STOP HIV STIGMA - GO TAKE ACTION
Another year, another Pride, and we ran yet another campaign about HIV stigma in 2009. Is campaigning against stigma unoriginal? Yes. But we need to because it’s still the biggest challenge facing people living with HIV today.
What annoys people with HIV is less the tablets, sometimes feeling ill, treatment side effects, and the bind of going to the HIV clinic every few months. The really big annoyance is stigma and the fear of it.
What hurts worst is that it comes most often from the people you know around you.
Stigma within the gay community
It’s the widespread shaming and blaming attitudes towards people living with HIV in the gay community that continues to really shock us more than anything.
HIV is part of the gay scene in towns and cities across the country, and for over 20 years, but with so many people HIV positive, why do attitudes continue to be so negative?
HIV stigma affects everyone, gay and straight, women and men, adults and children, all ethnicities, people who are positive or negative.
Call for Action
We asked everyone as part of the 2009 Pride campaign to take their own action to STOP HIV Stigma.
It's a 365 day a year a job for all of us - you don’t need to be HIV positive to challenge stigma, and people who don’t have HIV can make a big impact - as an ally.
Here are various ways in which you can TAKE ACTION to STOP HIV Stigma:
- Start volunteering for your local HIV support organisation
- Test every year and talk about testing with your friends
- Make sure you're there for your HIV positive friends
- Sign up to join National AIDS Trust's Press Gang to challenge inaccurate or stigmatising information in the media
50 Ways to Go Take Action
We have a handy sheet with 50 Ways YOU can Go Take Action in the HIV Stigma Fight Back.
Beginning with the simple
- Talk about HIV – break the Silence, it lists lots of suggestions under these headings
- Press / media / online - fight back
- Fundraise / Give
- Volunteer
- Talk and Test
- Protect
- Learn
- Don't be part of the problem
- Respect
- Work and Life
- Be Prepared
- Bookmark / Favourite our website
- Positive?
Here's our 50 Actions hit list
Bullied, Abused, Insulted, Discriminated?
Breakthrough UK run ‘Working It Through Together’ to support people who have been the victims of ‘hate crime’.
HIV hate crime is a disability hate crime - verbal attacks or physical assaults because of hostility or prejudice.
Working It Through Together aims to support people with disabilities like HIV with advocacy and help people obtain professional advice to overcome the effects of an attack. It also is a way to count and check when and where HIV hate and other disability hate crimes happen
For further information please contact Breakthrough UK on 0161 273 5412 or
email or
go to their website
Top marks for this HIV & Stigma booklet from NAM, for people living with HIV
And they also offer people with HIV
NamLife, where you can read, in people’s own words, experiences of living with HIV. There's a whole section on facing and dealing with HIV stigma and discrimination.
On our front page :
You can view our News on HIV Stigma .... and click through to the Next pages
Here are our online Information Bank on HIV Stigma and Discrimination .... and click through Next page
Our Useful External Links includes HIV stigma and discrimination .... abd click through Next page