LGBTQ CHURCH/ PROFESSIONAL SERVICES

By Glenn Stevens talking to Sue Hunter

The More to Me Than HIV project is very pleased to talk to HIV campaigner Sue Hunter about her experience of living with HIV and looking at how we can all help stamp out HIV stigma.

July 2021 saw me recognising my 15th anniversary since being diagnosed HIV+.

When I was first told I didn’t know anything about HIV and at that point, I was thinking I should have known more about my sexual health.

Sue Hunter

I have seen quite a lot of changes in attitudes of what it means to be a person living with HIV, and those changes started with my own family, who had a lot of misconceptions about what HIV was. For one, they believed HIV only happened in other communities, not to someone like me, a heterosexual woman.

In the beginning, I was very scared to be open about my status, so I’d encourage people to do what I did and start small, talk to a friend they are close to.

For me, I felt the weight of not disclosing lift from my shoulders. I felt empowered and began to talk with more confidence about what it means to be a person living with HIV.

From then I started to speak to groups through the Positive Voices Project about what it meant to be a woman living with HIV. I think this is one of the most important things for the HIV community to do, for us all to work together to reach out to other groups outside of our own so we all have a better understanding of how it affects us.

The More to Me Than HIV project is all about breaking down stigma. What advice would you give to those who would like to join the project?

First, visit the website, www.moretomethanhiv.life to see people like me, who have contributed their images. I would also suggest peer support, talking to someone else who is living with HIV can be hugely beneficial; tapping into any one of the fantastic HIV organisations in Brighton, each of which has a wealth of support and information in a safe place to share experiences.

I know so many positive people and feel privileged to have listened to their own stories of living with HIV, it is these experiences that help you understand your own and it helps build your confidence listening to people from different backgrounds, with their own HIV+ experiences. Collectively we can really help to empower each other.

Thank you, Sue.

The one thing stigma thrives on is other people’s ignorance of the facts. Collectively we can make a big difference to those who want to be more open about their HIV status. With this in mind, we would encourage those from all the HIV communities to come on board and send in their own images (all details available on the website: www.moretomethanhiv.life). We look forward to breaking down stigma together and say: There’s More to Me Than HIV.