I’m thrilled to be asked to reflect on what breaking the bias means to me for International Women’s Day 2022. 

Recognising women’s contributions is so important. At the time of my HIV diagnosis, I knew of no other woman who was positive. Sadly, many women can live for years - sometimes decades - without discussing, disclosing or sharing their experiences with someone outside of their specialist team.

Isolated and alone, many women do not get the opportunity to share and come to terms with diagnosis. They can carry the burden of social and self-stigma, often leading to poor mental health as the body-shaming is internal and external.

Sadly, although women account for more than half the number of people living with HIV globally; our existence and experiences remain largely invisible.

Women including trans women are still fighting to be included in HIV history.

Our story isn’t clearly told. We have to break this bias. 

This matters, because without visibility we can be seen as passive recipients who are not empowered to take control of our bodies, or influence the medicines and policies that control how we live, and the quality of our lives and choices. Without the greater general awareness that women can acquire HIV, they cannot make informed choices about their sexual health and potentially it can be missed from a diagnosis.    

In my research, I was humbled to find so many women active in HIV history and today.

Not just women living with and affected by HIV, but women influencing the science of HIV; women as national and international activists; women being mother and caregivers. Women giving visibility to other women and challenging stereotypes.

I realised we were always here. 

Knowing this history has made me stronger and has acted as an antidote, in some ways, to the invisibility, shame and stigma that I felt.  Along with better information, support and mentoring, I see myself differently. 

I hope people living with HIV will be able to see these ladies and have role models to aspire to and even beyond. 

I hope that, as you read about my HIV heroines, you’ll be as moved and inspired as I was.

Yvonne Richards, HIV acitivist and volunteer at George House Trust. 

7th March 2022

I arrived at Manchester AIDSLine, the organisation we now know as George House Trust, as a 22 year old Admin Worker at the end of 1990.

Only one word sums up the next 17 years I was lucky enough to work there - change. Change, massive change, in the way we understand and treat HIV.

All sorts of change in the role others (the community, NHS, government, local government) undertook.

Change - sadly not enough change - in the stigma and discrimination around HIV. Change for me - admin worker for a £80,000 organisation to Deputy Chief Executive of a £1 million organisation.
 

This LGBT History Month, it’s right to focus on the significant contribution made by the LGBT community.

The HIV voluntary sector came out of the gay community. Gay Men’s Health Crisis (New York 1982), Terrence Higgins Trust (London, 1982) and Manchester AIDSLine (Manchester 1985), were all people coming together in response to a crisis that was killing their mates in droves. I guess 90% of people we were helping at the start of the 90s were gay men, so this response is no surprise. Back in 1990 we had just moved into a purpose-built centre we had fundraised for and built ourselves (George House Trust).

The stigma and discrimination associated with HIV was so significant at the time that the address was secret, we just told people to look for the big number 7 on the door. Most of the people who came through our doors had sadly died by the middle of the decade, that’s how poor medical knowledge and treatments were. Some amazing people, who were never able to make their contribution to history in full.

My first memory of Manchester’s gay village’s contribution to the first August Bank Holiday weekend was where the Manchester AIDSLine team were robbed of their title in the ‘Gay Olympics’ that took place in the car park next to New York New York. The ‘Main Stage’ was the size of a dining table, and all I remember is repeat performances of drag Montserrat Caballé doing ‘Barcelona’. The weekend was raising money to buy televisions, for the rooms at the Infectious Diseases Unit at Monsall, a hospital long since demolished.

March forwards five years, and it’s George House Trust’s 10th birthday in 1995. Everything was bigger. More people were HIV positive. The NHS and local government had realised that it needed to put money into HIV prevention and care. As a result, the organisation was bigger. We’d moved twice and even bought a new building. The internet wasn’t what it is now, so provision of information to people (about treatments, medical conditions, employment rights etc) was a really important thing to do.

We’d just recruited to a new Gay Men’s Service Manager who over time set up a whole range of support services for HIV positive gay men.

That job advert was seriously radical at the time.

In 1995 Section 28 of the 1988 Local Government Act still in place (making it illegal for Local Authorities to promote homosexuality), the age of consent was unequal, same sex marriage was a pipe dream.

We spent hours in the run up to the 1997 General Election writing to every parliamentary candidate in the country asking them to repeal Section 28 and give us an equal age of consent. History will tell us that that Parliament did just that.

That tiny stage at August Bank Holiday weekend had grown exponentially first to a ‘Mardi Gras’ weekend, then the behemoth we know now as Manchester Pride. Those two gay guys doing drag on stage replaced by Ariana Grande in a multi-million pound event. Its worth saying that in the intervening years Pride raised well over £2 million for HIV support including keeping condoms free in the village for two decades.

The legacy of Manchester’s LGBT’s community response to HIV is significant. A lot of organisations have come and gone but Greater Manchester is unique as a city region to have successful organisations like George House Trust, and the LGBT Foundation, and of course the biggest Pride in the country – all of which owe their existence to that original response to HIV.

This contribution the community made is LGBT history.

Making so many people’s lives better, educating and challenging discrimination with so many more, is something we should all be proud of.

Tim Pickstone, Mayor Of Bury

February 26th 2022

George House Trust is looking for an Income Generation Lead to drive forward our plans to reach and support more people living with HIV.

We currently support over 2,000 people per year with everything from wellbeing to welfare and benefits support and this is a fantastic opportunity to join us as we look to the future.

Passionate in our work to create a world where HIV holds no one back; you will be joining an established leadership team to build on existing plans and introduce new ideas. With an excellent platform to work from; you can really make the role your own and take on responsibility as the organisational lead for income generation. You’ll be working to make a difference to the lives of others by building on our fundraising strategy and increase the unrestricted income significantly.

You will lead a wide portfolio and be developing corporate partnerships, identifying charitable trusts and foundations as well as maximising other fundraising opportunities including out in the community. As Income Generation Lead, you must have had experience across a number of income streams.

You will be innovative, creative and be able to identify fundraising opportunities in line with our strategy. If you are looking for a role where you are able to make a significant difference and drive George House Trust forward, then this role really is for you!

The role will be based in Manchester, and offers hybrid working.

Read the role description here. 

For an informal conversation about the role, please contact Darren Knight, Chief Executive via email to arrange a time (darren@ght.org.uk).

To apply, please read the role description and then email a copy of your CV to hr@ght.org.uk with a covering letter (no more than two pages) answering the question: ‘How will you transform Income Generation at George House Trust and what will you bring to the organisation?’

This is advertised as a full-time role although we’re open to discussing flexible working options, so please speak to us if that’s something that would work better for you. 

Please also submit a copy of the recruitment demographic monitoring form with your application. All applications should be emailed to hr@ght.org.uk by the closing date.

Closing date for applications: Friday 25th March 2022 at 12pm (lunchtime). 

Diversity, equity and inclusion are at the heart of who we are and what we do. Our commitment to these values is unwavering and they are central to our purpose. We encourage applications from all backgrounds, communities and industries.

We look forward to hearing from you!

Our HIV Language Guide offers alternatives to stigmatising words and phrases which should be avoided.          

Language is powerful.

It can affect the way we see other people and the way people view themselves.

While HIV is a long-term, manageable medical condition like many others, it attracts stigma and discrimination like no other.

Words and phrases used about HIV and people living with HIV can carry hugely negative connotations. Describing people living with HIV as ‘suffering’, for example, reinforces outdated stereotypes and casts the person as a helpless victim –which is stigmatising in itself.

Language has the power to include or exclude.

Some of the language used about HIV and about people living with HIV implies blame and sets people living with HIV apart and different – making it about ‘them’ and not ‘us’.  

Language can reinforce stigmatising attitudes, or it can help bring about a world in which people living with HIV are no longer the subject of negative attitudes, stereotypes and discrimination.

Read the HIV Language Guide.

George House Trust’s vision is a world where HIV holds nobody back. We will get there sooner if we all do our best to ensure we use respectful and inclusive language when talking about HIV and people living with HIV.

Thank you to the community of people living with HIV who shaped and contributed to this guide, and helped develop the alternatives to stigmatising language.

Thank you to Manchester City Council for supporting the guide's development and production.

January 11th 2022