Alan Spink explains why having Martin Fisher, one of the world’s most significant authorities on HIV, acknowledged on the side of a Brighton and Hove bus, is particularly important to him.
I am exhausted from telling people over the past 16 years that I am not a monster, I am not a dirty riddled pervert and I am not a danger to them or anyone else. I am just a normal gay man that acquired a virus at the beginning of the century from another gay man whilst we were enjoying doing what gay men do together.
And don’t deny you do it too, or you used to.
We all do it.
And we enjoy it.
And don’t make out that because you are negative you are somehow better than me, because you are not. We are equal.
The bus is going to be a truly public message about HIV. For many Brightonians, it will be the first message since the falling tombstones of 1986. It will also be the first HIV campaign they can’t ignore since 1986. Especially if they want to get on the Martin Fisher foundation bus.
The bus seeks to educate and to inform. It will be there day in and day out delivering its message to people at bus stops, people in cars passing alongside it, or driving behind it. But best of all to people travelling on it. It doesn’t matter where you sit, upstairs or down, or if you stand, you can’t avoid the message.
HIV isn’t scary anymore.
HIV may not be curable yet, but it’s very controllable. The medication is so effective that one tablet a day is enough to keep the virus at such a low level in our blood (undetectable) that it’s impossible to pass it on to our partners. It’s so effective that people that are positive and ‘undetectable’ can have families in the same way as people who are negative. Like it or not, that’s the truth. You can argue or justify your reluctance to accept this, but in the face of proven science, your opinion is nothing more than opinion or prejudice. Not a nice word, but that’s what it is.
If you ask someone if they are “clean” and then reject them when you don’t like the answer, you are prejudiced. Get on the bus and educate yourself.
But that is not the only reason the bus is important to me. We owe the people who have lived with HIV for over 25 years some form of acknowledgement, a kind of apology, some reparation even. These people survived the worst of the epidemic, they came through horrific times wondering when it would be their turn to die. They trialled toxic drugs that sometimes contributed to premature death. They suffered dreadful illnesses many of which they still bear the scars of and they are still here. They suffered the worst of stigma and ostracisation that our society threw at them, and they are still here. But many of them are invisible to you. They have been so hurt by society that they don’t come out.
What about them?
What can we do for them?
What should we do for them?
Well, this bus contains a few subtle messages for them.
They trialled the drugs that made them ill.
They suffered terrible side effects.
All of which was in the course of scientific research which has brought us to where we are now. We have our Anti Retro Viral drugs that give us a “normal” life, a “normal” life expectancy and the ability to function “normally” and have a family, should we desire. All on only one tablet a day.
We need to salute these men and women and we need to say a huge thank you for going through what they went through and for not giving up, and for getting us to where we are today. We need to look after and care for these people, because without them many more people probably would have died, and many more people would be living with HIV.
The Martin Fisher foundation bus acknowledges their existence and what they went through. We should welcome the bus and let it help bring Brighton & Hove towards a state of Zero HIV Stigma and Zero new cases of HIV.
Our message to the good people of Brighton and Hove is simple.
Get Tested
Get Treated
Live Well.
The Martin Fisher Foundation was founded in 2015 to take forward the work of Professor Martin Fisher by continuing to promote Martin’s ethos of treating people living with HIV with dignity, compassion and respect.
The charity will be celebrating the launch of the Professor Martin Fisher bus on Saturday, October 5 between 1pm and 3pm on Hove seafront by the Peace Statue. Everyone is welcome to attend.
To have the opportunity to be one of the first people to take a ride on the bus, click here:
The charity’s vision is to eliminate new HIV cases within a generation by increasing HIV testing, through improving knowledge of HIV, increasing availability PrEP and reducing HIV stigma in Brighton and Hove.
Follow the charity’s work and get involved:
Twitter @MartinFisherFo1
By Alan Spink
HIV+ for 16 years.
Still happy, still healthy.
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/themartinfisherfoundation/
Website https://www.themartinfisherfoundation.org/
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