The Queer Edition

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THE QUEER EDITION

CAN WALES ERADICATE AIDS? 3 PAGE FEATURE

MAKING QUEERSTRY: ADDICTS ANONYMOUS

RISING UP AGAINST TRANS VIOLENCE

PLUS MORE INSIDE!

NEWS

Queer Joy in the City Queer owned salon turns three Honouring trans lives lost

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ueer-owned salon Wow Hair and Beauty Bar in Roath just celebrated its third birthday and now the business is looking at how they can help the LGBTQ+ business community. Since opening its doors three years ago, salon owners Mandie Rees, 48, and Paige Jones, 23, have welcomed lots of different clients from the LGBTQ+ community and therefore often cross paths with other queer business owners.

Wow believes in the celebration of these queer businesses, and after three successful years’ trading they are now in a position to help celebrate and promote other local businesses in their salon. “We’re all about a community, so it just made sense” said Rees. Rees and Jones originally met working at the very popular LGBTQ+ friendly Wow bar in Cardiff and became great friends.

Vicki, the then-owner of Wow bar and their old manager, who also became close with the pair, had always encouraged Mandie to pursue her dream of opening a salon. Not long after the bar closed down Vicki got a terminal cancer diagnosis and offered Mandie the Wow name. Unfortunately Vicki passed away, but the salon has been a way for the pair to honour her memory and provides another safe space for the LGBTQ+ community to come to. “It seems to be a running theme that everyone talks about how community based it is” said Jones. Wow now hopes to open a second salon and to start their own training academy to support individuals in the community.

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o celebrate Trans Day of Remembrance local collective Lone Worlds collaborated with opera director Christian Hey and held a memorial space and concert in Cardiff. Trans Day of Rememberance honours the lives of trans individuals lost due to acts of anti-trans violence. The collaboration featured performances by musicians and singers from the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama.

NEWS These were interspersed with readings from trans poets and creatives from the local trans community.

Collaborating with Lone Worlds is Christian Hey, 26, a trans opera director who says that this collaboration is about survival. With 82% of trans youth reporting that they have felt suicidal in 2022, this type of event couldn’t be more timely.

Queer artist flees war to pursue her dream

A 20-yearold artist who identifes as Queer, came to Cardiff five years ago to flee the war in Iraq.

Growing up in Iraq, “It was just war” she says.

Before settling in Cardiff the artist who wishes to remain anonymous, lived in constant fear of dying and says that this still impacts her daily, ‘‘I never truly feel like I’m living the same life as others my age.” Despite this , she stays positive and says she’s finally beginning to come to terms with the person that she is, alongside her passion for art.

Her digital art is a way for her to switch off from the stresses of the world and helps her process her trauma from the war she witnessed as a child.

NEWS

New narcoticts group for LGBTQ+ Community

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members of the fellowship felt the main local support group for addicts has made hisgroups didn’t always identify with queer tory by starting the first LGBTQ+ meeting of members due to these differences. For its kind in the city. Cocaine Anonymous members example, chemsex is more common in in Cardiff feel there isn’t enough support for adthe queer community and less prevalent dicts in the LGBTQ+ community so to combat this in other addicts’ lives. Another memthey’ve created a group specifically for them. The ber of the commitdrug support group calls itself tee said: “We need a fellowship where people share to create that safe their experiences and follow a “We need to create that safe space where people 12-step programme aimed at space where people can can come together, people who are seeking recovery come together, they won’t they won’t be judged from addiction. Figures from be judged and we can talk and we can talk The Office of National Statistics about things affecting the about things affectfound that approximately 3 miling the community.” lion adults reported using drugs community.”

According to a relast year in England and Wales. port published by The group says membership of the UK Drug Policy Commission drug CA has grown at lot in Cardiff and people from use among LGBT groups is higher than the LGBTQ+ community have been part of this. heterosexual groups which highlights The committee felt that another safe space for LGthe need for more focused support. The BTQ+ addicts would benefit them and encourage LGBTQ+ Cocaine Anonymous (CA) them to seek help. Some experiences with drugs group in Cardiff is aiming to provide this. are exclusive to the LGBTQ+ community and some When asked why the group was started, a member said: “We created this group so that members of the LGBTQ+ community could identify more with shared stories about addiction.”

The group says membership of CA has grown at lot in Cardiff and people from the LGBTQ+ community have been part of this. The committee felt that another safe space for LGBTQ+ addicts would benefit them and encourage them to seek help.

Some experiences with drugs are exclusive to the LGBTQ+ community and some members of the fellowship felt the main groups didn’t always identify with queer members due to these differences. For example, chemsex is more common in the queer community and less prevalent in other addicts’ lives.

The group has been running since November and they support people struggling with different addictions. They meet every Friday at 6.15pm in The Old Chapel Room, City United Reformed Church.

Another member of the committee said: “We need to create that safe space where people can come together, they won’t be judged and we can talk about things affecting the community.”

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Poetry from Trans Day of remberance service i was blind but you made me see that life is magic that galaxies run through my veins my heart beats so loud i’m alive i can see the kaleidoscope of colours that you’ve painted for me oh how could i have been so reckless to give up this canvas oh how tragic

Is HIV eradication possible in Wales?

Wales is one step closer to eradicating HIV and AIDS

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solation, fear and anxiety are just a few of the words that come to mind when thinking about a deadly virus. In recent years, post-pandemic, the impact of viruses hasn’t been isolated to one particular group of people with support easily accessible and understood on a large scale. But, the same levels of support are often not extended to those with HIV. According to Welsh support services, though, this is about to change.

The Welsh Government HIV Action Plan released this year, has outlined plans to fund the Fast Track City initiative for Cardiff, hoping to establish Wales as a Fast Track Nation.

Fast Track Cities is a global movement that aids in the global AIDS strategy to end HIV by 2030 by achieving zero new HIV infections, zero preventable deaths and zero stigma.

Secretary of the Fast Track Cardiff steering group Lisa Power highlighted that the importance of Cardiff becoming a Fast Track City is largely due to the high percentage of late diagnoses in Wales compared to other parts of the UK. Late diagnosis rates for HIV in Wales were 62% in 2019 compared to the 42% average in the UK. Previously, Fast Track Cardiff and Vale were unfunded but the new HIV Action Plan has outlined plans to put funding in place to help establish Wales as a Fast Track Nation. Power said “We really want to make changes but involve everybody.”

The support and funding from the Welsh Government is a welcome change and will hopefully grow the initiative to support individuals living with HIV in Wales.

Fast Track Cardiff is looking at specific areas that might be lacking in support to improve the lives of individuals in Wales. Power says “The main people whose lives we have changed significantly are mostly the people who’ve found out they have HIV through our testing campaigns and got treated before they got ill or passed the virus on.” The initiative involves collaboration between the Welsh Government, Public Health Wales, local health boards, a representative of Welsh local authorities, clinicians, voluntary sector groups and people living with HIV. Working as a Fast Track City will mean that Cardiff will be able to network with other cities and share expertise about how they have reached the 90/90/90 goals.

The Welsh Government hopes that the funding will help Wales reach the 2030 eradication goal and support health boards to establish and sustain themselves as hubs for HIV support.

Fast Track City status also provides individuals with confidence when receiving a life-changing diagnosis like HIV as it links cities across the world together with a common goal - eradication. As the pilot of Fast Track Cardiff and Vale continues to grow positively, with funding this initiative could go even further and bigger and over time Fast Track Cardiff & Vale could become Fast Track Wales.

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What is Wales already doing?

In addition to becoming a Fast Track City, Wales also has some other programmes in place to aid the community and to help achieve the UNAIDS 2030 goal.

These include projects such as the ‘ask me about PrEP’ pilot project funded by Public Health Wales which encourages volunteers to talk to 20 people about pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) to educate more of the public on the benefits of taking the drug.

As well as this, the pilot of ‘testing week’ funded by the Welsh Government in partnership with NHS Wales and PHW debuted last month. It was part of the Fast Track Cardiff and Vale plans outlined in the new HIV action plan. The week promoted the benefits of testing for HIV across social media channels, NHS Wales says “By encouraging people to test, we can help stop HIV in its tracks.”

How will funding Fast Track Cardiff help those living with HIV? around the virus. They are hoping to bring more focused Speaking with those who have used HIV services in Wales highlights the dedication the country has to the 2030 goals, “I found the service really easily and they offer other services like syphilis tests as well as HIV tests” said one service user. Another user said, “I’ve been taking PrEP, but you can only take it if you test negative, there’s not enough information about what happens if you test positive.”

Fast-Track Cardiff is hoping to use the funding to support those with positive diagnoses to get the help they need and to fight the stigma

support to the areas of Wales that are struggling the most with HIV rates and access to services. Becoming a fast-track city will mean Cardiff will have support from other cities in the network working towards the 2030 goals.

The government funding will mean more focused support can take place and will encourage people to access local services. Power, highlighted that there are a lot of people in Wales who aren’t comfortable with going public about their diagnosis but that Fast Track Cardiff is committed to trying to reduce the stigma through the initiative.

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