MSM Hanoi

A while ago i found a document called "MSM in Hanoi" and forgot about it but finally i read it (the doc can be found at unaids or some refs): it has not many useful or interesting information but some confirmations.

Men holding hands at a prevention meeting*

For the common people there is no gay people in Vietnam (or just the north? ^_^ ) or at least people never talk or think about that. The first point we see/feel is that there is no harassment on the plu community.

For example, whenever i go out with my bf we try to avoid places where he may meet friends but as long as we keep quiet no one would ever think of us as a couple. An even better example is a vietnamese girl friend of mine: she saw me many times with my bf and many times we left the party together and she still thinks we are both singles. In addition, she's been studying abroad for sometimes and probably know about plu.

The big disadvantage is about STD, particularly AIDS. It may be unknown but AIDS is spreading quite fast in Vietnam, at least in the north, and i'm sure of it as a friend was working on the subject last year. Thus AIDS prevention is developing, finally!, but only towards female sex workers... not for MSM or young people "being young“ or people having affairs etc.

As i usually say, Vietnam is moving very fast and i guess that this is very likely to evolve in less than 10 years, would it be early enough? No idea... It's so complicated to get any opinion about heomosexuality from my vietnamese friends or common people...

*: i stole (sorry 'bout that) the photo from a photographer blog. In contrary to what i say he took part in a project about MSM and aids prevention, his post about it is very very interesting and has some strong photos.