Wow, there was me, a 41-year-old on 14 Sept, being told I was HIV positive, then on 17 Sept being told I should start treatment. I started treatment on 5 October. I am sure plenty out there know what I went through; tears, panic, etc. For me it was the quickness of having to start the treatment that was the biggest shock. However, after reading about Dawn, Raoul and Sara... What an inspiration that these young people have such a fantastic outlook on life. Thanks to all of them for sharing their stories - it certainly has me looking at my status in a totally different way, I don’t feel half as nervous as I did. What all of them have gone through is incredible.
Graeme, London
I write in response to Pamela Mushore’s letter (PN 105). You do not have to say your opinion about gay people; it is very clear, and should be kept to yourself, for it is attitudes like yours that set fellow man against fellow man.
Is the Lord God you keep referring to the same Lord who has allowed millions of people to die of Aids, regardless of their age, sexuality or ethnic origin?
True Christianity starts with learning to live with your fellow man, not throwing stones at him or casting aspersions.
You may be able to quote the Bible and pray in church, but to me you show no Christianity. Take your head out of the clouds and take a good look at the type of world you are helping to create. May others take pity on you and not judge you as you have seen fit to judge others.
Jon Deakin, Wakefield.
In the issue where the UKC slaps itself on the back for bringing the HIV community together at its Leicester conference, it is ironic that it also chooses to publish a letter as divisive as Pamela Mushore’s, a “Christian” who cherry-picks her ideology to suit her bigotry.
PN may have homophobic readers, but that does not mean it needs to give space to their vile views. If PN chooses to give a platform to people who believe that non-celibate gay men, sex outside marriage, or even condom use, are “sinful”, it will soon find itself with far fewer readers. The only way to start to win back the trust of your gay readership is to promise not to give space to such bile again and publish an unreserved apology.
As a long-time reader of PN and as someone who has appeared on the masthead of several editions, I’m not sure I will bother picking it up again.
Tony Bird, London
The letter that twisted biblical reference to support a view that ‘having sex with the same sex is wrong’ (PN105) has, not surprisingly, outraged a number of people.
HIV does not discriminate. Sadly, people do. All of us are aware of prejudice or stigma. But not all bother to ask: ‘if stigma aimed at me is wrong, what right do I have to aim it at other people’? Two basic prejudices are at work within the UK’s HIV population, homophobia and xenophobia. They stand to drive a wedge through the heart of our diverse
positive nation. We all have the right to be accepted for who we are but we also have a responsibility to respect each other. Mutual respect will result in a stronger community. Bigotry harms us all, and in a time of dwindling resources we cannot afford to indulge in antagonism against each other.
We must recognise differences, but it is wrong to ignore the common ground on which we who are living with HIV/Aids all stand. There can be no more powerful and effective combination in the ongoing struggle against HIV than the combination of gay man, African woman and African man.
Paul Clift, Patients’ Representative HIV/AIDS Lawson Unit/EJC, Brighton
When Pamela Mushore brandishes her ‘one size fits all’ faith for all people she treads
on dangerous ground. She uses the word ‘judge’, as if that were the most
fundamental aspect by which the mystery of God might be known. The God who
liberates rather than punishes is a God of love, not of fear.
She appears to read the Bible as if it were a book of rules to cover every occasion. Yet the Bible is the collected stories and reflections of peoples moving out of oppression and slavery into ‘the freedom of the children of God.’ It reflects the common human struggle to become more fully human, rejoicing in all that we are, including our sexualities.
Out of the love, caring, respect and solidarity so evident in the gay community’s first responses to HIV (and not just to gay men), is it not possible God might be showing a
heterosexually dominant world new patterns of human loving? Catholics for AIDS Prevention & Support would strongly reject the false but no doubt sincere sentiments which Pamela seeks to
dress up as biblical doctrine.
Martin Pendergast, Executive secretary - Catholics for Aids prevention and support
Of course we must apologise to people if we upset them, but I support publication of Pamela Mushore’s letter all the same. PN is a place for positive people to speak out - even when we do not agree with them. Numerous articles and letters in PN have caused upset over the years and I believe this to be healthy. A contribution on Positive Voices sums up my feelings well: “This letter actually removes us from that safe cocoon we are living in, that says gay and HIV is cool and acceptable, when in the harsh reality of living with the virus, I so know it’s not”.
I know it’s hard to face bigots. As a gay man I have had to face them for most of my life. But it’s even harder to face bigoted gay men and have yourself compared to Jeffrey Dahmer by the gay press because I believe I don’t have to tell everyone I meet I’m HIV positive.
I wish things had changed more for us over the years, but in truth they haven’t. Friends and loved ones are still dying and people with HIV are still living in fear and poverty. The list of what we still have to win is endless. Now we are engaging with of the biggest of them all; prejudice based on something written 2000 years ago. Pamela: I’m happy you read PN and regard it as a true sign of just how diverse the readership is. And hope when you pray you remember all the little children all over the world whose parents never met a gay man and who are now either dying or have been orphaned by this disease. Now let’s engage with faith-based groups and those for African gay men. Let’s work this through and let’s get to it.
John Campbell, UKC Founding Patron
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