The pity of the Bain affair

We are saddened that it had to reach to this: a public brawl and equally public sacking by the University of the West Indies of Professor Brendan Bain as director of the Caribbean HIV/AIDS Regional Training Network (CHART), for no one can question Professor Bain's pioneering role and immense contribution to the support and treatment of people with HIV/AIDS across the Caribbean.

But the university had little room within which to manoeuvre. Professor Bain clearly lost the confidence of a large constituency with which he had to work and whose support is critical to the success of CHART. Thirty-five HIV/AIDS regional support and human-rights groups were adamant he had to go. Their position was likely to influence the posture of funding agencies.

In the circumstances, it is difficult to see how he could continue in the job.

But none of the protagonists in this matter can claim glory. First, given the broad constituency which he served, Professor Bain should have anticipated the backlash to his decision to provide an expert opinion in favour of the side opposing a gay man's constitutional challenge of Belize's buggery law. Moreover, while his paper was respectful and, on the face of it, fact-based, he strayed into the moral sphere and, in that regard, embraced an advocacy that some would find antithetical to CHART's implied mandate and the broadness of its constituency.

At the same time, neither Professor Bain nor the organisation he led was, by charter, required to support a gay-rights agenda or, specifically, advocate for the removal of buggery laws. Further, given Professor Bain's track record in working on HIV/AIDS, many will find the exceedingly muscular posture of his opponents disconcerting. It could even cause a stiffening of the backs of people who, though not supporters, were not hard opponents of the hoped-for reforms.

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