Lloyd Russell-Moyle - Being Open About Your HIV Status is Liberating

Disclosing your status is something very personal but the best way of controlling HIV is to be open about it and to encourage people to take effective treatment. By sharing your story you give hope to others in your situation and at the same time, it’s such a liberation to be able to free yourself of that burden.

A lot of progress has been made with HIV and AIDS over the past 30-40 years but we still have to deal with discrimination and stigma and we are still years away from eradicating this virus. How much time it will take, depends on all of us, both the people with HIV and also those without it. By joining forces we will be able to see it gone.

On today’s episode, Lloyd and I are discussing the benefits of sharing your health status with the people around you and also how HIV is now viewed in the UK.

Lloyd Russell-Moyle is a young, dynamic and passionate politician from the UK, who was elected to Parliament in 2017. On November 2018, with the occasion of the 30th World AIDS Day, he has revealed, in Parliament, that he had been diagnosed as HIV Positive a decade earlier. He said he wanted to tackle the stigma still associated with the condition, and stated, “I have not only survived, but I have prospered and any partner that I had is safe and protected”.

He says that it is important just to be who you are, so don’t miss Episode 03 of Positively Alive, to learn about the LGBT community in the UK and also about how we can live a healthy and happy life as a person living with HIV.

Questions I ask:

• As a gay man growing up in the UK, could you please elaborate a little bit on your journey and what that's been for you? (03:32)
• What do you consider to be the main pain points and impediments in the UK when it comes to HIV and AIDS and what are your suggestions to best tackle them? (12:17)
• What has led to your decision to disclose your status and why now, after 10 years since you've been diagnosed? (20:13)
• Working within the UK Parliament, would you say HIV is still a taboo topic or would you say people openly discuss it? (23:51)
• Do you expect, with the fact that you've stepped forward, that other people are going to follow in your footsteps? (25:52)
• What is your view on self-stigma? Have you had to deal with it? (30:05)

In this episode, you will learn:

• About the damages done by the HIV awareness campaigns in the 1980s, although at that time, they were the right choice. (14:07)
• The reasons why there’s a pullback on money allocated for researching and curing HIV. (17:24)
• The directions in which the money should go in the fight against HIV in this day and age. (18:30)
• How Lloyd reacted when he was told he was HIV positive and how he had come to grips with that new reality. (27:14)
• Lloyd’s advice for the people that are still discriminating HIV positive individuals. (32:46)
• Lloyd’s advice for people living with HIV. (33:30)

---

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.