Women living with HIV/AIDS, in ….Cornwall.

What of Women living with HIV, in say ….Cornwall?

That is the point put to me this week by a courageous women, Veritee (yes, I can say this) . Veritee, who IS openly living with HIV in Cornwall and who wishes to contact others, women living with HIV and/or living with a partner with HIV and create a support network for HIV+ women.

To this end Veritee has created a discussion forum

http://hivwomenwest.proboards56.com/index.cgi

…and Veritee is writing an incredibly courageous & personally frank blog

http://www.hiv-and-us.blogspot.com

But HIV amongst women doesn’t happen in Cornwall you say…well, yes, clearly it does. It is only a few years since there was a cluster of HIV diagnosis in Cornwall in the St. Ives area.

See press article:-

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2006/may/06/health.aids

Twelve years on from the death of my former Cornish partner, ‘Andy’ in 1996 because of HIV/AIDS and have things really changed much in Cornwall?

“No Carrots in my Pasty” was the title of a book I wrote about my experience of my former partners HIV/AIDS diagnosis and Cornish Authority homophobic prejudice & denial mentality in Cornwall towards the reality of the existence of HIV/AIDS in Cornwall.
Book Available from http://www.lulu.com

Has that much really changed in 2008 in the bigoted values & attitudes of Cornwall Authorities towards gay/bisexual people, diverse lifestyles & sexual health issues….NO, I fear not!

HIV/AIDS is almost unfashionable currently to the media and yet sexually transmitted diseases are escalating in Britain. The fact is we simply DO NOT talk frankly enough as a society about sex & diverse relationships and how to effectively negotiate openly about sexual health issues in relationships.

Lets face it Cornwall has one of the highest teenage pregnancy rates in EUROPE, one can only conclude that to the average Cornish teenager educated in Cornwall, where homophobic bullying in Cornish schools is common place, a Cornish teenager could be forgiven the perception of sexual protection…means a bus shelter.

So whose to blame?

Well in Cornwall we even have ‘cretin’ police officers who have ‘homophobically’ tried to prosecute a gay employer who enabled his 16/17yr old student staff to obtain professional sexual health advice from a GU Clinic and inoculations against Hepatitis. When up against that level of homophobic ‘pig’ ignorance by Cornwall police officers on the most basic sexual issues, supported by police prejudicial senior rank, how can we even begin to tackle sexually transmitted epidemics and both educate and protect our society?

With a Cornwall, police force, which tends to conduct any issue regarding ‘SEX’ and/or HIV, like a shoddy modern day Salem Witch trial?

Cornwall police basing enquiries upon prejudice, superstition, rumour, gossip & down right homophobia. Heaven forbid Cornwall police would allow things like ‘FACTS’, ‘EVIDENCE’ & ‘WITNESSES’ to get in the way in police headlong pursuit to demonise gay persons and top up their arrest quotas with what are perceived to be ‘soft targets’…gay men!

HIV/AIDS is still generally a hidden problem and one perceived in Britain to be associated with gay men & continues to carry stigma. It does not help that institutional homophobia is still embedded hand in glove with HIV/AIDS ignorance & prejudice in organisations like Cornwall Police, Cornwall Social Services & Cornwall County Council.

Then we have Crown Court Judges like Rucker in Cornwall who considers & condemns the campaigning for equality for gay people & better education and awareness on HIV/AIDS issues as “Evangelical Proselytising”. A Crown Court judge who was so out of touch, he knew not when the law for age of sexual Consent became equal for gay men with that of heterosexuals.

Then you get Cornish Lib Dem Mps like Colin Breed, a Methodist lay preacher who opposed in parliament protection of gay people in law from ‘HATE CRIME’… on religious grounds

…and one clearly begins to see why Cornwall is considered the Authority “village idiot” county by some in its continued backward bigotry.

No wonder those living with HIV still feel ostracised & marginalised!

At least they have this excellent organisation in Cornwall
http://kernowps.co.uk/ind.htm

In London, it is estimated that 1 in 10 gay men are living with HIV and possibly as high as 1 in 20 in the gay male population nationally. There has been huge recent criticism in fringe discussion forums of self-serving primarily gay men’s health projects and HIV/AIDS sector failure in recent years for not being hard hitting enough. See National Pink Paper readers letters.


However, what of those who are NOT Gay men living with HIV, those who are marginalised even further and who do not live in relative anonymity of an urban city?

What of women living with HIV, in places like Cornwall?

Contact Veritee via her discussion forum

http://hivwomenwest.proboards56.com/index.cgi