Michael L. Tan

Speaker

Medical anthropologist, Dr Tan has worked with LGBT groups since 1991, mainly around HIV prevention, as well as in the area of LGBT rights. He was appointed to the first Philippine National AIDS Council in 1995, which played a key role in passing the Philippine AIDS Prevention and Control Act of 1998, with strong provisions against discrimination and mandatory testing. Dr Tan has been able to combine NGO advocacy work with the academia. He is currently dean of the College of Social Sciences and Philosophy at UP Diliman, where he is also Professor of Anthropology. He has written numerous articles - academic as well as in the popular press - on HIV/AIDS, and a book 'HIV and the Filipino' published by Anvil Press in 1998. He is currently part of the board of advisers of a project, 'Being LGBT in Asia', sponsored by UNDP and USAID, which has the goal of promoting more LGBT advocacy activities in Southeast and South Asia.