The New Zealand AIDS Foundation will be required to continue to primarily focus its efforts and resources on men who have sex with men under conditions included in the draft of a new Deed of Trust which received provisional backing from members this afternoon. Men who have sex with men remain the New Zealand group which is by far the most at risk of being affected by HIV and AIDS, accounting for around 80% of NZ-contracted infections in recent years. The Trust Board of the Foundation, assisted by a co-opted group of long-standing members, has spent eighteen months reviewing and revising every element of of the densely worded and at times legalistic twenty one page Trust deed which had been found contain clauses at variance with the Foundation's Constitution. The original wording of the Deed of Trust, which states the Foundation's legal purpose and operating parameters, was prepared in 1985, at a time when HIV was a new and little-understoon phenomenon. "We have now received a clear indication from our members that they would like to see us to primarily focus on men who have sex with men," says Board chair Hoani Jeremy Lambert. That focus should not detract the Foundation from providing services to other at risk groups, says Lambert. Before this afternoon's nearly unanimous vote to pass the newly-worded deed to the November 24 AGM a number of issues were raised by members, such as including a trigger clause that would require the Board to formally seek membership approval to switch focus should future infection patterns mean that the main group infected with HIV in NZ cease to be men who have sex with men. A change of wording to preclude claims by anti-gay groups that the Foundation encompasses paedophilia within its acceptance of 'sexual diversity' was also agreed to by the Board. The Board undertook to incorporate those and other technical suggestions before the AGM vote, but was less clear about striking off a reference to provision of 'religious' support, suggested on the basis that this could leave the Foundation vulnerable to the influences of anti-gay religious movements such as Destiny Church. Replacing the concept of 'religious' with 'spiritual' was voiced as a possible alteration. Ref: GayNZ.com (j)
Credit: GayNZ.com News Staff
First published: Saturday, 1st September 2007 - 9:52pm