LBGTQ Rights

EDITORIAL
By Timothy Fallon

In the United States, certain rights are "unalienable," or mandatory for all citizens. These rights, as listed in our Constitution, include: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. In addition to these basic ideas, an American citizen should have the right to their own sexual orientation. LBGTQ is the acronym used for the community of lesbian, bisexual, gay, transsexual, and queer individuals within society. This is a community of people who throughout history have been ostracized, discriminated against, and attacked both verbally and physically. Legislation has been passed on multiple occasions that has attempted to stifle the rights of the community. But it is a resilient people, and they have fought back time and time again against prejudices to become an entity that defines strength and inclusiveness. To offer an abbreviated timeline of rights and stigmas associated with the acronym:

HIV: SORRY, IT'S NOT A MYTH

EDITORIAL
By Constant-Serge BOUNDA, UNFPA Madagascar Representative

 As we read it UNAIDS website: "Ending the AIDS epidemic is more than a historic duty for the 39 million people who have died from the disease."

Although Madagascar has one of the lowest HIV prevalence rates in Africa, HIV does exist in Madagascar. Nearly 39,000 people are currently living with this virus, 1,900 of whom are children under 14 years old and 37,000 are young people and adults over 15 years old. Although we do not hear much about it, there is an urgent need to stop the progression of the new HIV infection in Madagascar since the country’s new HIV infection has increased by 154% from 2007 to 2017, the highest in East and Southern Africa region.