On Wednesday 24th September, as part of 56 Dean Street’s Wellbeing Programme, QX have assembled a panel of gay scene DJs, drag queens and porn stars, all in their twenties, to discuss HIV. Here, we analyse why it’s important to give a platform to the young people the prevention campaigns are aimed at, as well as the campaigns themselves.
By Patrick Cash
HIV is all around us. In the adverts in our magazines, in posters and flyers in bars, on our social media screens and of course, it’s ubiquitous in the sexual health clinics. Two of the most high-profile HIV charities in London, the Terrence Higgins Trust and GMFA, currently have large awareness/prevention campaigns: ‘It Starts With Me’ (THT) and ‘Think Again’ (GMFA). I myself write about the subject frequently for QX. And the group that everyone is trying to reach, is that most vulnerable to new HIV infections: young gay men.
But there seems to be an absence of voice, in all these mediums, actually given to what constitutes gay youth culture itself. As if HIV and all its many noble prevention campaigns were the large, lumbering BBC2 Uncle ever losing the ratings war against the jazzy X Factor of the glittering gay scene with its pumping clubs, DJs, drag queens and sexual allure. So, we thought, what can we do to help 56 Dean Street’s brilliant Gay Men’s Wellbeing Programme in this respect? The obvious answer seemed to be to throw open the debate to well-known young figures currently leading their lives on the London gay scene.
Therefore on the 24th September we’re bringing DJ and club promoter Mark-Ashley Dupé, drag queen Baga Chipz, DJ Maximus Crown and gay porn star Kayden Gray together to wax lyrical on HIV. It’s not going to be an experts’ discussion of facts, figures and statistics, and neither is it designed to be. We’ll simply be asking how they personally perceive HIV on the gay scene today, whether it is something they feel affects them strongly, if they find the prevention campaigns effective, and if there is stigma still to be navigated between those already living with the virus and those susceptible to infection.
This is not to dismiss the sterling work that the prevention campaigns achieve, or to ignore the valuable research they amass from their focus groups, but to try approaching the subject of HIV awareness from a fresh angle. To quote Tesco: every little helps. Young gay men are said to be particularly at risk because the seriousness of the virus is not immediately visible to a generation where life-saving medication is freely available, alongside an innate lack of education about HIV in schools.
When I interviewed Matthew Hodson, Chief Executive of GMFA, earlier this year, he said: ‘I think there was almost a perception [amongst young gay people] that HIV was a bit like Section 28, it was something that belonged to the 80s or maybe the 90s, and it wasn’t an issue anymore. But really with over a third of the new diagnoses being men in their teens and twenties, no actually it is an issue. And there was one study I read which suggested that unless there was a dramatic change, we were talking about 50% of college-age young gay men would be HIV positive before they were 50.’
But we can write, lecture, scold and sing about HIV from the rooftops of the gay press and social media until the cows come home and it still won’t make a difference unless it’s actually affecting the target group in question. With events like these, we’re hoping to simply open up the dialogue to that group itself; anyone is welcome to attend on the 24th, and after the panel discussion there will be an open Q&A.
As David Stuart, the brains behind this Wellbeing Programme, says: ‘The events are designed to promote a dialogue about sex, in all its manifestations; so we can see past the onslaught of safe sex campaigns that warn us how dangerous and risky sex can be; and remind us that sex is, in fact, awesome, and plays a crucial part in our general wellbeing.’
• The Young People’s Panel Discussion on HIV will be on Wednesday 24th September from 6-8pm at the Twentieth Century Fox Screening Rooms (31-32 Soho Square, W1D 3AP) from 6-8pm. Free entry.
• The event will also include a showing of a short film featuring interviews with gay men about how they negotiate their sex lives and HIV in London, and presentations from Dr Alan McOwan and Professor Sheena McCormack of 56 Dean Street on the PROUD study and PrEP.
