World #AIDS Day - #ActAware: HIV in Northern Ireland

Yeah it will come as shock to some people in Northern Ireland, but yes there are people living with HIV here in Northern Ireland.

You can't tell who they are by looking at them.

You are not at risk from every day contact with them.

The HIV Support Centre in Belfast says that every week there are two people newly diagnosed with HIV. That is two more people who will be living with HIV in their bodies, two more sets of family and friends that will be living with someone they know very well having HIV.

Of course it is up to the individual in question as to whether s/he lets their family or friends know their status. There is still a stigma attached to HIV, which is almost as much of the ignorance from the 80s instead of what is known now about the disease. In fact it is possible to be in a full relationship with someone living with HIV and practice safer sex and to remain negative yourself*.

That stigma is something that is hard to overcome. It only will be broken down if more people living with HIV are courageous enough to let others know. Showing others that they can live a perfectly normal live.

My friend Michael is a trustee of The HIV Support Centre and he is adamant that the stigma of HIV is best lifted when people are aware that people living with HIV are all around them. Until recently this was even an issue with The HIV Support Centre itself, referring to itself merely as 'The Centre'; the centre of what, one might ask. I recently witnessed him helping lift that stigma one person at a time.

He was talking to a friend he had known for some time, the conversation got round to HIV and his work as a trustee. Standing there listening I had an inkling where that conversation was going, especially once the friend seemed shocked that there people living with HIV in Northern Ireland, the friend was not someone you'd expect to be ignorant of such facts. Michael, eventually asked the question, "Do you know anyone living with HIV?". The friend replied "No". A hand was proffered with the words, "Hello, I'm Michael, I'm living with HIV." It was a brave step even to a friend of some standing, and I'm glad to report he shook that hand and carried on asking more questions, over to the side I was fighting back the tear ducts**.

There is also the stigma of attending a GUM clinic. Some people think that everyone in there is carrying some STI if not HIV. But not every car that you see in a garage needs work doing, some are just being serviced and getting looked over ahead of an MOT, getting tested regularly is just like that. Far better to know what your status is, negative or otherwise at regular intervals that to find out too late that there is something wrong. Late diagnoses means that sometimes the medications may not be effective for the treatment of HIV.

Scarily 1 in 4 people living with HIV are as yet undiagnosed. Scarily of that set 39% are diagnosed so late that they need to start HIV treatment immediately, and 30% were diagnosed so late that there was a real risk of developing a potentially fatal illness. When there are apparently to 1 in 20 of the UK wide gay male population that are living with HIV that can lead to nightmares. Therefore the rule of thumb is treat every encounter the same, be safe and respect your own body. If someone refuses you because you want safer sex, don't give in to peer pressure.

The message this year is ACT AWARE.

Are you aware of your HIV status?

If you're not but are sleeping around whether with people of the same sex or the opposite, may I advise you to go and get tested now and regularly and be aware.

If you don't believe how important that can be I'll advise to wait until my next blog post.


* Of course there is no such thing as 100% safe sex, but if you love someone you decide for yourself what you want to do providing you are in full knowledge of the facts.

** Yeah I tend to well up quite a lot.

Blogged at the New Address - Prayers for Bobby

As this blog is in the process of moving the following is merely a excerpt to direct you to the new address:

Stills from the film Prayers for Bobby (TVM 2009)

Earlier this evening I was at a screening of Prayers for Bobby at All Souls Non-Subscribing Presbyterian Church in Belfast as part of the Outburst Festival. In the light of the number of teen suicides over recent months the showing of this film and the discussion afterwards couldn't be more timely.

The change of Bobby Griffith;s mother Mary played by Sigourney Weaver to harrowingly in this film came too late for her own son, but this bio-pic based on her families story and journey should be essential viewing in every church; not just in Northern Ireland but also the states and many other places.

Read more here >>

Please note this blog is moving to http://stephensliberaljournal.blogspot.com please update your blog roll accordingly.

Look Who's Following Me Home

On the 20th October one of the greatest raconteurs in the Liberal Democrats is coming to Belfast.

I know of very few Liberal Democrats who tire of hearing Paddy Ashdown tell his stories, the stories of his life and his experiences. Seeing as he is coming to the place where he grew up (indeed attending Garth Prep School here in Bangor) and where he spent some time of his military service it is somewhat of a homecoming.

Indeed it was his spending his formative years in Northern Ireland that Jeremy John Durham Ashdown was never know as that for the rest of his life, he was nicknamed Paddy when he first turned up at Bedford School aged 11 and has worn the moniker with pride ever since.

No doubt some of what he will be regaling in Belfast I will have heard in Edinburgh when he was promoting his autobiography A Fortunate Life but that will not stop me enjoying the journey through his memories again, as ever. Indeed as one other famous Ulsterman, comedian Frank Carson, would put it "It's the way he tells 'em".

Here is what I wrote from copious notes about Paddy's talk in Edinburgh in March last year as a taster, but he will tell it far better than I, so if you are in or around Belfast at the time do get along.

Belfast Pride and their Hero

There has been a full week of events in Belfast for Pride which will culminate with the parade later today. Yeah today is a parade where Orange and Green and the other colours on the Pride flag will not be giving the Parade's Commission too many headaches. Indeed there were no issues for the Commission with the parade or the counter demonstrations.

However, even in Belfast where religion is often such a dividing line for other reasons there is a ray of hope for members of the LGBT community who have faith. The Rev Chris Hudson the minister of All Souls Non-Subscribing Presbyterian Church has been named Belfast Pride Hero of the Year.

While there are people like Rev David McIlveen and his Sandown Free Presbyterian Church who are vocal opponents of the LGBT community*, there is an oasis of hope in South Belfast. As a non-subscribing church All Souls is independent of any ruling body. Two years ago the Rev Hudson, complete with dog collar, took part in the Belfast Pride Parade. Last Sunday there was a public meeting held in his church as part of the Pride week celebrations, outside was a poster saying 'It's Ok to be gay and Christian'.

The meeting discussed the biblical references in the bible, of which Hudson says:

"Leviticus is quoted quite a lot, concerning 'man lying down with another man', but Leviticus is a priestly code for Jewish priests. It's a list of behaviours, trying to set the priests of Israel apart. They were trying to outdo each other."

As for Paul's references in the New Testament he added that Paul did not condemn homosexuality as is widely believed, but the "quite licentious Greeks" he found worshipping various gods and goddesses.

"There was no concept of homosexuality as we understand it today."

So while Iris Robinson may have had her little pastor friend ready to pray for gay men to become straight, there is a minister in Belfast prepared to pray for and with gay Christians, a worthy Belfast hero for Pride in the 20th year of the event.

* McIlveen did on Tuesday attend the Belfast Pride Talks Back debate event. Where he was apparently given an attentive hearing which is probably not what he will be returning today.

You know you're from Belfast....

.....when.

Courtesy of the Belfast Telegraph.

Thankfully being from the burbs I haven't done or know all of these.

Belfast to Star in Top Gear Mini Adventure

The old Victorian sewers in Belfast are currently undergoing a £100m refurbishment scheme. But somebody at Northern Ireland Water said, "Hang on lads, I've got a great idea."

The idea was to approach the BBC with a number of proposals to use the new six mile series of tunnels in programming. The idea that struck was the possibility to recreate the classic scene from The Italian Job where Michael Caine and the team flee through the sewers of Turin (although the ones in Coventry were used for the shoot).

But who to do such a thing.

Some say they are on the most wanted list of the homophobic deep South.

Some say that no caravan in save within a 3 mile radius of them behind the wheel of a car.

Well in the coming weeks Jeremy Clarkson, Richard 'Hamster' Hammond and James 'Captain Slow' May who have driven to the North Pole, taken on planes, trains, bobsleighs and mountaineering base jumpers will be going underground. So let the boys all drive and the boys all shoot for the challenge.