Gay Men Fighting Aids - GMFA - is 10. Matthew Hodson celebrates the "in yer face" energy of its volunteers

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Gay Men Fighting Aids was born in March 1992. It came out of the anger of a group of

gay men who were fed up with their needs being ignored while friends and lovers were dying around them.
HIV had already been in the news for almost 10 years; the UK government's programme to increase HIV and Aids awareness had been full steam ahead since

1987. Every household in the country had received a copy of the iceberg leaflet. - Princess Diana and Princess Margaret had lent their support to the cause. All right thinking liberals wore a red ribbon to mark World Aids Day.
And yet there were very few resources put into work that specifically targeted gay men. Of the £9.3 million that the Health Education Authority spent on HIV and Aids health promotion campaigns in 1991-2, only £1.7 million was aimed at gay men - despite the fact that around 80 per cent of infections in this country - then and now - were among gay men.