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Last night the Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody made its UK premier with a lavish premier hosted at Wembley Arena. Campaigners who wanted to spread awareness around how cuts to the NHS directly affects HIV patients seized the opportunity to cause a ruckus.

Members of ACTUP London, a prominent organisation in fighting HIV stigma and from the time of the HIV/AIDS crisis, and campaigners from the NHS Anti-Swindle Team took to the purple carpet of the Bohemian Rhapsody premier dressed in white, with Freddie Mercury-esque moustaches to draw attention to the devastating effect that cuts to the National Health Service has to the treatment of people living with HIV.

Since the film mostly centres around the life and career of Freddie Mercury, who was a prominent figure that contracted the virus, the protest was very relevant. They were made more relevant by accusations that the film does not delve into Mercury’s disease, and providing a highly sanitised narrative when depicting the disease. Mercury was one of the most famous people who died as a result of AIDS when he passed back in 1991.

(Twitter: @nhsantiswindleteam)

The protesters wore ‘Don’t Cut Me Now!’ slogan t-shirts, and had ‘Save Our NHS’ painted onto their trousers as they sang into prop microphones. They then proceeded to chant  “HIV stigma is real life — not just fantasy” which pastiches the famous Queen lyrics. They then launched into another pastiche of ‘Don’t Stop Me Now’ in which they altered the lyrics to reflect their cause. 

(Twitter: @nhsantiswindleteam)

Cuts to the NHS could severely effect treatment, especially when it comes to moving forward with trials of the anti-HIV drug PrEP (Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis). It was found in June that a quarter of men who have sex with men who sought the drug could not access it. 

Prominent ACT UP member Howel Ap Dafydd told QX:

“Queen was the soundtrack of my childhood. Freddie died when I was twelve, it was the first time I heard of AIDS and HIV. I’ve been living with HIV for the past eight years thanks to medication that came too late to safe Freddie and the millions of people who died because of AIDS. There’s a drug called PrEP which stops people from catching HIV but the NHS rations it so not everyone who needs it can get it.

“It’s disgraceful that the NHS denies people this opportunity that neither I nor Freddie had.”

 

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