HIV stigma and the city

Remember the saying, people in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones? Well, what if we were people in stone houses throwing glasses? Bit of a mess isn’t it? Having said that, at least the house isn’t damaged.

What am I on about? Well, as a community in one of the largest gay scenes in Europe, we do have a tendency to damage ourseleves from within, or at least make a mess of things for other people.

Seeing as though we are in a western city, with a vibrant and lively scene, it stands to reason that there are a large number of men who are living with HIV. Yet, people don’t consider this. They still see HIV as something that isn’t talked about – mainly because they see it as somewhere else’s issue. London maybe. Not here, not in the North West.

Sorry to burst your bubble, but in Manchester, one in ten of us (at least) is living with the condition, and 3 in ten of us don’t even know it. Why is that? Well, probably because of the horrendous stigma that still surrounds HIV. What’s the reason? Fear? Judgement? Probably a bit of both. If there’s one thing that the gays are good at it is judgement, whether it be hair, looks, age or even who you are backing on the X Factor (John and Edward…?!). So what can we do about it? Surely we have enough problems as a community without self harming from within.

HIV stigma exists for many reasons, but perhaps the most obvious is that people are able to judge someone else’s behaviour. “Oh, they must have caught it because they sleep around” or “They must have behaved in a way that caused them to catch it”.

Way back in the day, it seems that the only ‘victims’ of HIV were those that caught it through blood transfusions. It wasn’t their fault. Is it someone’s fault if they catch a verucca because they go swimming? Or someone’s fault if they catch measels because they go to school? Of course not, so why attach blame to another virus?

Some people are living with HIV… get over it.

Peter Boyle

The Lesbian & Gay Foundation run a 20 minute HIV testing clinic every Thursday from Princess House in Manchester City Centre. Click here for more information >>>

Read and download the World AIDS Day issue of outnorthwest by clicking here.