world population forms a community of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI).

Geoffrey’s situation leaves him in the community of bisexuals where one has affection for both the same and opposite sex. And he is not the only one.

According to findings of a survey conducted as part of a project implemented by the Centre for Development of the People (Cedep), an average 62 percent of men who have sex with men (MSMs) are in heterosexual marriages.

As they live happily on either side of their sexual life, the MSMs make the most at risk population in as far as the spread of sexually transmitted infections (STIs), including HIV and Aids.

Sexual and reproductive health experts say anal sex is more likely to leave one bruised, providing entry points for viruses, than vaginal sex because the rectum is not lubricated. This way, they say, one is likely to contract STIs if that sex is unprotected.

“The situation is complicated by the fact that hospitals in Malawi do not provide lubricants since being an MSM is criminalised under some subsections in Section 153 of the Penal Code,” says Cedep executive director Gift Trapence.

The Section reads: “Any person who (a) has carnal knowledge of any person against the order of nature; or (b) has carnal knowledge of an animal; or (c) permits a male person to have carnal knowledge of him or her against the order of nature, shall be guilty of a felony and shall be liable to imprisonment for 14 years, with or without corporal punishment.”

According to a situation analysis in the Malawi National HIV and Aids Strategic Plan (NSP) 2011-2016, a survey conducted among the MSMs in Blantyre in 2009 established an HIV prevalence rate of 21.4 percent.

In comparison, the general national HIV prevalence rate in that year was around 14 percent.

The survey also established that more than 95 percent of the men who have sex with other men were unaware of their HIV status and were less likely to be aware of the risks associated with having unprotected anal sex.

And a survey conducted as part of a programme jointly implemented by Cedep, the Elizabeth Glazer Paediatric Aids Foundation (EGPAF) and the Malawi Aids Counselling and Resource Organisation (Macro) established that 5.8 percent of the MSMs were infected with syphilis.

For MSMs in heterosexual relationships, the situation means a high possibility of their partners also carrying the infection.

“Since the MSMs are always underground for fear of prosecution, we had to systematically use peer navigators to get to them,” says Ishmael Makhuludzo, Cedep programmes manager for Mzuzu.

“Each of those we identified was tasked to identify a chain of peers and that is how we managed to identify a number of MSMs we are targeting in the project,” he adds.

Despite the dangers the bisexuals pose, several of them have reported being discriminated against when they seek disease preventive measures or treatment for various sexually transmitted infections from hospitals.

A Mzuzu-based MSM says he saw hell when he went to a hospital seeking treatment for an STI.

“I developed signs of the sexually transmitted infection in the anal area. And when I went to hospital to seek treatment, the nurse on duty called her friends to see what I had brought to them.

“It was a very demeaning experience and I do not know if I would seek treatment from the hospital again if I develop the same situation,” he says.

Trapence says Cedep has been providing lubricants and condoms but added that with the situation at hand, it would have been better if hospitals also provided such services to tame the risk of spreading infections, particularly by those in heterosexual affairs.

 

*This article, coordinated by Centre for Solutions Journalism, was produced with support from The Other Foundation. The views expressed herein do not necessarily represent those of The Other Foundation. n

 

Related Articles

Back to top button