STIGMA what stigma?

The theme for this year’s World Aids Day is ‘Stigma and Discrimination’. There is little mention of gay men; do gay men with HIV still face the stigma they used to and is the issue still relevant?
Ten or fifteen years ago gay men with HIV faced a completely different situation. There were no effective medications and to be diagnosed as HIV positive was a death sentence. Every gay man who was around in those days will remember friends getting very ill and dying.
The Thatcher government, and its homophobic allies in the press, pointed the finger of blame at gay men. Scary ads were run on TV with tombstone images suggesting that if we didn’t change our behaviour we’d all be

doomed. Well-known people with Aids, such as Kenny Everett and Freddie Mercury, were mercilessly hounded. Horror stories abounded of HIV positive people being insulted, attacked or even being driven from their homes.
At the same time, organisations set up by gay men to fight for better services for those with the virus were lambasted in parliament and the media.
James Quinlan, who runs the Positive Men’s Campaign Group at Gay Men Fighting Aids (GMFA), agrees that things have now changed for the better.
“I’m very open about my status,” he explains. “I’ve been completely blanked many times when I’ve been out and some gay men run a mile. Even within the gay community there are few people who

are open about their HIV status.”
GMFA’s Mathew Hodson feels it’s not just because of self-stigmatisation: “I think there’s a