Top Medical Professor Brendan Bain Fired for Testifying That
Men Sleeping With Men Is a Danger to Public Health; Protest Erupts
By Leonardo Blair , CP Reporter
May 21, 2014
Professor Brendan Bain, one of the Caribbean's pioneers in
clinical infectious disease practice and a leading medical authority on the HIV
epidemic in the region, was fired by the University of the West Indies this
week for testifying that men sleeping with men is a danger to individual and
public health.
Bain who served as director of the Regional Coordinating
Unit of the Caribbean HIV/AIDS Regional Training (CHART) Network gave his
testimony on behalf of a group of churches that lobbied to retain Belize's
sodomy law in 2012.
CHART works to "continually strengthen the capacity of
national healthcare personnel and systems to provide access to quality HIV
& AIDS prevention, care, treatment, and support services for all Caribbean
people."
Professor Bain, who reportedly opened Jamaica's first
medical clinic dedicated to the care and treatment of persons living with
HIV/AIDS, is a practicing Christian who serves as an elder at the Mona Heights
Chapel in Kingston, Jamaica.
"The issue in question arose about two years ago in a
high-profile case in Belize in which Caleb Orozco, a gay man in Belize,
challenged the constitutionality of an 1861 law that criminalizes men having
sex with men (MSM). Professor Brendan Bain provided a Statement on behalf of a
group of churches seeking to retain the 1861 Law," explained the
University of the West Indies in a statement on Bain's dismissal Tuesday.
"Many authorities familiar with the Brief presented
believe that Professor Bain's testimony supported arguments for retention of
the law, thereby contributing to the continued criminalization and
stigmatization of MSM. This opinion is shared by the lesbian, gay and other
groups who are served by CHART," it continued.
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In his testimony, a copy of which is provided at the end of
this report, Bain, based on his decades of research and experience in the
field, presented high risk factors associated with men sleeping with other men
and argued that as a public health practitioner, behavior which poses serious
costs and risks to public health should not be encouraged.
"This report shows that the relative risk of
contracting HIV is significantly higher among men who have sex with other men
(MSM) in Belize than in the general population. This is also true in several
other countries for which data are available, including countries that have
repealed the law that criminalizes anal sex and countries where the law still
applies," Bain noted in the summary of his testimony.
"This report also shows clearly that HIV should not be
the only consideration in relation to the matter at hand. Available data from
several parts of the world indicate that the relative risk of acquiring and
spreading other sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and cancers is
unacceptably high among MSM when compared to other men and women," he
added.
The university argued, however, that criminalizing men
having sex with men is not a position supported by most HIV and public health
experts.
"The majority of HIV and public health experts believe
that criminalizing men having sex with men and discriminating against them
violates their human rights, puts them at even higher risk, reduces their
access to services, forces the HIV epidemic underground thereby increasing the
HIV risk," noted the university.
"These are the positions advocated by the UN, UNAIDS,
WHO, PAHO, the international human rights communities and PANCAP (The Pan
Caribbean Partnership against AIDS) which is the organization leading the
regional response to the HIV epidemic," it added.
The university further explained that the community served
by CHART had lost confidence in Professor Bain due to his controversial
testimony and that was the reason he was fired.
On The Ground News Reports noted Wednesday, however, that
members of the University of the West Indies community launched a protest
calling Bain's dismissal "unjust."
"Several lecturers, medical doctors and students are
now gathered outside the Vice Chancellor's office at the institution, with many
of them stating that they are protesting Professor Bain's 'unjust dismissal,'
and claim that he had a 'right to share medical information to a Court without
threat of persecution and that all people have a right to receive such
information from medical experts,'" said the report.
The Christian Post reached out to Bain for comment on
Wednesday but he was unavailable. His church confirmed his elder status but
declined to comment on his firing.