Stigma, not disease, that is now HIV’s killer – Thomas

Welsh rugby legend Gareth Thomas says it is the stigma around HIV, rather than the illness itself, that poses the greatest risk to lives in this country.

Thomas played 100 times for Wales between 1995 and 2007, revealing he was HIV positive in late 2019.

Thomas is undertaking the 3 Peaks Challenge to demonstrate that living with HIV need not be a barrier to achieving anything, and to celebrate how far science and medicine have come in the last few decades.

“It’s mainly around the stigma, and breaking down the stigma,” he said. “Science and medicine has meant that people living with HIV can live normal, happy and healthy lives, yet it’s estimated that the stigma around HIV will kill 400,000 people in the next 20 years.

“The stigma is now something that has kind of replaced what the virus used to be. The virus is under control as far as medication goes, but as far as the stigma goes, it’s not under control.

“So what we try to do constantly with the campaign is to educate people through actions. What I learned through my rugby is that actions sometimes say a lot more than words can.

“And that’s why we’re doing the three peaks, both to show as a metaphor that HIV is a constant uphill battle – but that we’ll keep plodding on – and to show that we as people with HIV are physically capable of doing anything.

“We’ve got Shane Williams climbing Mount Snowdon with us, and climbing it together shows that I, as someone who is living with HIV, and Shane, who is someone not living with HIV, are equally capable of doing it and that having HIV has no relevance.”

In eliminating such a strongly-engrained stigma, Thomas is making every attempt to spread his message as much as possible.

Though he is aware of the unfair criticism of some that it is an exercise of self-promotion, he hopes the large groups that will be undertaking the challenge display that it is his passion for improving the lives of others who live with HIV that motivates his commitment to the cause, not for himself.

“The reason why we have big groups walking with us is that this campaign is not about me,” he added. “People might see a figurehead and think that it’s all about them, but this has nothing to do with me.

“Rugby gave me a great life, I could sit at home with my family and have a lovely life but I choose to put myself out there because I want everybody living with HIV to have the life I have.

“The fact they live with HIV shouldn’t stop them being accepted for a job, or harm their confidence, or lead to discrimination in the workplace.”

One of the key focusses of Thomas’ campaign is to separate the stereotypical link between HIV and homosexuality.

Despite the number of heterosexual people getting tests dropping faster than homosexuals since the Covid-19 pandemic started in early 2020, 2021 was the second consecutive year where heterosexual contact caused more reported transmission of HIV than homosexual contact in the UK.

Over a third of people surveyed by Tackle HIV didn’t think women are at risk of HIV, despite 31% of people who live with HIV in the UK being women and them making up a majority of the global population living with HIV.

And to help raise awareness among heterosexual men and women, and also reduce its attachment to homosexuality which causes a stigma to run between both, Thomas is keen to alter the narrative.

“The days are gone when HIV was described as a ‘gay plague’ or a ‘death sentence’,” he added. “In 2020 there were more new cases of HIV in England among heterosexual men than there were among gay and bisexual men.

“The fact that it also affected heterosexuals was still the case in the 1980s, it’s just nobody ever spoke about it. There were many other stories that were never told because it didn’t fit into the characteristic of being able to blame someone.

“The media created an easy way to give answers as to why it was happening, and some people have the same perception as people did when they lived then. 54% of people living in the world with HIV are female, so we have to get away from talking about as a gay and bisexual male disease.

“And that’s where the stigma still lies, and that’s why we have to tell a completely different story because it just adds to the ability to be discriminative towards a characteristic of a person that you tolerate, but don’t really like.”

Written by Nick Powell

Tackle HIV is a campaign led by Gareth Thomas in partnership with ViiV Healthcare and Terrence Higgins Trust and aims to tackle the stigma and misunderstanding around HIV. For more information visit www.tacklehiv.org and follow @tacklehiv