Today, 1st December is World Health Day. Cllr Karl Love, cabinet member for Adult Social Care, Public Health, shares his thoughts and memories. In his own words, Ed
On World AIDS Day I remember those Island people we lost, the friendships we made, the suffering of hatred and the hard won battles against discrimination.
World AIDS Day is an opportunity for people to join together worldwide in the memories of loss, and fight against HIV, Human Immunodeficiency Virus. It is not a virus like Covid. It is a cruel and hurtful killer if left untreated as it is so in many parts of the world. Early detection saves lives and prevents it being passed on.
Carrying the secret for fear of discrimination
While today there are treatments for those who can afford and have access to it, HIV still has no vaccination and takes so many people living with it into difficult personal conflicts and often having to carry the secret for fear of discrimination.
Youth Service work
In 1992 I worked within a Youth Service post that was funded to help support young people and to reduce risk taking behaviours, and then later within the LGBT+ Island communities from 1994.
It was a mammoth challenge to over come prejudice and misinformation, set against a background of extreme fear and hatred. Day on day we had to face complexities while trying to make progress towards equality for our LGBT+ communities and raising awareness of HIV.
Lack of positive language
The TV Programme ‘It’s a Sin’ only scratches the surface of the complexities which many Gay and Bisexual men, Women, Lesbians and Transgender lived in at that time on our Island.
We did not have a positive language to articulate our real LGBTQ + as is the case today. Many people had lived in the margins, out of sight and mind, but that was about to start changing.
Fear and prejudice
The older one is, the more fear and prejudice one has experienced from this. Our lives were full of complexities, a world of hidden secrets and revolving doors which had very real consequences for many if the doors were slammed shut and one’s secrets exposed.
Slowly, bit by bit, our communities emerged becoming what one sees today, but the impact and fear still remains for many Island people.
Real world story
As I think of World AIDS Day, I think of sitting in a graveyard supporting one man of those times, who I cannot name who was HIV positive.
His family were not aware, he lived at home and feared for them and their safety, reputation and he loved them so much. They never knew of his status.
His love for them was to try to protect them from the stigma and hatred of that time. His pain was great as his health slowly slipped away.
The Island’s sexual team went to extraordinary lengths to make sure his wishes were carried out and his secret and confidentiality was maintained.
Our Island’s Sexual Health Services maintain these confidences today, I know you can trust them in every way. Not even his after his passing was his family aware.
Today and on World AIDS Day, I, and a small few, carry his memory with pride in knowing him. Every year at this time, I think of him and others I knew, but yet I hardly knew him at all.
The Island has come a long way
Today we have better treatments and equality, but some still live with fear of exposure of one’s positive status. Our Island has come a long way towards equality, but it has been at a great cost for many in our community.
I am so proud of what has been achieved in the past and of those who today continue to carry the flame of equality and diversity forward.
Our young people of today need to know about HIV to truly understand facts and to help protect against HIV infection. HIV shortens people’s lives and complicates lifestyles. There is still discrimination causing people to carry and hid secrets.
Working around Section 28
I worked in times set against a back drop of Section 28 and homophobic laws.
We tried to find the gaps creating new ways of working around discriminating rules reaching out and to try to educate our young Island people, help protect them from HIV while trying to change attitudes.
I was deliberately visible encouraging a hidden community to step out and take our rightfully place in Island life. Our methods were not always welcomed, but with no Internet, mobile phones and way of engaging individuals we had to make an impression and take personal risks to offer encouragement and support.
A great small team
Visiting schools was a one-time only event, unless you were at Sandown High where we did more, but only ever on one occasion did we walk though the doors of Ryde High. We had a great small team With Dr Backsy, George Wheech, Kay Marriott, Dr Paul Bingham, Carol Heath and others and it was always an uphill struggle.
In the 1980s, there was Dr Ragie who I knew little about. He was the first Island doctor to diagnose HIV. Although we were in different times, we faced the same fears and hatred.
Real world story
I remember taking a man to the Bournemouth Beacon for respite HIV care. I drove him in his own car with his partner sitting beside him because it was said to me, no ambulance was available.
He was incredibly ill but no ambulance to take him that was far from being right or fair. I trained nurses, police officers, social workers and many others trying to persuade then to change attitudes, be diversity aware and inclusive, even to provide better care and equality. There were those who did change and care, but those who refused, even stating how they would refuse to care for people with AIDS as they said.
Sometimes I was scared too, scared of HIV, scared for my partner’s and my safety, but it was often short-lived.
IW Sexual Health Services
This week we remember and I encourage people to take use our Island’s sexual health services in the knowledge they are truly confidential and caring.
If you’re sexually active with others look at what’s to be gained by having a sexual check up and HIV test. Protect your love and passion
Find out more about sexual health on the Isle of Wight by visiting the Let’s Talk About It Website.
