By Christopher Cappiello

U.N. lowers estimates of worldwide HIV infections

In a report issued Nov. 20, UNAIDS, the United Nations agency devoted to the global battle against HIV/AIDS, announced it had overstated the estimates of worldwide infection. New studies estimated the number of people infected to be 33.2 million, down from last year’s estimate of almost 40 million.

“This doesn’t mean the epidemic is going away, everything is fine and now forget about it—not at all,” said Harvard University HIV infection rate specialist Daniel Halperin, in the New York Times. “There are still about 10 countries in southern Africa that are real nightmares.”

The new estimates reflect more accurate surveys, officials say, particularly in India, which accounted for about half of the decrease. Historically, HIV infection rates in India have been estimated by anonymous testing of young women at public health clinics. Some epidemiologists have long believed that such samples were heavily skewed to an urban population and overstated the effects of prostitution, drug use and multiple partners.

“This was not a surprise,” Halperin told the Times. “The writing was on the wall years ago.”

India had long been considered the country with the highest number of infections. The new estimates put it third, behind South Africa and Nigeria.

UNAIDS now estimates that approximately 2.5 million people were newly infected in the past year. Experts believe the infection rate peaked in the late 1990s at about 3 million per year.

Norwegian church OKs partners for clergy

During a divisive synod meeting in Lillehammer the week of Nov. 16, the leaders of Norway’s Lutheran Church voted to end a ban on clergy living in same-sex partnerships, the International Herald Tribune reports. The compromise decision leaves it up to each of Norway’s 11 bishops to decide whether to employ such clergy.

“This will create peace in the church and security for homosexual clergy,” said Marit Tingelstad, head of the Bishop’s Council in Hamar, in southeastern Norway. Others weren’t so sure, including Bishop Ole D. Hagesaeter of Bjørgvin.

“This is a sad day for the church,” Hagesaeter said. “It will be a splitting factor and lead to many feeling homeless in the church.”

The church’s 86-member synod voted 50-34 to lift the ban on partnered clergy. Two members abstained. The governing body overturned a 1997 resolution barring clergy from being in homosexual relationships.

Some experts believe that allowing the bishops to choose to implement the ban or not leaves the church open to legal challenges for uneven hiring practices.

Norwegian law grants most of the rights of marriage to same-sex partnerships, with the notable exceptions of church weddings and adoption.

Nicaragua decriminalizes sodomy

In a move that took international activists by surprise, the Nicaraguan government agreed to quietly legalize consensual sex between adults of the same gender by simply approving a new penal code that omits the current laws against sodomy. The new code is expected to take effect in March 2008, according to the Nicaraguan daily La Prensa.

José Pallais, chair of the Nicaraguan National Assembly’s Justice and Legal Affairs Committee, told La Prensa that the existing law punishes sodomy with up to five years in prison. The new code eliminates any criminalization.

“We are not creating a code of the Catholic church here,” Pallais told La Prensa. “We are creating a democratic code under modern principles and principles of legality.”

In September, Amnesty International singled out Nicaragua as a country whose sodomy laws were in violation of international human rights law. The organization staged protests at Nicaraguan embassies in Canada, Chile, Germany, Iceland, Mexico, Paraguay, Sweden and Taiwan, demanding the repeal of Nicaragua’s sodomy ban.

The outgoing penal code, adopted in 1992, states, “Anyone who induces, promotes, propagandizes or practices sexual intercourse between persons of the same sex commits the crime of sodomy and shall incur one to three years’ imprisonment,” according to Amnesty.

“It is fascist to want to condemn people because of their sexual inclinations,” Pallais said. He went on to explain that the new code brings Nicaragua in line with current legal thinking on the subject.

Once the new penal code takes effect, Belize and Guyana will be the only Latin American countries with anti-sodomy laws on the books.

Jerusalem’s only gay bar closes

After facing down sometimes-violent protests from Christians, Muslims and ultra-Orthodox Jews during recent Gay Pride events, Jerusalem’s beleaguered LGBT population has lost its only gay bar. Shushan, which served as a safe haven for a mixed crowd, including both Jews and Palestinians, for more than four years, closed in mid-November.

“Shushan was an isle in Jerusalem, an isle of tolerance and coexistence,” said the bar’s co-owner, Saar Nathaniel, according to London’s Times newspaper. “We were all like family. When they came out of Shushan, they would go back to their own ghetto. But in Shushan, we were all together.” Nathaniel is also a City Council member in Jerusalem.

In the end, it wasn’t politics that closed the bar, but simple finance. “With all due respect to ideology,” Nathaniel said, “I need to pay my rent.”

In spite of Jerusalem’s conservatism, Israel as a whole is progressive on LGBT rights, including recognition of same-sex marriages from other countries. Gays in Tel Aviv enjoy a dynamic social scene.

But, for now, LGBT residents of Jerusalem have lost a valuable focal point for their community.

“I’ve met at least three boyfriends there,” Gil Naveh, a 24-year-old drag performer, told the Times. “And each time was magical.”