Blog Archives
Good Vibrations – The LGMCe and Positive East
Afternoon all,
A quick event update for you all:
Positive East and the London Gay Men’s Chorus ensemble announced that they will be putting on
another show together to raise funds for the charity’s HIV support services for gay men in London.
The show is called Good Vibrations, and takes place in St Pancras Church on Saturday 13th April.
Following on from last year’s spectacular show the Chorus will put on another night of show
stopping tunes, with the usual extent of razzle dazzle people come to expect from the London Gay
Men’s Chorus!
Positive East and LGMC’s aims are deeply intertwined: both are working to change negative
preconceptions, and work towards a more enriched society.
The event will raise funds specifically in support of Positive East’s services for gay men in London.
It’s estimated that 1 in 12 men in London gay are HIV positive. There are more gay and bisexual men
living with HIV in London than ever before. This makes the work of Positive East, and their network
of one-to-one and group support sessions, more important than ever before.
It’s vital that people don’t become isolated from their communities as a result of their HIV status,
and supporting this event will help make sure that doesn’t happen.Tickets for this one-off show are available online, at www.ticketsource.co.uk/positiveeast.
For further information you can call the box office on 020 7791 9353.
All the best,
Tom
UKPositiveLad
A morning chat with Gaydio about all things UKPositiveLad (listen here)
Morning all,
This morning my alarm went off at 7:00am, time to get up and make myself a coffee. I was on the radio in 30 minutes.
If you missed it I was speaking live on-air to Chris and Emma from Gaydio about all things UKPositiveLad and HIV.
With their permission I’ve included an MP3 of the recording for you to download and listen to here! We touch on blogging, twitter, celebrities, HIV support and gay mugs. Check it out!
If you want me to appear on your show please don’t hesitate to get in touch using the contact page on this site.
Sam
UKPositiveLad
Busy couple of weeks at the moment…
Hey Guys,
Just a quick note to say I’m still here, things are just a little manic in Sam’s world lately.
- My day job has had me in every day of the week – unlike the part time hours I’m used to.
- I’m on the Gaydio Breakfast Show this Thursday morning (from 07:40) – listen in!
- Attending the opening of the new Birmingham LGBT Community Centre Thursday afternoon.
- Attending the Q:alliance General Assembly in Milton Keynes over the weekend
- Got a photo-shoot next week for my reveal on here and for Attitude.
- Working on a blog post for this site with the handsome Doctor Christian Jessen.
All of which is driving me a little doolally. But bare with me, please 
Lots of Love,
Sam
UKPositiveLad
The Disclosure Rollercoaster
Two blog posts in one week? I know, I’m spoiling you, but read on…
Possibly the single biggest issue for me about being HIV+ isn’t my health, the medication etc, it’s actually the rejection that you can face when you tell someone your status.
One of the first people I ever disclosed my status to was a holiday romance. We’d been hanging out for a couple of days, drinking, swimming, holding hands etc, all very romantic. One afternoon I got a text asking me to spend the night with him at his hotel, I thought it only fair that I tell him my (fairly recently found) HIV status. That was one of the most difficult texts I ever had to send not just from my nervous clammy hands or the heart beating in my mouth.
He replied shortly saying that he was “OK with it”, but at the same time said that we’d have to postpone the night at the hotel because of plans with his friends. That was the last time we ever had a proper conversation. I tried chatting to him a couple of times after that, mostly he just ignored my calls/texts – the final time he answered but pretended to be someone else. I’d been well and truly rejected. Gutted.
Since that day I’ve had a policy of telling people I plan to sleep with/date as soon as possible. If someone messages me on Gaydar/Grindr asking for a fuck I have no problem saying right up front “By the way, I’m HIV+. I hope that’s not an issue?”. But as I found out last night it’s still pretty nerve-wracking telling someone you have feelings for.
Last night I agreed to go on a date with someone I’ve been talking to for a while. He’s very handsome, totally buff and a bit shorter than me. Amazing. Then it dawned on me that I was going to have to tell him. I decided to do it then and there, seeing as we were already chatting.
I said “In the spirit of openness and honesty I need to share something with you. Plus it saves us both heartache if it’s something you feel you can’t handle. Please be honest with me either way. I’m HIV positive”. Cue a ridiculously long wait. Why wasn’t he replying? Was it too much? Fuck, fuckity fuck.
He *eventually* replied “Hey, don’t stress about it. My ex had it, and we were together five years”. Overjoyed. He was absolutely fine with it and thanked me for being so honest. We’ve even planned our date for this Monday night coming.
Disclosing your status isn’t an easy thing to do, no matter how readily we might do it. All that we ask is that the people we tell are honest with us. If you’re uncomfortable being with someone that’s HIV+ then tell us (nicely!), we’d much rather that than being lied to – then ignored.
Yours Hopefully,
Sam
UKPositiveLad
My Grindr Experiment
In my previous post I talked about my use of technology to aid my quest for love. Dating technology has evolved over time; from dating agencies and singles ads in newspapers, onto phone chat lines, texting services and onto dating/hook-up websites (such as gaydar, fitlads, manhunt etc). The latest technology to be adopted for this purpose is the smartphone – there are countless apps promising to help you find love, make friends or just get a little action.
The most popular one of these (amongst the gay community at least) is Grindr. For those of you who are unfamilar with Grindr – you create a profile with your stats, add a photograph and a short welcome message and in return Grindr shows you other guys logged in near your location by use of GPS. You can message the guys, swap pictures etc. All very cool. I’ve been on Grindr since it was launched. I’ve always been at the cutting edge, trying new apps and gadgets as soon as they come out. My profile has remained largely the same, my age has changed with the years and my photograph has been updated a few times.
I started wondering last weekend (25th Feb 2012) what kind of responses someone would get if their profile said that they were HIV+. So I created myself a second profile on Grindr, almost identical to mine in (but different enough to look like a different person), still looking for “Friends, fun and dates” – but this time I mentioned my HIV status in the profile text.
Over the course of the week (25 Feb – 03 Mar) my existing profile received messages from 74 users. On the other hand my (almost identical) profile that mentions my HIV status had 11 people message it. Four of those eleven messaged purely to ask me questions about HIV and one felt it necessary to send me foul mouthed abuse for seemingly no reason. Which leaves me with six people actually showing an interest in me.
Let’s look at that for a second shall we? That’s a 92% reduction in interest purely by mentioning my HIV status. It was this realisation that led to a few miserable tweets on Saturday night, sorry if you had to put up with those. I thought we were really making progress. The more things change eh?
Best,
Sam
UKPositiveLad
I have HIV, I’m not “dirty”…
Like a lot of single people of my generation, especially gay men, I use the Internet to meet other single people for dates. It fits in well with my busy life. A message here, a chat there, and once in a while it’ll turn into a drink or a meal.
There’s a dizzying array of jargon out there in the online dating world: GWM, GAM, GSOH, WLTM, LTR and VWE to name just a few. A couple that have recently entered my consciousness are DDF and “clean”.
DDF stands for ‘Drug and Disease Free’ – I resent that just because I have HIV that I should be lumped in with recreational drug takers. Drug taking is illegal and a choice, I did not choose to be HIV positive nor is it illegal.
Clean. I’ve been asked a few times lately “Are you clean?” and I’m never sure quite how to answer “Well, I had a shower this morning.” would seem a sensible reply. But apparently this is a cloaked way of asking my HIV status. So by being HIV positive this seems to infer that I’m the opposite of clean, which would be dirty.
I find both these terms inaccurate (I’m a very clean person, almost obsessively so) and offensive. I’m not stumbling through the streets with Smallpox here, killing your grandparents, nor am I lurking in some alleyway shooting drugs into my arms. I have a virus which is well managed with medication and prevented with condoms.
How about, instead of pussyfooting around the subject and ending up offending me by likening me to a plague victim or a crack-addict, you just ask me what my HIV status is? Be straight with me and I’ll be straight with you.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off for shower…
Love and respect,
Sam
UKPositiveLad
What’s that? Single again…
So it was only three days ago I was blogging about my Valentines Day Hope, and here I am three days later minus one boyfriend. You couldn’t make this stuff up really could you?
I don’t know if blogging about it “jinxed it” in any way, I’m not sure I even believe in jinxing/luck/fate/destiny etc but the timing couldn’t really be any worse either way. One day you blog about your love for a guy, and how it’s giving you hope for the future, and the next day he breaks up with you via text message.
So what happened? Basically our three month relationship had shifted largely to me supporting him emotionally, whilst he (on his much much larger salary – and unrequested by myself) spoiled me to keep me supporting him. It’s strange how you never see this stuff at the time. I felt uncomfortable with the constant gifts and guilty that I couldn’t reciprocate in kind, and it came to a head on Wednesday when it was made clear to me that my home-cooked candlelit dinner and card “wouldn’t cut it” and that because I wasn’t buying him things that I clearly didn’t care for him.
I asked to take a day’s space so we could consider the situation, and what we’d do going forwards. The next day I received a text telling me that I wasn’t a “suitable” boyfriend, and that it was over. Followed by several incredibly abusive texts including ones deriding my appearance.
The worst one however, was when he used my HIV status to mock me (not a first for my ex’s). He’d always been very supportive of me throughout our relationship but apparently now he’d stop caring it was OK to say “I can have any guy I want – especially as I’m HIV negative!”. That’s something I cannot and will not ever forgive. It has shown him to be way more immature than I ever thought was possible, and I feel saddened for him that he felt he had to stoop to that level.
So now I’m single, again, but this time around I don’t mind. I’m in a better place than I was three months ago, things are happening in my life and I’ve got a great group of friends around me, and do you know what, that last paragraph from my Valentine’s Day post:
It gives me hope, not just for me, but for everyone else out there, that if this mess of a person can find love again, then so can anyone. So if you’re sat reading this, feeling sorry for yourself today, STOP. There’s always hope. You never know what’s just around the corner. You might just surprise yourself.
I still believe that. I still hold that dear to me. There is now, and always will be hope. The world keeps turning, and I keep smiling.
Happy Friday boys and girls,
Sam
UKPositiveLad
Valentine’s Day Hope
Hi Guys,
I know it’s clichéd, but today’s post is about Valentines Day, and the feeling of hope it has given me. So bear with me.
In the last year or so I’ve managed to lose my job, break up with a long term boyfriend, lose my home and become HIV positive – which, as you can imagine left me in somewhat of a mess, both emotionally and practically. Even before my HIV diagnosis I didn’t think my love life had much hope, then once I was diagnosed I resigned myself to being single forever – being unemployed and living back with your family in your twenties isn’t terrible aluring either.
In late November I met someone rather special, someone who makes me feel like I’m worth bothering with, someone who, even though they’re HIV negative, doesn’t seem my HIV status as a barrier to us being together and someone I care for a great deal.
It gives me hope, not just for me, but for everyone else out there, that if this mess of a person can find love again, then so can anyone. So if you’re sat reading this, feeling sorry for yourself today, STOP. There’s always hope. You never know what’s just around the corner. You might just surprise yourself.
Love to all of you,
Sam
UKPositiveLad
Fighting fit and feeling fine!
Yesterday morning I awoke to a tingling on my upper lip. I sat bolt upright up in horror, and looked in my mirror. Sure enough, there it was, another coldsore – and you’ll remember that only a week or so ago I had a huge one on my bottom lip. Gutted. I tried to call my local GP (who you’ll remember I don’t have a huge fondness for), to see if they could dish out some Aciclovir to nip it in the bud, but despite calling all morning no-one answered the phone, I can only assume that they were closed, or busy laughing at patients.
Then I tried calling my HIV clinic, which isn’t exactly local, and they said that they could see me if I got there within 30 minutes. Some hair-raising driving on the boyfriend’s part and we made it – just. The doctor saw me fairly quickly and gave me another week of Aciclovir (three times a day), apparently whilst unpleasant the coldsores are a good thing, a sign that my immune system is asserting itself again. He also treated me to a Hep B booster in my left arm, I know, lucky me!
After that he took time to go through my latest blood results with me. My CD4 has risen from 332 to 381 and my Viral Load has dropped dramatically from 354 to 46 – almost ‘undetectable’! Also of note was that my Vitamin D levels are rising steadily as I take my daily supplements. I was so pleased, it gives me a real feeling that I’ve got control of the situation, I won’t be beat by HIV.
For those of you worried about starting treatment, or those of you considering starting treatment early (like I did) – DO IT. It’s the best decision I’ve made for myself in a long time. I’ve gone from a Viral Load of 79000 to a Viral Load of 46 in three months. I feel amazing. Here’s to the rest of my life…
Becoming comfortable with my meds…
Just a short blog post today, more a diary entry if you will.
I had a bit of a realisation last night that I’m finally becoming comfortable with my ATRIPLA (HIV medication). A bunch of my friends had all congregated at my friend Paul’s house last night for movies, wine and a catch up. We’d not seen each other since before Christmas, so there was much to talk about. Some of the people in the group know my HIV status, some don’t – one of the guys in the group is HIV+ himself and has been a great support to me.
So we’re part way through watching a horror film when suddenly my phone starts buzzing, it’s my nightly reminder to take my ATRIPLA. Normally I would have made an excuse and escaped into the hallway or kitchen to take my pill, but last night I thought “No! Fuck it! Who cares? These are my friends. If they ask about it I’ll tell them, I’ve got nothing to be ashamed of!“. So I just got the pill out of my pocket and necked it with my beer, right there on the sofa. The thing is, no-one even noticed that I took anything – what have I been making such a fuss over?
“No! Fuck it! Who cares? These are my friends. If they ask about it I’ll tell them, I’ve got nothing to be ashamed of!”
The whole thing has made me realise how much more comfortable I am about taking my medication, much more so than when I started – just two months ago. Back then even when I was on my own I’d stare at the pill and think about it before I swallowed it, sometimes for minutes at a time. Now I take it without thinking about it, and am even happy to do it front of my friends.
I think this is what they call progress!