Events tagged with "HIV"
ABplus
ABplus was founded in 1996 by a group of HIV positive gay men. The organisation rose from the ashes of Body Positive which had folded the previous year. The group aims to be a peer support network for anyone living with or affected by HIV/AIDS....
AIDSline West Midlands
The Gay Community was initially the hardest hit by HIV/AIDS and with statutory bodies finding it difficult to engage and cope with the scale of the epidemic it fell to gay men to organise themselves to combat the virus, to educate each other and to s...
AZT
In 1989 trials were concluded of the drug AZT (Azidothymidine) which was shown to slow progression to AIDS in HIV positive individuals. This was not a cure and came at a heavy price with often debilitating side effects, although it did prolong l...
Combination Therapy
Since 1996, HAART (Highly Active Anti-Retroviral Therapy), colloquially known as Combination Therapy, has been commonly available in the UK. It is simply a combination of various individual HIV drugs, providing effective treatment against the virus i...
Gay Mens Health Group
Gay Men's Health Group was a voluntary action group formed by members of the gay community and spearheaded the early fight and education against HIV/AIDS and other health related matters.One of their most popular events was the Super Pricks, a play o...
HIV AIDS
HIV (initially called HTLV III) is a virus, which is most commonly passed on through sexual intercourse. The virus attacks the white blood cells in the body, eventually compromising the host's immune system so badly that they become susceptible to op...
HIV Stigma & Prejudice
Prejudice and stigma towards HIV/AIDS and people infected with HIV has been commonplace since the epidemic hit in the 80s, both from within and outside the gay community....
HIV the early years
In the early years of the HIV epidemic the medical establishment could provide no solution to the crisis; infection with HIV often led to AIDS which meant a slow and painful death. This period is now commonly referred to as the AIDS crisis and gay co...
John Curry
John Curry was born on 9 September 1949 in Birmingham, England. He was educated at Solihull School, an Independent School in the West Midlands. As a child, Curry wanted to become a dancer, but his father disapproved of dance as an activity for boys, ...
Lesbian Rights
During the emergence of both feminist politics and gay politics in the late sixties and seventies, many lesbians chose to fight for their rights within the context of the Women's Liberation Movement , rather than gay liberation, believing that they h...
Living with HIV
Since Combination Therapy became widely available in 1996 the death rates amongst people infected with HIV have dramatically declined, with the prognosis for newly diagnosed patients extremely good (if detected early). AIDS diagnoses are extremely ra...
Viagra
Extracted from Wikipedia...Sildenafil citrate, sold under the names Viagra, Revatio and under various other names, is a drug used to treat male erectile dysfunction (impotence) and pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), developed by the pharmaceutica...
World AIDS Day
The first global World AIDS Day was December 1st 1988. It started as a day to share messages of hope, compassion and understanding about AIDS to the world. It came about through The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV and AIDS, or UNAIDS.In Birming...
Memories tagged with "HIV"
Abplus how it began
ABplus began life out of the ashes of Body Positive, founded by Tom and Ray, the former chairman of Body Positive. It originally met in peoples houses and then in 1996 they got rooms in the Gazette Buildings, Corporation Street. Abplus was formed to ...
AIDS politicised the gay community
“The real politicisation of the gay community started with HIV/AIDS. Until becoming involved with AIDSline West Midlands, Trevor didn’t think that he knew anyone with AIDS. He says, “I got involved through compassion and anger and because it was a po...
AIDS provoked a backlash
Garry made reference to friends and acquaintances who have died and talks about the impact of AIDS and HIV on the community in terms of the backlash the virus provoked - with gay people being seen as "diseased" and "condemned by God". "There was me j...
Clause 28 caused so much anger
“I got involved in campaigns, firstly against Clause 28 back in 1988. It was one of the best things that happened to the gay community. The Clause caused such anger amongst non politicised lesbians and gay men at the end of the fear and homophobia th...
Dog Sh*t on the lawn
In February 1987 “We held a protest march in Wombourne which staggered the local community; attended by 300 people. The Police filmed the whole event, everyone was photographed, definitely overkill! In the end all the charges were dropped, the ...
Drugs on the scene
"I don't do the drug side of it, although I know they have been around a long time and play a big part on the (commercial) gay scene. A lot of this was around dancing and partying but I know now there is GHB and Ketamine, which are sex drugs. To me t...
Helping to organise the first Pride 1996
Trevor joined the Birmingham Pride committee (The Triangle Committee) in November 1996, which was set up to organise the first Pride in May 1997. Trevor was the Secretary; there were about ten people involved on the executive committee and they broug...
HIV awareness training
Trevor then got a job as a trainer with Sandwell Social Services as HIV training officer. His job was to provide awareness training for staff from Directors to home care staff. One course he delivered so convinced them that other issues which needed ...
Impact of HIV / AIDS on lesbians
“In terms of the analysis of gay men as the ultimate power, men not needing women, the HIV / AIDS crisis completely exposed the fact that gay men were not in a powerful position at all. The thing that always struck me was that if HIV had been transmi...
Lost friends
Malcolm talks about the devastating affect HIV/AIDS had on the gay community and him personally. He is HIV positive himself and he lost his partner, whom he had been with for 25 years.“My partner died a year before the anti-retrovirals became availab...
Misleading AIDS leaflets
The following article from 'In The Pink', April 1989 highlights the anti-gay prejudice and misinformation around HIV/AIDS in the late 1980s, even from statutory bodies such as Birmingham City Council.WARNING : These leaflets may damage your healthTwo...
New HIV unit at East Birmingham
This article from the AIDS lifeline newsletter, November 1992, reports on the opening of the new HIV unit at the then East Birmingham Hospital, now Heartlands.East Birmingham Hospital's new unit at the Department of Infection and Tropical Medicine wa...
Slap FM article
The following article discussing Slap FM appeared in Midland's Zone magazine in April 1998How much money do you think you'd need to carry out scene-based AIDS prevention work in Birmingham? Okay, now halve it. quarter it and then divide it by seven. ...
Slap Police
Hilli was part of the charity Slap FM which was scene-led HIV/AIDS prevention. “We dressed as policemen and went on the scene, we were the ‘Slap Police’. We had a pink riding crop with a slap hand on the end and arrested people, booked them and asked...
Stigma in the health service
(Talking about his own and his partner’s treatment for HIV): “He had a very difficult time, it was at a time when there was very distinct hysteria about medical staff with HIV. I think he delayed diagnosing because of that, although I don’t think it ...