http://www.glovesoff.org.uk/video.php

It all started one February when it was really cold in the rural area where me and my partner were living at the time. I had come down with flu-like symptoms, and I was concerned that I was not getting over it as quickly as I used to before I was diagnosed as having HIV. So I thought I would try to get an appointment with the GP for some antibiotics to knock the infection on the head. I didn’t have an appointment, but I was very worried about my symptoms, so I thought it best to go to the surgery and try for an emergency appointment.

The surgery was really busy, with lots of people coughing and sneezing in the waiting room. I went over to the receptionist and explained that I needed an emergency appointment about my flu-like symptoms. Looking towards the crowd of patients, the receptionist told me that the best cure for flu / bad colds is to stay in bed and wait for the symptoms to ease.

I could see that she’d been inundated with people with flu all day, and that I wouldn’t get the appointment I urgently needed unless I explained my circumstances. I decided to disclose my HIV status to her. Because HIV weakens a person’s immune system immensely, even common colds can lead to serious illness. I needed to see a doctor before the end of the day.

I eventually saw the doctor and was prescribed antibiotics.

But from that time on, until we moved back to London, I always got a feeling of hostility from the receptionist. I’m certain it was not my perception. Before I disclosed my HIV status I had no problem getting early morning or end of day appointments. Suddenly it became near impossible – the earliest was 11:45 am and latest 3:15 pm.

This made things very difficult for me because, at the time, I had lots of appointments with my HIV consultant to fit around work as well. Working and taking HIV treatments is challenging enough, without someone seemingly going out of their way to obstruct you accessing your GP.

I thought about changing GP’s but from what I understand it can be quite a difficult process. So I put up with it.

What really annoys me is that discrimination like this could put many people with HIV off visiting their GPs and stop them from living healthily.

That’s why I’m involved in THT’s ‘Gloves Off’ campaign. What will you do?

To counter discrimination and the false beliefs that fuel it, THT is running a campaign called ‘Gloves Off’. To find out more about this campaign, read about the lives of HIV positive people and get involved yourself, visit http://www.tht.org.uk/glovesoff

It all started a few weeks before, when my doctor changed my combination therapy – the programme of medications I take to fight the virus. There are lots of different combinations of treatments that a doctor can prescribe; which may work better or worse than others depending on the specific strain of HIV you have. But sometimes a treatment that works better also gives you side effects you can’t cope with. I had this problem with my new combination therapy.

The new treatments were doing weird things to my mind; it felt like I had major mental issues. Whenever your medication is changed, you are required to attend regular fortnightly hospital appointments, where I was trying to get onto another combination therapy. But I was worried that my work colleagues would start asking questions about the time I was taking off. So, at my lowest ebb, I decided to turn to the Human Resources department for advice and a bit of emotional support.

I was shocked by what happened next. The HR Manager told me I didn’t have to disclose my HIV status, but only because I don’t work directly with food. “You’re not preparing food so no-one is going to get anything from you,” she said. I was appalled that 25 years after the disease first emerged she hadn’t had even basic training about how HIV affects people. It’s not even that I work for a small company, but a really major financial institution.

I tried to explain to her that, even if I worked in the kitchen, no-one could catch HIV from any food I’d prepared. She had no idea about how HIV is transmitted or even that the virus affects your immune system’s ability to fight off everyday colds and illnesses. Instead she smiled and said condescending things like, “Are you sure that’s not because you’re a man?”

Now I’m on a different combination of medications, which is working wonders, and I’ve learned what I legally need to disclose to my employers from THT. But I’m still annoyed that my company hadn’t trained their HR department in something so relevant and important in today’s society.

In 2005 the government revised the Disability Discrimination Act to make it unlawful for employers to discriminate against HIV positive people at work. Despite this, I’ve still had people ask if I have ‘AIDS pills’ in my desk drawer, when they were in fact paracetamol. I put these kind of comments down to everyday banter, but the Human Resources manager’s complete lack of awareness bought home to me, with a bang, just how little people still know about HIV and the issues people living with HIV face today.

That’s why I’m involved in THT’s ‘Gloves Off’ campaign. How will you get involved?

To counter discrimination and the false beliefs that fuel it, THT is running a campaign called ‘Gloves Off’. To find out more about this campaign, read about the lives of HIV positive people and get involved yourself, visit http://www.tht.org.uk/glovesoff

My job involves supporting people in the community and also training and leading a team of volunteers, but what’s most important to me is talking with the real people who use our services. They come from all walks of life, from different cultures and family backgrounds.

Today, I’d like to talk to you about discrimination within the family.

One man I know and have supported, couldn’t tell his wife his status because of his cultural background. The family were so prejudiced about HIV that even at their wedding I heard one of the family, in earshot of the groom, describe how “the family” would lynch anyone who was HIV positive – and he meant it.

When the man died suddenly the hospital inadvertently disclosed his status. His wife’s family assumed that she had known and ostracised her. I was telephoned to say that if I attended the funeral they would kill me. I’m not joking, that’s what they said.

So you can see why discrimination is a big issue for people living with HIV. Fear of what people might say or do can scare them away from accessing support. They might feel ashamed about being seen taking their pills in the day and miss doses – and that stops the treatments from working. So there you have it, discrimination can make someone’s health worse.

Another man I talk with works for an organisation that says that his sexuality is wrong. The comments he hears at work have a very bad effect on him. His low self esteem keeps him from discussing his health with his family and this leaves him feeling isolated. His brother sadly died in an accident last year and he felt enormously guilty that he had not told his brother something so important about his life and the challenges he faced. I think it’s terrible that other people’s hatred – people who aren’t even in his family – can drive a wedge between two brothers like that.

That’s why I wanted to be involved in THT’s ‘Gloves Off’ campaign. What will you do?

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Back in the summer I took a THT refresher course in Understanding HIV. I was amazed by how much scientific understanding of HIV and its treatment had developed in the last five years. But it seems like most people’s understanding hasn’t exactly kept up.

This lack of knowledge about the virus and how it is transmitted forms the basis for much of the horrific discrimination that people with HIV face every day. I’d like to share with you a more subtle example of discrimination.

One of my colleagues on the Understanding HIV course – I’ll call him ‘Phil’ for simplicity – told me about a lady he’d spoken to at a bus stop – I’ll call her ‘Lynn’. When Phil told Lynn that he worked with people with HIV and AIDS, she was quite surprised and looked a bit wary. Five minutes later the bus still hadn’t arrived, so she asked Phil a question that’d obviously been on her mind for some time.

Lynn was worried about the mosquitoes that gathered around the fish pond in her garden, and she worried about the neighbours on one side of her terraced house. Her neighbours were a gay couple in their forties, whom she got on rather well with, over the fence. But she wondered what might happen if a mosquito was to bite one of her neighbours then go on to bite her. Was there a risk that she could get AIDS?

Phil wasn’t quite sure where to begin. He reassured Lynn that there was absolutely zero risk of her getting infected with HIV this way.

Phil explained how HIV can only be transmitted through four bodily fluids in very specific circumstances – none of which were likely to occur between Lynn and her neighbours.

HIV positive or not, Phil summed up, there’s no reason why Lynn couldn’t get to know her neighbours better. She could eat off the same plates, use the hand towel, even touch or kiss a person with HIV if she chose. All with zero risk of transmission.

You’re probably thinking this all sounds very middle class and suburban, but it does illustrate a subtle point. Fear and misunderstanding around HIV and AIDS still keep people from forming friendships. They still result in ostracism and discrimination.

That’s why I’m taking my gloves off to fight discrimination. What will you do?

To counter discrimination and the false beliefs that fuel it, THT is running a campaign called ‘Gloves Off’. To find out more about this campaign, read about the lives of HIV positive people and get involved yourself, visit www.tht.org.uk/glovesoff

Terrence Higgins Trust has been fighting discrimination for 25 years. It’s time to take the gloves off

It’s been 25 years since the press first reported on the mysterious illness that robbed people of their immune systems with horrific effects. Yet amazingly many of the myths of the late 80s – like ‘HIV can be caught just by shaking hands’ – continue to be believed today. This World AIDS Day, Terrence Higgins Trust wants to overturn these false beliefs. If we all work together, people with HIV will no longer have to face daily discrimination.

It is genuinely tragic that twenty years after Diana, Princess of Wales showed the world that HIV can’t be caught through skin contact by shaking hands with a man with HIV, myths about transmission of the virus still fuel shocking discriminatory behaviour.

With your help THT can campaign and educate and inform the public so that it’s the stigma surrounding the virus that is demonised, not the people who live with it.

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Help THT fight discrimination today by downloading information, subscribing to campaign updates and sending an immediate donation towards our work.

visit http://www.tht.org.uk/glovesoff