CUT TO YOUR HEART

May 15, 2013

Funding for HIV prevention services are being slashed in London, and not because transmission rates are lowering. In fact, HIV rates amongst gay men are ‘not falling’ and reached an ‘all-time high’ in 2011, according to the Health Protection Agency. We analyse what this news may mean for the gay community, and speak to one of the sexual health charities hardest hit by the cuts, GMFA.

By Patrick Cash

Originally named ‘Gay Men Fighting AIDS’, GMFA was founded in 1992 by a group of gay men who felt that there was not enough HIV prevention work being specifically targeted at homosexual males. In 2002 the charity broadened its remit to include all health issues disproportionately affecting gay men, and became ‘GMFA – the gay men’s health charity.’ Now they state that their mission is to improve gay men’s health by increasing the control gay men have over their own lives.

GMFA run a series of websites and the printed FS Magazine, both devoted to gay men’s health, sex and life. Any questions you may have on gay sex and sexual health are answered in intimate and explicit detail, in deliberate retaliation against the absence of gay sexual matters in the national school curriculums of the 90s and 00s. Huge amounts of information are available for HIV positive guys, London sexual health services, gay sporting clubs/groups and even how to quit smoking.

However, the majority of GMFA’s funding has recently been cut. Matthew Hodson, the Principal editor told QX. ‘This is a tough time for HIV prevention, and across the statutory and charitable sector: budgets are being slashed, resources are being expended in large scale reorganisations and leadership is changing. All of this means profound changes for GMFA.’ It could also mean changes for the gay community, for whom Hodson says ‘increasing portions… are considerably less engaged with HIV prevention than in the past.’

How gay men meet one another for sex has changed. Before the advent of the internet and the smartphone it was confined to the physical limits of the bar, the club or the sauna. Applications like Grindr explodes these limits, and users can literally find sexual partners anywhere with great ease and rapidity. Sex parties are easily set-up and sexualised drug-taking often goes hand in hand with these environs. Crystal Meth and GHB are increasingly common, and their impact on safe sex is becoming more dangerous.

“This is a tough time for HIV prevention”

How these drugs hamper clear thinking can be attributed to the spread of disease; men who would normally abstain from risky behaviour find themselves taking risks when their judgement is impaired. And whilst many people consider HIV to be a manageable medical condition these days, that is not to take into account the psychological and emotionally isolating effects of being the bearer of a disease that still has a huge stigma attached to it by the gay community and the wider world.

HIV may be a manageable condition, but having it and taking medication does not mean the bearer is in the same state of health as you would be if you didn’t have it. And this is the message that GMFA feels must be got through to those who are HIV negative: you do not want to catch this virus, there is no cure, and prevention is a duty to ourselves as a community. We can write it here in this article and hope that it gets through to people, but the main method of spreading this message is through communication and education, services that were provided by GMFA.

Mark Longman, a Sexual Health Advisor based in a Central London Sexual Health and HIV service, views the cuts affecting GMFA ‘with a deep sense of dread and despair.’ Having worked in sexual health and HIV prevention for over fifteen years, he states that in that time he has seen ‘the plethora of leaflets and information available’ to MSM (men who have sex with men) dwindle, leaving very little else other than FS magazine, a publication he greatly admires.

Mark says how ‘over the years FS has taken a broad spectrum approach to sexual health and HIV with continually excellent features on STIs, HIV transmission, PEP, risk reduction and regular testing, whilst also considering and publishing the personal experiences of those living with HIV in an upbeat manner.’ He goes on to say how he has seen ‘dramatic increases’ in the spread of HIV and other STIs amongst gay men, and ‘without the likes of FS magazine, the last bastion of freely accessible health promotion out there, I shudder to think how many more there will be.’

It all looks to paint a sad, pessimistic picture for the gay community of London right now, but Matthew Hodson still retains a confidence that there are avenues of support out there for institutions like GMFA. ‘We believe that FS and our websites are both hugely valuable in providing gay men with information, advice and motivation to prevent the transmission of HIV,’ he says. ‘We believe they should be funded. Our goal over the coming months is to convince those who have the power to fund them to agree.’

In addition to seeking new means of funding, the charity itself is operating outside of contracts for the first time, taking the breathing space to refresh its own vision. Hodson says they ‘need to become a leaner, more efficient operation, depending on increasing support and guidance from the community that we serve and which, through the input of our supporters, our volunteers and our staff, we also represent.’

Therefore they are reaching out to their community, to hear their voices and ideas. Perhaps, GMFA ventures, a lack of engagement with sexual health within the gay community is a result of the community failing to see how they can shape the HIV prevention work that there is. So they are asking you to email them at [email protected], tweet them via @GMFA_UK and interact with their Facebook page at facebook.com/GMFA.UK and, if the need is required, they even promise to set up a community forum to discuss ideas.

There are still initiatives in place, however. Counsellor Jim Dickson, the Lambeth Council Cabinet member for Health and Wellbeing, has said that ‘Lambeth, Southwark and Lewisham joint commissioning team are now running the £1million Pan-London HIV Prevention Programme on behalf of all London boroughs… We are also developing plans for cost effective, newly focused HIV prevention work.’ Whilst this may sound good on the surface, Matthew Hodson illustrates just how ‘cost effective’ this work is when he states that ‘in 2001 the NHS in London received £19.2 million for [prevention] work in London.’

It’s not only GMFA that are affected by these cuts, but the Terrence Higgins Trust has also had its budget cut just as it’s launching its ‘It Starts With Me’ prevention campaign. It is the very words that front this campaign which all HIV prevention work, whether GMFA or the THT or this article, are geared towards. We could spend all the money in the world and it still won’t have a beneficial effect unless people – and by people we mean gay men, active members of our community – start taking responsibility for their actions, thinking properly and wisely and using condoms to stop the spread of sexual disease.

How to contact GMFA: