One of the messages reads: ‘Positive? No thanks’ | Photo: Pixabay
A HIV positive man has revealed some of the horrible messages he receives from people on Grindr, including: ‘Bet you wish you’d worn a rubber now slut’.
Tom shared the screenshots on Twitter yesterday, addressing the question ‘HIV is sorted now isn’t it?’, which he says he is commonly asked.
‘Medically? Treatments are simple, effective and stop onwards transmission. Socially? HAH. NO. NOPE’ he wrote.
Speaking to Gay Star News, Tom Hayes, the editor of the website Beyond Positive, and whose Twitter handle is @PositiveLad said: ‘Medically HIV is an incredible success story, it’s the fastest moving disease area in the world. We’ve gone from discovery of the virus to a single daily pill that stops you passing it on in just 30 years.
‘Sadly, society hasn’t moved at the same pace. People living with HIV still have to deal with stigma on a daily basis – be it from HIV negative peers, tattoo parlours or even the medical profession.
‘I wanted to share just a few of the messages I’ve received online to highlight the issue – and hopefully make people think twice before rejecting someone because of their HIV status.’
‘Omg they let hiv ppl on here now?’
Comments he shared included: ‘‘U heard me, riddled, HIV, whore, disgraceful’ and ‘omg they let hiv ppl on here now?! Whats wrong with ppl. Why u on here? Ffs.’
In a series of Twitter posts, Tom wrote as follows:
‘Whilst we’ve made huge strides medically in HIV care the response from wider society has been lacking to say the least.
‘We’re still refused tattoos, dental care, travel to certain countries.
‘We still receive abuse on a frequent basis when looking for friends, sex & love.’
‘This seems all the more common in communities that should know better. The LGBT community for example has borne the brunt of the HIV epidemic – so you’d think there would be compassion and understanding out there from our negative peers.’
’Sadly HIV stigma seems at its worst within these most affected communities.
‘Is it a result of fear? Fear knowing that because you’re gay you’re more likely to contract HIV?
‘But then surely you should educate yourself? You don’t avoid HIV by sticking your head in the sand.
‘By actively avoiding talking to people living with HIV all you’re doing is keeping yourself out of he loop.
‘You’re missing out on massive advances like #UequalsU – the fact that people living with HIV on treatment and undetectable can not pass HIV on sexually.
‘By not talking to us you aren’t educating yourself, you’re not challenging your fears.
‘When we don’t learn we can’t get past fear, when we don’t tackle fear it turns into stigma. Then you take your fear based stigma out on us. Don’t make your problems our problems.
‘Finally. By excluding people living with HIV from your friendship, dating or sex circles all you’re really doing is putting yourself in a weaker position when it comes to your own sexual health.
‘And to be fair missing out on some pretty freaking awesome people.’
THREAD
1. One thing I hear again and again when talking to the media, or the negative general population, is that “HIV is sorted now isn’t it?”.
Medically? Treatments are simple, effective and stop onwards transmission.
Socially? HAH. NO. NOPE. pic.twitter.com/2Gby63zmep
— Tom [PositiveLad] (@PositiveLad) June 1, 2018
