POLITICAL SCIENTIST PETER WICKHAM has suggested that Barbados’ “sexual immaturity” when it comes to same-sex relations is hindering the country’s progress in its HIV/AIDS fight.
And he has again taken a turn in the state for its “attitude towards same-sex relations which continues to be based on Victorian laws and understandings of how humans ought to behave”.
In explaining the need for Barbados to achieve a higher level of sexual maturity, Wickham, an advocate for the reform of laws that discriminate against homosexuals, told those gathered at the Barbados Family Planning Association’s (BFPA) annual general meeting over the weekend that “it could easily be argued that the [HIV/AIDS] pandemic is at the stage that it is now, largely because we have been sexually immature for such a long time”.
To support his case, he pointed to statistics on HIV/AIDS prevalence among the 15-49 age group in Uganda on the higher end with a 6.5 per cent rate, Barbados 1.4 per cent and, at the lower end, countries like the United States and Britain, where rates are 0.6 per cent and 0.2 per cent, respectively.
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