Evaluating translation of HIV-related legal protections into practice: a qualitative assessment among HIV-positive gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men in Manila, Philippines

ABSTRACT

Legal protections for people living with HIV (PLHIV) are important for protecting human rights, yet little research has examined how laws translate into awareness and understanding for key populations. The Philippines has recently revised their legal protections for PLHIV in response to its growing HIV epidemic, where HIV-positive gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men bear the majority of cases. We present findings from interviews with 21 HIV-positive gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men in Manila, Philippines regarding awareness, understanding, and needs regarding HIV-specific legal protections at the time just before new revisions to the omnibus HIV law were passed. Overall, there was no standardized way participants became aware of legal protections; few became aware through healthcare providers, while most learned through online resources, social media, and advocacy organizations. However, even after learning about HIV-specific legal protections, many found the law too complex to understand or did not understand how to use such protections. This led participants to preemptively take action to avoid HIV-related discrimination, even if they were protected by law. Participants demonstrated a strong desire for interventions and policies to improve legal awareness and understanding for PLHIV, government officials, and private businesses. This research demonstrates the value of increasing awareness and understanding in policy-specific interventions designed to improve quality of life for PLHIV. Interventions centered around legal protections are currently underdeveloped, providing a strong opportunity to integrate such interventions in existing practice or as stand-alone tools to decrease perceived stigmatization.

KEYWORDS:

• HIV/AIDS
• law
• rights

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank all the participants who supported this research as well as the community-based organizations that helped facilitate the planning, organization, and conducting of this study; this research is not possible without them. We thank Valerie Santos for her assistance. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of any study sponsors.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed here.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the NIH-Fogarty International Center [D43TW010565]; Providence/Boston Center for AIDS Research [P30AI042853]; the Brown University Minority Health and Health Disparities International Research Training Program [5T37MD008655].