Fun Fast Facts:
Updated: 8 Jul 2014 (Keeping HIV in check)
- Timor-Leste or East Timor is officially the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste.
- In 1999, following the United Nations-sponsored act of self-determination, Indonesia relinquished control of the territory, and East Timor became the first new sovereign state of the 21st century on May 20, 2002.
- Over one third of the population lives below the international poverty line on less than AUD$1.35 a day. About 50% of the population is illiterate.
- Since 1975, both male and female same-sex sexual activity has been legal.
- There is no legal protection based on sexual orientation or gender identity. There was a clause against discrimination based on sexual orientation included in the original draft of the Timorese Constitution but it was voted out by 52 out of 88 MPs before the constitution took effect in 2002.
Keeping HIV in check
Broadcast: 8 Jul 2014
LGBTIQ-friendly organisation: Fundasaun Timor Hari’i (FTH)
- Fundasaun Timor Hari’i (the ‘Build Timor Foundation’) is a local non-governmental organisation that works with communities at higher risk to help prevent the transmission of HIV in Timor-Leste.
- FTH also implemented life skills education for youth with support from UNICEF and is currently implementing a two-year HIV prevention program in five districts as the largest HIV sub-recipient of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GFATM) in Timor-Leste. This program works in collaboration with Timor-Leste’s Ministry of Health and other partners and uses a peer-led approach to facilitate long-term behavior change for MSM and SW.
W3JOY interviewed: Brigal Ferreira of Fundasaun Timor Hari’i (FTH)
“When a man be a gay, they are like multi-talented – they can cook, everything what a woman can do. They also make money for their family.”
“When a lesbian – we call here ‘tom boy’ – people in the community find it hard to receive lesbians than gay.”
“In Timor-Leste, for a lesbian they don’t know what they want to do. They cannot cook, they just know how to drive a big bike…they just want to be like a man.”
“In Timor-Leste, we are still in the low number of HIV – under 500 cases of HIV. We are working hard at keeping the new infections low.”