‘Less talk, more action – we won’t end the HIV epidemic without addressing stigma’

In the more than 40 years of the HIV epidemic, we have made phenomenal strides towards changing the tide of an epidemic that was once a terminal diagnosis to a manageable chronic condition.

Despite that progress, despite massive organisations and governments touting that they have the answers to end the epidemic once and for all, HIV persists, especially in marginalised communities, unequally vulnerable communities of colour, sexual and gender-diverse populations, and countries that do not have the same economic resources.

They have not benefited in the same way that my own cisgendered, white, gay community has from treatment and prevention tools. As global political will wanes at an alarming level, as funding to support bold community-level initiatives disappears, we must ask ourselves: what should we prioritise to ensure momentum and countless lives are not lost?

Enter Zero HIV Stigma Day, observed every 21 of July, the birthday of the late, great Prudence Mabele, a force of a South African woman who advocated for people living with HIV/AIDS and for an end to gender-based violence. When the idea was presented by NAZ to myself and other colleagues, it seemed unimaginable that we could establish a global day for something so specific, especially when the last global awareness day regarding HIV/AIDS was established in 1988, but as a person living with HIV, I knew how badly it was needed.

Throughout the first two years, we have worked with individuals, organisations, and governments to raise awareness that the one thing we have yet to meaningfully address is HIV stigma.

HIV stigma, as old as the virus itself, has been the one aspect in this fight we have yet to tackle. Sure, lots of ideas, words, and funding have been thrown around, but there has yet to be a meaningful answer to what I believe to be a primary driver of the HIV epidemic. HIV stigma is the intersection of homophobia, racism, sexism, transphobia, and xenophobia. Born out of fear of the other, the need to create unnecessary hierarchy amongst human beings so that one man may feel superior to another, but that’s not all it creates; in turn, it creates barriers, barriers to quality healthcare, barriers to equal opportunity, and primarily a barrier to each other, in families, in communities, in workplaces, and houses of governance.

The first two years, we worked to raise awareness. It is not that HIV stigma has not been discussed in other spaces; it has at nauseating levels. But in this political climate, where global funds are being eliminated, where we stand at the fork of deciding if we will equally end this epidemic or allow it to once again be a death sentence for the most vulnerable among us, in the words of Prudence: “We’ve done a lot of talking; it’s time to stop all of that for a bit and act.”

More than a million people engaged in Zero HIV Stigma Day in 2024, posting, holding events, speaking with lawmakers and global leaders. Indeed, the unknown conversations that take place between families and communities, in houses of worship, continue to be the ground game we need in this moment. It is in those conversations where hearts change, where knowledge such as Undetectable equals Untransmittable is shared, in our bettering of workplace protections for people living with HIV/AIDS, in anti-discrimination policies in our governments, and within ourselves where the real work of ending stigma is done.

I’ve heard numerous times over the last three years that zero stigma just isn’t possible. This 21 of July, Zero HIV Stigma Day, I challenge us all to reach for the highest of our ideals, especially in times like these, to not fall short of our obligation to our fellow humans, our duty to ensure this world is better than we found it. In this moment, to end the HIV epidemic, what we need is less talk and more action.