VIENNA, AUSTRIA: From pre-conference events to the massive human rights march through downtown Vienna, world leaders, public health experts and HIV activists honed in with laser-like precision on a common message at The 18th International AIDS Conference in Vienna : The ongoing persecution and criminalization of gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men—“MSM”, in public health shorthand—are undermining efforts to control the global HIV/AIDS pandemic.

Chief among the obstacles: More than 80 nations have laws that still criminalize same sex behavior. In some of these countries, conviction can even result in the death penalty, reports UNAIDS.

Further exacerbating the problem, according to a report by Planned Parenthood, "58 countries have laws that criminalize HIV or use existing laws to prosecute people for transmitting the virus. Another 33 countries are considering similar legislation.’

The trend is “even more pronounced” across Africa and the Diaspora, said Joel Gustave Nana, executive director of the Johannesburg, South Africa -based African Men for Sexual Health and Rights (ASMSHer). The West African laws vary in extremity—just “exposing a person to HIV, regardless of if the virus is transmitted, is a crime in Benin, and Tanzanian law carries a possible sentence of life in prison for intentional transmission,” reports Medical News Today. While the overall life for Black MSM may be better for in North America, there are drawbacks. The United States and Canada lead the world when it comes to prosecuting people who infect or expose others to HIV, a surprising new study reveals. Black men have been disproportionately targeted with these prosecutions. A Black, gay, HIV positive Michigan man was recently as charged as a bioterrorist for allegedly biting a neighbor's lip during a scuffle, Black AIDS Weekly reported in June.

“The prosecutions are arbitrary,” said Nana, in an interview after a press conference organized by The Global Forum on MSM & HIV. On Sunday, the day before the conference officially opened, the Global Forum held a 24-hour event to address the soaring global rates of MSM seroconversions.

“The stigma, discriminatory laws and criminalization of HIV transmission encourage the spread of this disease,” adds Nana. “Why should someone seek testing or medical advice come forward if you could be arrested? There is no incentive.”

The fear of “coming out”, pop culture which celebrates homophobia and churches and churchgoers that demonize gay Black men compound the problem for black MSM in America, the Caribbean and Africa.

“This is the context in which you have a runaway, dangerous HIV epidemic in Jamaica,” adds Robert Dr. Robert Carr, the co-chair of ICASO, the International Council of AIDS Service Organizations (ICASO). “There is a clear link between religious condemnation, criminalization, stigma and HIV infections. We see this all the time in the Caribbean.”