LGBT, Cinta, dan Tuhan
Sunday, December 14, 2014

Apa yang ada di kepala orang-orang awam jika mendengar kata Lesbian, Gay, Biseksual, dan Transgender ? Di negara heteronormatif yang penduduknya masih banyak yang homophobic ini, LGBT kerap kali diidentikkan dengan seks, penyakit, pendosa, bahkan dilaknat Tuhan. Berbagai stigma tersebut muncul karena ketidaktahuan mereka.

Mereka tidak tahu bahwa seorang lesbian, gay, biseksual, dan transgender juga merupakan manusia yang bebas memilih keyakinannya.
Kita harus sadar bahwa keberagaman orientasi seksual dan identitas gender juga merupakan kehendak Tuhan. Apapun orientasi seksual mereka, baik homoseksual atau heteroseksual adalah apa yang Tuhan berikan pada mereka.

Begitu pula yang terjadi pada transgender dan interseks. Keberagaman itu adalah salah satu bentuk kebesaran Tuhan, Sang Maha Pecipta. Oleh karena itu, menghujat seseorang hanya karena orientasi seksual atau identitas gendernya sama saja dengan mengingkari ciptaan Tuhan.

Agama mana yang tidak mengajarkan cinta dan kasih sayang ? Tuhan menginginkan umatnya hidup dalam kedamaian. Bukan saling menyakiti karena perbedaan. Bukan pula untuk menindas mereka yang dianggap minoritas. Setiap agama memang memiliki kitab sebagai petunjuk untuk umatnya. Memang, kita tidak bisa mengubah isi kitab suci. Namun, kita dapat mengubah perspektif kita dalam menafsirkan setiap ayatnya.

Misalnya, hukum Islam tentang transgender. Kondisi transgender memang belum ada pada zaman Nabi karena belum adanya teknologi untuk itu. Saat ini, banyak yang mempertanyakan apakah transgender diperbolehkan atau tidak. Berbagai penafsiran ulama pun muncul. Pada dasarnya, sebelum menentukan boleh atau tidaknya kita harus melihat dahulu apakah hal tersebut akan membawa kebaikan bagi yang melakukannya.

Apakah setelah melakukan proses penyesuaian gender orang tersebut akan lebih sehat jiwa dan raganya ? Apakah gender dysphoria menjadi alasan orang tersebut untuk tidak beribadah ? Karena cara beribadah dalam Islam diatur berdasarkan gender. Kondisi ini membuktikan bahwa agama berkembang mengikuti perkembangan kajian keilmuan.

Begitu pula saat kita jatuh cinta. Kita tidak bisa memilih dengan siapa kita akan jatuh cinta. Apakah dengan laki-laki, perempuan, atau keduanya ? Beberapa agama memang tidak membenarkan manusia mengumbar hawa nafsu yang berujung seks bebas. Maka, sebagai manusia yang beriman pada Tuhan kita harus dapat memisahkan antara cinta dan hawa nafsu.

Karena jatuh cinta juga merupakan kehendak Tuhan yang tidak bisa kita cegah. Mengapa Tuhan mengutuk kaum Nabi Luth ? Karena mereka telah dibuat lupa diri oleh hawa nafsunya. Sayangnya, hal tersebut selalu diidentikkan dengan gay. Padahal, tidak semua gay berlaku seperti kaum Nabi Luth yang melakukan hubungan seks dengan liar ataupun pemaksaan.

Oleh karena itu, menjadi LGBT bukanlah alasan untuk jauh dari Tuhan. Yakinlah bahwa Tuhan memiliki rencana dalam menciptakan kita dalam kondisi yang “unik”. Karena tidak semua orang terlahir dan mampu bertahan hidup dalam kondisi tersebut.

Setiap nafas dan langkah kita setiap harinya merupakan kasih sayang-Nya pada kita. Karena Tuhan tidak akan memberikan cobaan melebihi batas kemampuan umatNya. Tuhan tidak pernah benar-benar meninggalkan kita sendirian. Selama kita selalu mendekatkan diri padanya. Begitu pula pada LGBT.

Walau kita telah mendapatkan penolakan dari manapun, kita tetap memiliki Tuhan sebagai tempat bersandar. Tuhan yang menciptakan kita dengan segala keunikan yang kita punyai.
http://www.brondongmanis.com/2014/12...dan-tuhan.html


AIDS Rate 50 Times Higher in Homosexual Men: Center for Disease Control
Wed Aug 26, 2009 - 12:15 pm EST
By Patrick B. Craine

ATLANTA, Georgia, August 24, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - An official with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced the CDC's estimate Monday that in the United States AIDS is fifty times more prevalent among men who have sex with men ('MSM') than the rest of the population. Dr. Amy Lansky revealed this statistic during a plenary session at the 2009 HIV Prevention Conference in Atlanta.

The CDC had already revealed last year that approximately 53% of the estimated 56,300 new HIV cases in 2006 were in homosexual men, with the African American population being particularly affected.

The new statistics, however, estimate the prevalence of HIV/AIDS relative to the homosexual population, which allows comparisons to other groups in the wider population. Because of the difficulty of determining the homosexual population, the CDC had to estimate. Based on a variety of national surveys, they based their statistics on the median estimate that homosexual men constitute 4 percent of the overall male population, reports RH Reality Check.

According to Dr. Lansky, then, based on the 4 percent figure, the CDC estimates that in 2007 there were 692.2 new HIV cases per 100,000 homosexual men - or fifty times more cases than the rest of the population.

While merely an approximation, the CDC's announcement confirms previous statistics and studies that indicate vastly disproportionate occurrence of sex-related diseases in homosexuals. According toa February 2007 study, for example, homosexual men with HIV are 90 times more likely to develop anal cancer than the rest of the population.

Earlier this year, as another example, the Centers for Disease Control released a statistical report indicating that homosexual men made up 65 percent of the reported primary and secondary syphilis cases in 2007. A report from the Public Health Agency of Canada in 2006 revealed that 51 percent of people infected with HIV in the country were homosexual men.

In fact, the statistics on HIV/AIDS led one group, the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center, to state in 2006 that HIV/AIDS is a "gay disease," in a billboard ad campaign geared to reducing rates of HIV infection.

While homosexualists have actively suppressed such statistics in the past and focused on portraying HIV/AIDS as a disease affecting the whole population in an equal fashion, the statistics' increasing undeniability has forced their hand. Rather than admit any inherent problem with homosexual practice itself, however, the apparent prevalence of disease among practicing homosexuals has led them to switch tactics and use these statistics to urge governments and other organizations to increase support to the homosexual communities.

Asking why it has taken so long for the CDC to make its estimate about the high prevalence of AIDS among homosexual men, homosexual activist Dr. Senterfitt chalked it up to 'homophobia'. "Seems clear to me," he says, "that this was at least an indirect effect of the pervasive homophobia still affecting much of government, public policy, media and societal norms in this country."

"We must fight for funding and adequate social investment to end HIV/AIDS wherever it continues to persist and thrive," he argues, "which is almost always where concentrated social injustice also thrives."

Pro-family advocates, on the other hand, maintain that the prevalence of sex-related diseases among homosexuals is clear evidence of the disorder of homosexual practice. For example, in a commentary for LifeSiteNews.com published last year, J. Matt Barber stated, "By recently admitting that 'HIV is a gay disease,' Matt Foreman, outgoing Executive Director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, acknowledged what the medical community has known for decades: the homosexual lifestyle is extremely high-risk and often leads to disease and even death."

See related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
"Gay" Sex Kills
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008.../08042101.html
Male Homosexual Sex Fuelling Spread of HIV in Asia, Warns World Health Organization
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009.../09021708.html
High Occurrence in Africa of HIV among Homosexual Men Study Finds
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009.../09072102.html
source: https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/ai...isease-control


HIV & the LGBT Community


source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), "HIV among Gay, Bisexual and Other Men Who Have Sex with Men (MSM)," (2010).


source{ idem

Overview
While HIV affects Americans from all walks of life, the epidemic continues to disproportionately impact gay and bisexual men [1], transgender women, youth ages 13-24 and communities of color, particularly in the southern United States. While tremendous medical advances have helped HIV-positive individuals live longer, healthier lives, there remains no cure and tens of thousands of new infections occur every year. Insufficient funding for HIV programs, as well as prevention methods that are not scientifically sound and persistent stigma and discrimination continue to make it difficult to fight the epidemic and provide the best possible care to those living with HIV.

HIV continues to disproportionately impact segments of the LGBT community
According to the CDC, there are over one million Americans currently living with HIV and approximately 50,000 new infections every year. Almost two-thirds of those new infections are among gay and bisexual men. Among groups identified at higher risk for infection, only among gay and bisexual men is the rate of new infections increasing – and the highest rate of new infections within that group is among black men ages 13-24. While data on the transgender community remains scarce, recent studies have shown extremely high rates among transgender women, who are nearly 34 times more likely to have HIV than other women.

Prevention, treatment and research programs are underfunded and often hampered by ideological restrictions
HIV Statistics


source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), "HIV among Gay, Bisexual and Other Men Who Have Sex with Men (MSM)," (2010).

Until recently, prevention efforts in the United States have not been focused on or funded in the communities hit hardest by the epidemic. While Congress has provided some increases in federal funding for prevention, treatment and research in recent years, decades of neglect and economic barriers mean that the needs still outstrip available resources. For example, many state AIDS Drug Assistance Programs (ADAPs), which help provide HIV medications to underinsured and uninsured individuals, have been forced to implement waiting lists and scale back the drugs that they provide. These federal programs are also hampered by policy decisions grounded in ideology rather than science – such as providing more than $1 billion for failed abstinence-only sex education, while barring any federal funds for scientifically-proven prevention through syringe exchange programs.


Discrimination puts LGBT people at risk for infection and burdens those living with HIV
HIV Statistics
In most states in our country (as well as at the federal level), there are little or no protections against discrimination in employment, housing, and other areas based on sexual orientation and gender identity. For minorities within the LGBT community, racial and other forms of bias compound an already challenging situation. The potential consequences – job loss, lack of access to healthcare, homelessness – can push individuals into risky behaviors that greatly increase their HIV risk and severely limit their ability to obtain adequate care once infected. Furthermore, despite societal progress in understanding HIV, people living with the virus still regularly encounter stigma, stereotyping and discrimination at work, at school, in healthcare settings, and elsewhere.

For example, more than thirty states have laws in place that have been used to prosecute people living with HIV. While originally intended to promote disclosure of one’s HIV status, these laws have failed to keep up with the medical science around HIV treatment and prevention. Many statutes include references to behaviors that cannot transmit the virus, such as spitting or biting. And even in states without HIV-specific statutes, people living with HIV can be prosecuted under general criminal laws. Ultimately, policies that “criminalize” HIV and people who have it run counter to public health, discourage HIV testing, and perpetuate stigma against people living with HIV.

What has the Obama administration done to address the epidemic within the LGBT community?

The White House released a first-ever National HIV/AIDS Strategy, explicitly including gay and bisexual men and transgender people in its plan to reduce infections, increase access to care, and reduce disparities. In 2013, the White House launched the HIV Continuum of Care Initiative, described as "the next step in the HIV/AIDS strategy."

The President signed the Affordable Care Act (ACA) into law. Among other things, the ACA eliminates pre-existing condition limitations that have prevented many HIV-positive individuals from accessing private insurance. It also expands Medicaid, which allows low-income individuals earlier access to treatment for HIV. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, 16 states have decided not to expand their Medicaid programs, creating significant barriers to affordable care for people living with HIV in these states.

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) rescinded regulations barring people with HIV from entering the U.S. for travel or immigration. As a result, the International AIDS Conference was held (in 2012) in the U.S. for the first time in over 20 years.

Foot note:
[1] For readability, the term “gay or bisexual men” is used to also include other men who have sex with men (MSM) who may not themselves identify as gay or bisexual.
source: http://www.hrc.org/resources/hrc-iss...lgbt-community


Aktivis Pro LGBT Tolak Normalkan Kaum LGBT
Jumat, 29 Januari 2016 09:27

AKTIVIS pro LGBT tidak menerima istilah dinormalkan kembali oleh lembaga konselor yang memberi konseling kepada kaum LGBT. Istilah “menormalkan” kembali pengidap LGBT dinilai menandakan seseorang belum paham LGBT.

“LGBT itu bukan penyakit, tapi orientasi. Bisa menyukai yang sejenis dan lawan jenis. Kita tidak bisa menghakimi seseorang atas nama cinta, perasaan sayang, dan orientasi seksualnya. Jangan dikatakan LGBT itu sebagai pelanggar susila, penyakit masyarakat, termasuk soal ideologi kenormalan,” kata Ririn Sefsani dari Komunitas Bumi Kecil usai jumpa pers di Kantor YLBHI Jakarta, Rabu (27/1).

Dikatakan Ririn, perspektif masyarakat tentang LGBT, gender, seks, dan orientasi seksual harus clear dulu. Lebih jauh, aktivis LGBT ini menolak perilaku LGBT sebagai perilaku yang berbenturan dengan nilai-nilai budaya.

“Mereka yang mengatasnamakan religi ini tidak sekuat melawan pelecehan terhadap anak, dan tidak sekuat melawan perusakan lingkungan, membiarkan sampah yang berserakan, kurang peduli dengan anak yang tinggal di kolong jembatan yang rentan terhadap kekerasan seksual.”

Ketika ditanya, apakah bicara HAM harus menyingkirkan agama terlebih dulu? “Oh tidak, agama justru memberi menjamin cinta kasih, itu hal yang mendasar. Yang pasti, agama tidak menyetujui LGBT. Prinsip kami adalah, selama kamu baik, tidak korup, menjaga lingkungan, respek terhadap orang, kecuali jika melakukan kekerasan,” paparnya.

“Menggunakan vagina atau penis, apakah itu hetero atau tidak, itu hak saya. Terpenting, selama saya memegang prinsip tidak melakukan kekerasan, atau pelcehan seksual,” tambahnya.

Sementara itu dikatakan aktivis Arus Pelangi, Yuli Rustinawati, mengakui, tidak semua pendapat perihal LGBT itu sama.

“Tidak ada masalah, banyak yang tidak sepakat. Tapi, jangan ketidaksepakatan itu menjadikan kebencian dan kekerasan, apalagi diskriminasi terhadap kaum LGBT,” katanya.

Tugas konselor, kata dia, bukan untuk meluruskan, juga bukan untuk mengembalikan seseorang untuk menjadi hetroseksual.

“Begitu juga, kalau kawan hetero dipaksa menjadi homo pun tidak bisa, atau sebaliknya,” terangnya.
source

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Kelompok ini terbukti secara ilmiah adalah sumber penuaran penyakit fisik yang mematikan dan belum ada obatnya yaitu HIV/AIDS. Serta tergolonga pula sebagai salah satu jenis penyakit jiwa. Lalu, kenapa harus dipelihara dan diakui hak-haknya? Think's!

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