Backgrounder: The HIV Legal Network and the Caribbean

As a region, the Caribbean has the second-highest HIV prevalence rate in the world, after sub-Saharan Africa. UNAIDS and regional and national agencies have long identified homophobia as a factor contributing to this startling statistic. The legal and social environment varies significantly across the region, as does community organizing to defend and advance the human rights of LGBTQ+ people. But in many countries, and particularly the Commonwealth Caribbean, the criminalization of consensual same-sex relationships and gender non-conforming people — fueled by stigma and discrimination, which is often intensified by fundamentalist religious leaders and groups — has had a damaging effect on health and human rights.

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