Around one third of people living with HIV in the UK are women. On top of that, a quarter of all new diagnoses are women. Yet women living with the virus remain invisible in the narrative surrounding HIV in the UK.
And then there’s LGBTQ+ women. When it comes to the national response to HIV, all women are by default assumed to be heterosexual. Even now in 2018, there’s still a real lack of understanding of the diversity of sexualities of women living with, and at risk of, HIV. Targeted campaigns are typically aimed explicitly at men who have sex with men (MSM), while the sexual health needs of lesbian, bisexual and queer women are largely ignored.