Reposted by J. Barker Lab
I better see you tomorrow morning. We got a stage and ASL interpreter and everything 😎
J. Barker Lab
@jbarkerlab.bsky.social
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Drexel Pharm Phys, jbarkerlab.com
Drexel Pharm Phys, jbarkerlab.com
![Comic Page 1: A young man accompanies his boyfriend in a clinic waiting room. His phone pings with a reminder for an upcoming Queer Sewing Club session. He kisses his boyfriend goodbye outside the clinic and arrives at the sewing club, holding a Vintage City bag and waving to the instructor. He pulls out an old denim jacket from the bag and and excitedly tries it on. It's covered in badges/patches and a bit tattered but still cool. He feels good in it, but the instructor notices and appears shocked with recognition.
TEXT:
Most gay men in the UK have been touched by HIV in the UK in some way, whether they live with the virus or not.
A central strand running… through the community… but unique to each person.
Today, people with HIV can live full and healthy lives. Although there is still no cure…
[background sign]: CLINIC
thanks to medication like pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and effective anti-retroviral treatments, HIV is a preventable and manageable condition.
[phone message]: Reminder: Queer Sewing Club - 1hr
And people living with HIV can’t pass on the virus.
[building sign]: CLINIC ENTRANCE
For many young gay men who have grown up having these options, it’s the only reality they’ve known.
[handbag]: VINTAGE CITY
“When I first came out… coincided with PrEP becoming more available.” (Caleb, 30, white, HIV– on PrEP)
Clinic visits for testing, prevention and treatment are part of everyday life.
“The issues of sexual health […] lots of people in the queer community go through as a rite of passage” (Tyler, 35yo, HIV neg)
Seen as a matter of routine and responsibility.
But it wasn’t always this way.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:qi5vqvpv3oj3ycqac5ypxhw4/bafkreifcbca2xsyihrfo523thmflhbjj27i7s54dzmkebkq6mm2nh6p6tm)
![Comic Page 2: A colourful 80s flashback of the instructor as a younger man wearing the same jacket... it was his! He looks up anxiously at an imposing hospital building and is ushered in through the back entrance by medical staff in PPE. He sits alone in the waiting room.
We next see him standing in the middle of a lively dancefloor surrounded by men dancing and chatting. He turns to his right and sees a man unravelling like a spool of thread, followed by a closeup of him stitching a badge onto his jacket with that same colour thread. He turns to his left to see another man in a different colour also unravelling, followed by another badge in the same colour. He is left holding several different coloured threads with a jacket covered in badges.
Now he is sitting at a table with a small group of other men who are happily painting some protest signs. Some chat, while one lovingly puts some paint on another's nose.
TEXT:
Far from it, when HIV was first identified in the early 80s…
[sign]: HOSPITAL
it was a matter of life and, very often, death.
[sign]: STAFF ONLY
[sign]: DON’T DIE OF IGNORANCE
For many gay men who lived through the 80s and 90s, HIV represents fear, loss, grief – “The AIDS Crisis.”
“Literally loads of my mates died in the eighties… I was just going onto the scene at that time and the people that you would bump into…”
“…suddenly they just wouldn’t be there…”
“and no-one really talked about it.” (Brian, 56yo, white)
“It was a fear-filled time… But…”
“…there were still times when people showed incredible love to each other… I think it would be wrong to see the whole of the 80s and 90s in one big black cloak of doom and gloom. It wasn’t that.” (Paul, 64, white)](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:qi5vqvpv3oj3ycqac5ypxhw4/bafkreigwcb7d4d5qcepsddd2z7pnllma2pp3elb3k4put4bj63tktig4pu)
