hiv/aids, lesbians and bisexual women: a reality

February 2005: For Thando Phiri (21) the future looks bright and she has nothing to fear, since she has been faithful to her lesbian lover. The two have a happy and healthy relationship and have been together for the past 4 years.

To them the issue of HIV/AIDS is something they just can't give much attention, they consider themselves to be amongst the affected lot as it had never dawned upon them that they too can still contract the virus.

"For the past 4 years that we have been together we have never used any form of protection, mainly because we do not think it is possible for us to get infected.

"I love my partner and we are a mutually faithful couple so really the issue of protection has never been a burning one in our relationship," boasts the young couple.

These two are a microcosm of many lesbian couples in South Africa and Africa as a whole, who have professed ignorance on the issue of HIV/AIDS virus and how it
can be passed from one woman to another.

What really is the problem that has led many lesbian and bisexual women to subscribe to the myth that it is not possible for them to get infected by the deadly virus?

This has mainly been attributed to having a belief that lesbian sex is the safest sex one can engage in. This is so because not much has been done to educate lesbians on the virus. Many a times when the virus is mentioned, heterosexual and gay people have been attacked left, right and centre for failing to play it safe thus worsening the situation as the virus has ravaged many people and homes.

It is because of such practises that tend to forget about lesbians that they too have chosen to bask in the myth that they are very safe when it comes to contracting the virus.

Like in typical African cultures where our parents would rather see their child in a casket than with a packet of condoms in the pockets, this issue has never been talked about and no solutions were being given to lesbians of late on how they should play it
safe thus the increase in the number of infections amongst lesbian and bisexual women.

Echoing the same sentiments, but still believing that its never too late to change as lesbians can make a change too, was Nonhlanhla Mhkize, Director of Durban
Lesbian and Gay centre who said they are now holding awareness, as well as safer sex workshops, for lesbians and bisexual women.

"This move is meant to raise an awareness for our women to know that its high time they use protection and practise safe sex if it means they cannot abstain.

"At these workshops we try as much as possible to bring it to their attention that HIV/AIDS is real and it's everyone's responsibility to avoid any more casualties."

She added that at the safer sex workshops the use of dental dams, latex gloves, polythene plastic is encouraged at all costs "Although we at times do not have the dental dams we urge women to use polythene plastic which is cheap and readily available in shops.

"At the moment we are having problems with the gloves as most clinics and doctors are now using a new type of glove which is meant to prevent transmission of the
virus from patients.

"These gloves are very long and hard to the extent that women cannot use them like the ones we used to have and have since been phased out, so this is a problem at the moment."

Nonhlala added that plans to lobby with the government on making such things as latex gloves and dental dams available for women were still on the cards.

"We believe that lesbian and bisexual women too should be given the freedom to chose the type of protection they want, we are planning on lobbying with the
relevant authorities to consider lesbians and bisexual-women too."

She also said that what was encouraging was the fact that many women were attending the workshops, an indication that they were becoming concerned and they always got the message loud and clear.

"We have some HIV positive lesbian couples that also assist in these workshops they are living examples that it is possible for women having sex with women to get the disease as well as STI's.

Research has shown that the virus is spread from one woman to another through the exchange of sex toys, inserting fingers into private parts when one has sores or cuts thus contact with blood places one at great risk, oral sex as well as contact with menstrual blood which is likely to have the virus is also very risky.

Sharing injections and razor blades in a bonding exercise endangers the life of lesbians if the partner is infected with the virus.

However all the above mentioned is possible only if at one point in time a lesbian once had sex with a man or is involved with another woman who often engages into
sex or shares sex toys with infected men without using protection exposes a lesbian couple to the virus.

It has been reported that since mid the 1980's women have been transmitting the HIV virus to each other and the number is increasing by day. The Human Immuno Virus(HIV) is transmitted when blood, vaginal fluids, breast milk or semen from an HIV infected person enters your bloodstream.

As the disease spreads by day and many people get infected, it remains to be seen whether the safe sex messages and the importance of being in a mutually faithful union between two people coupled with the gospel of abstinence being the buzz word of today, it remains to be seen whether lesbian couples will make a change too, to make this world a better place.