PARLIAMENT PETITION
Launch a campaign on HIV to tell the public that Undetectable = Untransmittable
After informing (scaring) the nation with its 1987 AIDS monolith TV advert, it is time for the Government to update the public on HIV and the advances in science with a campaign based around "U=U" (Undetectable = Untransmittable).
The Government should create a national media campaign to quash over 30 years of stigma around HIV. The government spent £5m in 1987 (the equivalent of £13.2m in 2022) on the monolith advert. A new campaign from the Government does not need to cost the earth, if it uses those living with HIV to front the campaign.
HIT & RUN: No TV update in 36 years
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#ReclaimingTheTombstone
HIV TOMBSTONE: Cost me £3.25p
Was the title for a BLOG POST back in late November 2022. A post that came about from listening to The HIV Podcast episode 50, ‘Don’t Die of Ignorance’. A podcast produced by Thames Valley Positive Support, a Berkshire-based HIV charity that’s been around for as long as HIV/AIDS. Hosts of The HIV podcast Sarah & Jess discuss the impact of the 1980s AIDS Monolith TV advert that many refer to as ‘the falling tombstone’. And it was hardly a surprise that the pair were simultaneously aggrieved and yet impassioned for the UK government to essentially update the nation with a modern TV campaign in respect of where we are today with HIV/AIDS.
After the podcast episode, I was riled but it took me a couple of weeks to work out how I could attempt to do something about it. Given a global collective in addressing HIV/AIDS over the decades, there is no escaping that the UK government has spent millions on HIV research and trials. And with this came scientific breakthroughs and advances in treatments and medications. So much so, that people living with HIV [PLWHIV] on effective medication suppress HIV to ‘undetectable’ levels. Meaning they simply can not pass on HIV and is known simply as “U=U” (Undetectable = Untransmittable).
So why has the UK Government not made any effort to scream and shout about these advances and achievements? When it comes to HIV/AIDS it feels like a ‘hit and run’ given it has been 36 years since the AIDS ‘Don’t Die of Ignorance’ campaign. It is clear the UK government has unfished business.
A television advert would not only share the advances in science and medication but would be useful in informing the nation that they do not need to fear HIV/AIDS and have no grounds to weaponise someone’s HIV status.
And to highlight this point I attempted to make a sequel video to the government’s 1980s monolith AIDS advert. I am no Steven Spielberg but with £3.25p, an iPhone 6s, and some free visual special effects. I demonstrated a piece for TV does not need to cost the earth and unlike the 1980s the government doesn’t need to pull on a director intent on instilling fear.
THE HIV PODCAST: AIDS TV Advert
It doesn’t have to be anything spectacular or fancy that will cost the earth. In fact, it could be entirely ‘normal’, fronted by everyday ‘normal’ people, living a ‘normal’ life with HIV. This will ‘normalise’ HIV/AIDS and us living with it. While updating the nation on decades of stigma, weaponising, and misinformation about HIV/AIDS. And that U=U and HIV/AIDS are nothing to fear, nothing to weaponise, and nothing to be ‘ignorant’ about.
SIMPLE: But effective!
Thank You to the following supporters that got this petition published
The HIV Podcast, Kathryn, Alan, Steve & Kelsey.
7 July 2023
Sent out to all major news outlets including LGBT “community” media such as Pink News and Gay Times.
The release was shared across social media with the main LGBT media outlets tagged/mentioned. Both PInk News and Gay Times viewed such social media stories but to date have made no effort to cover the advocacy for change within the LGBT-HIV community.
It is evident that people who identify as LGBT and are living with HIV are only ‘clickbait’ worthy when these “community” media outlets share their crocodile tears every World Aids Day on 1 December.
9 July 2023
In an open letter to the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Steve Barclay. I shared the purpose of the petition while stressing that I felt the UK Government had ‘unfinished business’ and updating the public on HIV/AIDS & U=U was already long overdue and should not require a petition.
The letter was posted on social media while tagging the UK Health Security Agency (formerly Public Health) and Steve Barclay. The letter was also sent to him direct by email. To date, there has been no response.
24 July 2023
G Scene Magazine in Brightotn are the first to share the petition and retrospectively, the only gay media to share the petition.
25 July 2023
A surge in signatures totaled 207 on 25 July 2023. The signatures seemed to come in bursts between UK office hours. I suspect the surge came from emailing 14 well-known HIV activists, personalities, and celebrities.
While I can not be certain as none of them responded to my email saying they would support the petition and/or forward it to their personal contacts. I do wonder if they did circulate the petition and encouraged their inner circle to sign it. Why would they not share it on their own social media and their substantial following, some in excess of 100,000?
27 July 2023
153 additional signatures in around 48 hours.
31 July 2023
Just over 500 signatures is encouraging given HIV/AIDS is no longer in the mainstream public conscience. With some consigning the disease to the past.
17 August 2023
First I thought maybe a sandwich board would attract attention to garner more signatures. So I thought I’d go a little more subtle, although I know that’s not the point given the circumstances.
But printing my own T-shirt at home I thought it would be ideal to walk around London including the Freddie Mercury Exhibition and Soho boozers without causing a commotion.
18 August 2023
600 Signatures.
1 September 2023
590 of 1,000 Posters sent to over 100 LGBT venues across the UK. These were gay bars/clubs, sexual health clinics and gay bookshops.
Central London venues I delivered on foot. Greater London and across the UK were sent via Royal Mail. Cities included, Birmingham, Blackpool, Brighton, Bristol, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool & London.
5 October 2023
A parody of Queen/Freddie Mercury housewife from their iconic 1984 ‘I Want to Break Free’ video. Highlighting that many living with HIV live in the shadow of Freddie who passed of AIDS related complications. It’s not a bad shadow to live in, but people living with HIV are and have always been so much more than a ‘virus’.
PLEASE SIGN PETITION: https://petition.parliament.uk/petiti...
16 October 2023
After several unanswered emails to PInk News news@pinknews.co.uk regarding the petition. I commented on the Pink News Threads account to highlight their hypocrisy in their attempt at another bit of ‘HIV baiting’.
World AIDS Day 2023
Gloria spills the tea with author William Hampson on World AIDS Day 2023. They discuss his experience of HIV stigma over the last three years and why he started a UK government petition calling for the government to 'finish what it started' after being silent for almost 40 years since the 1987 AIDS tombstone campaign. And Will asks why the gay/LGBT media has been unwilling to cover the petition?
10 December 2023
A message from the one and only LIZA!
** Gay Gasp **
Christmas Day 2023
In my 2023 Qween speech to the cyber nation I took the opportunity to thank all those that signed the petition and urged those that hadn’t, to do so, and quickly as time is running out.
25 December 2023
31 December 2023 (New Years Eve)
Is it to be another year of Government silence, another year of ignorance and HIV/AIDS stigma? When will the government finish what it started in 1987 and update the public with a new campaign!
4 January 2024
A MASSIVE thank you to all 953 who took the time to sign the petition.
Sadly not the numbers that will make a difference, but, this is not the end.
It’s just the start!
